Eight plush leather seats sat at comfortable distances from each other, a flat-screen TV at one end of the cabin, a bar at the other.
“Where should I sit?”
“Anywhere you want, angel.” Derek held a finger to his earpiece, listening to Javier or someone in the ops room. “Cobra, this is Team Two actual. We’re onboard. Out.” He turned to the pilot. “Let’s close the door and get underway.”
“You got it.”
Jenna pulled off the burqa and sat in one of the middle seats, then leaned back, closed her eyes, and drew a deep breath. It was almost over. In another few minutes, they would be airborne. This would all be behind her.
“Cobra, this is Team Two actual. Her flight is grounded, and they’re boarding the airplane. Copy, out.” Derek called to the pilot. “Get us in the air—now.”
Jenna’s eyes flew open. “Her flight is grounded? What will happen to—”
The pilot turned and shouted back to them. “Nowallflights are grounded.”
Derek repeated the news into his mic. “Cobra, this is Team Two. All flights grounded. We’ll get her out on the bird and head to Kabul, over?” Derek unbuckled her seatbelt, shoved the burqa into her hands.
“Wh-what’s happening?”
“They’ve probably discovered it’s not you on that plane, so they’ve grounded all flights. We need to get you back to the Little Bird—now.”
A surge of adrenaline brought Jenna to her feet, heart in her throat as she followed Derek toward the airplane’s door. Questions raced through her mind, questions she didn’t dare ask. If flights were grounded, how could they take off in the helicopter? Wouldn’t they be safer in the airplane with the door shut than out on the tarmac in a Jeep? What had happened to Elizabeth?
Dylan ran up the mobile stairway, stopping when he saw them. “A whole lot of trouble is headed our way.”
They ran down the stairs and toward the Jeep.
“Cobra, this is Team Two,” Derek said. “Four vics and at least twenty fighters with small arms and an RPG coming our way, over.”
“QRF coming in fast!” Malik shouted.
“Helo One, this is Team Two. We’re not going to reach you. Get that bird in the air now, how copy, over?” Derek shouted into his mic, waiting just a moment before going on. “Cobra, this is Team Two. Retreating to the hangar and switching to armored Land Cruiser, over.”
Jenna jumped into the Jeep ahead of Derek, and then she saw. “Oh, God!”
Four vehicles, each of them bristling with armed fighters, were speeding straight toward them.
* * *
Derek’s mindraced through their options as they sped toward the hangar. The Little Bird was lifting off, the pilot fighting for altitude to put himself beyond the range of automatic weapons fire and that RPG. The three armored Land Cruisers that had brought Shields to the airport sat outside the terminal, prevented from entering the grounds by armed airport security. The hangar, which wasn’t bulletproof, had another armored Land Cruiser, but they had to reach it first.
Yeah, their options sucked.
Derek had to give the bastard credit. Kazi had moved fast and hard. But he wasn’t going to get Jenna, not as long as Derek had breath left in his body.
She was terrified, her eyes wide, her auburn hair blowing in the wind.
He took her hand, held it. “When we get to the hangar, we’re going to switch to the Land Cruiser. We’ll have to move fast. That’s all you need to think about now. I’ll be right there with you. We all will.”
She nodded. “Move fast.”
“That’s it.”
Fast might not be fast enough. At seventy miles an hour, they were keeping ahead of the bastards. But the moment they stopped to switch vehicles, the men in those vehicles would catch up in a hurry.
Corbray’s voice came over Derek’s earpiece. “Team One, this is Cobra. Leave current position, head north down the highway to the end of the runway. Punch a hole in that perimeter fence to make an escape route and cover Team Two, how copy, over?”
“Cobra, this is Team Two. Good copy. Out.”