Ever Hayes - Redemption

Lazzo followed her out. He didn’t like the look on her face. She looked terrified. “They—they went down—” he stammered. “I thought you went down to the docks with them—she’s down there.”

“Of course. Sorry.” Abbey’s voice cracked slightly. “I knew that.”

“No. Sorry. My fault for startling you.” Lazzo’s heart was pounding so hard he didn’t know how she couldn’t hear it. He closed the door to Danny’s room. “I thought I’d heard someone in there and knew Danny and Kate were both gone.” He walked toward her. His excuse was terrible. “But everyone’s probably still down there.”

Abbey nodded. “Thanks, Lazzo.” She took off running and didn’t look back.

“Great,” Lazzo muttered. He had half expected her to scream, but she hadn’t. He listened to her footsteps fade away. Maybe he was reading too much into her expression. He had no idea how long she’d been standing there, or how much she had seen. One thing was for certain: he’d been quite careless. If she had been pretty much anyone else, he didn’t know how he would have explained himself.

He paced back and forth in his room and looked at the handmade calendar on his wall. Eighty-three days until the two-year anniversary of the attacks. He had eighty-three days to get that book to Denver. That was the agreement he’d made with Commander Boli back in Denver. But then, nothing had gone as planned in any of this.

The same day Eddie had gone to talk to the captain in Colorado Springs about the NORAD bunker, Lazzo had gone to the Libyan commander’s office. He’d told Commander Boli everything Eddie had shared with him about his suspicions regarding the Americans communicating with Vice President Moore in the camp before he died. Lazzo told him about the tracks in the VP’s tent and the slice in the canvas. He also told him about the Russian commander being up at the Alpine Visitor Center and running the interrogation of the vice president. Eddie had been correct about that too—none of the other commanders knew anything about it.

At first Commander Boli was angry they hadn’t brought this up before, accusing Lazzo of treason and threatening to confront the Russian immediately. But Lazzo reasoned with him to wait, to understand where they were coming from, and to consider instead how he could use this information to his own advantage. After hearing him out, Commander Boli clearly agreed. This could be big for him.

Eddie had suspected the Americans had gotten information from Vice President Moore and rescued his daughters. Qi Jia was well aware the VP was supposedly the last living American with access to NORAD, Hawaii, and all the missile codes. The other commanders were certain that with the VP’s suicide all that information was now lost. However, if Eddie was right and the Americans were still alive with that information, capturing them—and collecting the info—would assure both power and prestige to their captor.

The commander was suddenly quite grateful Lazzo had come to him. He pounded Lazzo on the back and commended his intelligence. But Commander Boli was no fool. He knew Lazzo expected something in return. He figured Lazzo had learned about his family and was here to gain their freedom. Why else would he have brought that info only to him?

Had he waited for Lazzo to speak, he’d have learned Lazzo had come intent on merely saving his and Eddie’s lives. They only wanted out. Instead, before Lazzo could even request their release from duty, the commander told him he would guarantee the safety of their families in exchange for the information. That was the moment Lazzo found out they’d been lied to. That was the moment he found out his family, and Eddie’s, were both still alive.

The Libyan commander could tell by Lazzo’s expression he’d been wrong about what Lazzo knew. He also immediately knew he’d essentially provided an alternative mission for Eddie. If Eddie found out about his family being alive, he’d likely try to rescue them. He wouldn’t even care about the VP’s secret information. The commander couldn’t have that. Accordingly, he warned that if Lazzo told Eddie anything about their families still being alive, the commander would have them all killed.

Lazzo was in a tough spot now. He was outraged he and Eddie had been lied to, and he imagined that was the case with many more of the soldiers here. They’d been tricked into this war and into their vengeful pursuit of the Americans. But he couldn’t dwell on that or let the resulting anger cloud his judgment in front of the commander. He couldn’t give the commander any reason to fear his newly acquired knowledge or to doubt Lazzo was capable of holding up his end of the deal. Yet it also seemed impossible to keep this information from Eddie.

On the other hand, if he did tell Eddie and his brother decided to go after their families, Lazzo feared that would—this time—guarantee their death. He knew his brother’s tendency to react emotionally in these situations, and he couldn’t afford an angry response. So he agreed to keep the news of his family’s survival from Eddie. The Libyan commander gave Lazzo a radio and a frequency he could be reached on at 1:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. daily. Lazzo would somehow have to hide the radio and sneak out to use it at least once a day. Commander Boli would keep watch for the Americans and update Lazzo on anything he found out. Likewise, Lazzo would keep the commander appraised daily—and keep Eddie in the dark—until the information could be secured from the Americans.

It wasn’t ever easy. As expected, Eddie got himself into hot water, killing an arrogant sergeant at their new camp and drawing all kinds of unwanted attention. The Libyan commander had tried to send one of his officers down to take over the camp, but the dead sergeant had been a relative of the Mexican commander. Commander Santos sent General Roja down to run the camp, and the racist general made life a living hell for Eddie and Lazzo, even making it impossible for Lazzo to communicate with Commander Boli. It was so bad Commander Boli had to transfer one of his own men, Amadi Ndiaye, down to Buena Vista to help Eddie without even telling Amadi why. Lazzo had to befriend Amadi and get Eddie to trust him. Then he had to get Amadi to buy into their plan without the man realizing he was.

Amazingly that worked, but then the Americans started to move and Eddie insisted they give chase, the entire time working against the Mexican commander, his general, and all their men. Amadi helped them track everyone’s movements, and Eddie was so focused on his own radio interceptions he never caught on to Lazzo’s secret communications.

And then it all went south. The stupid Mexican commander and general revealed the truth about the attacks, and Eddie caught on to the deception. Eddie all of a sudden decided to help the Americans escape and blatantly defied General Roja to do so. As much as Lazzo tried to figure out a way to separate Danny from the rest of the Americans, he couldn’t, and then when they saved Danny at the river, he didn’t have the pack on him. It was in one of the boats ahead of them. Amadi was killed there, and Lazzo still had to keep the truth from Eddie, in hopes that by fleeing with the Americans—which would surely be reported back—the Libyan commander wouldn’t immediately kill his family. He had to hope Commander Boli would give him a little time.

In the boat, Danny admitted to reaching the vice president in the tent and having the vice president’s daughters, confirming all of Eddie’s suspicions. But when pushed to reveal more, Danny didn’t. Instead he guarded his words and his backpack closely, leading Lazzo to believe the secrets were being kept in there. Lazzo needed to communicate what he’d learned to the Libyan commander, but there was no way to do it without being exposed. He had to trust his instincts that Commander Boli wouldn’t reveal their secret to the other commanders, considering what it would mean for him as well—probably his own death.