Ever Hayes - Redemption

I turned to Blake and Keena. “Blake, I need you to come with me. Let’s go check that cellar out. Keena, I want you to sit here and keep a rifle on that door. If things go south, you start shooting and cover Blake and me till we can get out of there.”

“Dan, if we start shooting, the soldiers are going to come fast,” Blake whispered.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that then.”

Blake and I moved out from the barn, slowly creeping toward the cellar door. We were about twenty yards away when it lifted again. We froze, guns locked on the door, assuming we’d somehow alerted the occupant or occupants. It rose a little higher this time, but a minute later it closed again. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe we’re still good . If they had something to block our infrared, surely it would have an adverse effect on their own radar monitoring—if they had any. I motioned for Blake to swing wide to the right and to cover me from there. I was going all the way in.

When he was in place, I slowly knelt and moved into a prone position, inching toward the door. I was within five yards of it now and could feel my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Easy. Easy, Danny . Four yards. Three yards. If the door lifted again, he’d see me now for sure. I was only two yards away. Now one yard. The barrel of my rifle was only inches from the top of the cellar door. I was now lying as still as humanly possible. It felt like an hour but was actually only minutes later when the door slowly lifted again and I saw a head wearing night-vision goggles peer out. His head rotated all the way around until he was staring directly down the barrel of my gun.

I expected him to drop the door immediately, but he didn’t. He jumped a little and then calmly said my name. What the hell?

“Danny?” he repeated in a deep African accent. He spoke with unusual poise for someone who had to be pissing his pants with a gun barrel in his face.

“What?” I whispered back, unwilling to reveal my name to someone I didn’t know.

Then I heard another voice in the cellar. “Is that Danny?”

I’d know that voice anywhere. “Hayley?” I strained to see into the cellar.

“Danny, yes, it’s me.”

There’s no way! “Hayley, are you okay?” I still couldn’t see her.

“Yes, hang on a second.” I could hear the joy in her voice. “I need to unhook the tripwires. Eddie, help me with this.”

Eddie? “Did you say Eddie?”

The door swung open, and I rose up on one knee, looking down into the cellar. Hayley came flying up the stairs and tackled me, knocking me straight onto my back. She was laughing—I was laughing. I knew we needed to be quiet, but I couldn’t help it. “Hayley, I—”

She finished the sentence for me. “I never thought I’d see you again!”

“Hayley, we need to get inside.” I motioned in the darkness to Blake and Keena in the barn.

Hayley stood and helped me up, and I followed her down the stairs. Blake was only a few steps behind me. I heard more laughter from Hayley as she wrapped her arms around him. “Blake.”

“Hey, girl. Great to see you.” He squeezed her tightly.

At the base of the stairs I stopped in surprise again. Sure enough, there was Eddie. Son of a bitch . “Eddie.” I extended my hand. He shook it firmly. I glanced at the other armed man.

“Danny, this is Silas.” Eddie said.

“The bomber?”

Silas nodded. “Pleasure.” We also shook hands.

“Likewise,” I said. “I’ve got one more coming.”

Silas nodded, and Keena joined us a minute later. There were two more people in the cellar, a beautiful African woman and a girl who appeared to be roughly Hayley’s age. Hayley made the formal introductions—Lazzo’s wife, Cera and Captain Baker’s daughter, Flynn.

“Flynn,” Hayley said. “This is Boy Wonder.”

I held my hand out to Flynn but she hugged me instead. I gave my condolences to her for the loss of her brother. I couldn’t imagine what she’d been through—couldn’t imagine what it would be like to watch your father shoot your brother.

My focus then turned to Eddie. “How are you alive, my man? We saw a hundred troops surround you, all shooting at you.”

“Rubber bullets. Hurt like hell but didn’t kill me.”

“But why did they need you alive?”

“Insurance.”

“Insurance?” I asked. “For?”

“Forgive me, but these are just assumptions. I believe my brother was working with Commander Boli to secure documents or information from you…” I saw Hayley nodding. Eddie continued. “In exchange for keeping me alive. And Cera, too. I believe the commander made promises he didn’t plan to keep. But he needed to get Lazzo here. If I was dead, Lazzo don’t believe him or come.”

“So Lazzo knew you were alive?” I was trying to piece it all together.

“He was told, yes.”

“But you knew nothing about this? About him kidnapping Hayley to try to save you? About their entire plan?”

“I did not. I just learned of it. I am not okay with his decisions. Lazzo was a better man than this.”

I could see Blake didn’t believe Eddie. Hayley sensed the same. “He’s telling the truth,” she said to Blake, then turned to me. “Lazzo told me he couldn’t tell Eddie, that Eddie would have reacted and tried to save their families—that they all probably would have been killed then.”

It made sense, even if Eddie clearly didn’t like the reasoning. “Lazzo tells you this?” he asked.

Hayley nodded.

“So, Eddie, why are you here?” I turned back to him.

“To stop you. To stop Lazzo. You cannot give Qi Jia what they want.”

I wanted to tell him I hadn’t ever been planning to, but I knew that wasn’t exactly the truth.

Blake lied for me. “He wasn’t going to. He didn’t even bring the real book. Danny knew if he couldn’t rescue Hayley, they’d both be dead anyway. He wasn’t going to give up everyone else with him.”

Now I couldn’t look at Blake. Fortunately what he’d said made perfect sense. I never should have brought the real book . Everyone was quiet, each person lost in his or her own train of thoughts. I finally broke the silence. “So that’s why you blew up the building? To stop Lazzo?”

“At first we thought Lazzo did it,” Blake added.

“No, it wasn’t Lazzo,” Eddie answered. “We don’t know where Lazzo is. I’m afraid he—” Eddie stopped and looked at Cera. “We believe he’s—”

Cera’s head was down. “Dead.” She finished the sentence for him.

Interesting.

“I need to say something,” Hayley interrupted. “Someone has to say it. Lazzo made a mistake—a whole series of them, in fact. But everything he was trying to do he was doing for the people he loved. Yes, he killed my boyfriend. He also kidnapped me. But he was lost. I could have escaped any time I wanted to when I was on the carrier, and every day since. Lazzo didn’t know what he was doing, but he thought the only way to save you and your families, was to get Danny to bring the information to the commander.” No one interrupted her or said anything when she paused.

“Obviously,” she continued. “It wasn’t going to work, but I truly believe he was doing what any of us would have done—anything he could—to save the people he loved.”

“Hayley.” I reached out for her hand.

She pushed mine away. “Wait, Danny, I’m not finished. Cera… Eddie… I’m sorry for your loss—I am—but while I can rationalize what Lazzo did to me, there are three prisoners back in Kauai who will be killed if the commander orders it. That would also be Lazzo’s fault, and there are an awful lot of people who won’t be so quick to forgive him for that.”