Ever Hayes - Redemption

“So couldn’t they find that tunnel too? If they found the floor panel and blew the door open?”

“No.” Flynn was laughing now. “We’re good. If they do find the door that led to the tunnel on the other side, and even if they do manage to open it, the whole place will flood. It’s rigged to self-destruct—or they can blow it from here as a failsafe. There’s no way anyone ever figures out there’s any passage at all over to this island. Thirty feet below the surface of water that’s only fifteen feet deep. We’re safe, Hayley.”

I tried to stand, and Flynn quickly helped me up. “Where is everyone else?”

“Everyone but Eddie is in the control room,” she replied.

“Where’s Eddie?” My alarm must have been visible.

“Don’t worry. He’s in a cell, but he’s fine.”

“I need to see him.”

Flynn nodded. “Okay.”

She led me to the cell where he was being held. He stood as soon as he saw me. “Hayley, I’m so sorry. We didn’t have another choice.”

“Forget it.” I waved him off. “That was stupid. You two should never have done that. But I’m guessing knocking me out was Danny’s idea.”

“It was my idea.” Blake’s voice behind me made me jump.

I turned around and slugged him in the chest. “It was a stupid idea, you moron. You don’t get to decide what I do with my life.”

“Easy princess.” Blake laughed, even though I was anything but smiling. “Your brother gave me pretty clear instructions about you. I was not, under any circumstance, to let you give your life for this guy.” He wagged his thumb toward Eddie. “Would you have gone quietly if I’d have asked in a nicer way?”

He knew the answer to that question. “What do you mean he gave you instructions? When?”

“When he was whispering sweet nothings in my ear out there—some of them were actually sweet somethings.” He was still smiling.

“Wait. Why is everyone so calm about this? Danny told you to knock me out?”

“Not exactly. But he knew they weren’t going to simply let Eddie walk in here, and you weren’t going to let Eddie stay out there. There’s got to be a mule somewhere on your family tree.”

I swung at him again, but he blocked me this time. “You’re the ass, Blake.”

“Hayley, Danny had his plan, but he still wanted me to make sure we got you in. I did what I had to do and now everyone is safe.”

“Aaargh—fine—thank you for saving my life. Now, will you shut up and tell me what’s going on with Hawaii?”

Blake pursed his lips, trying hard to prevent another smile. “Which one, princess, shut up or tell you what’s going on?”

“Damn it, Blake, if you call me princess one more time—” I took a step toward him with my fist raised.

A voice in the hall interrupted us. “You guys need to come right now.” It was Mackenzie. With Blake momentarily distracted I took one more shot at his chest—successfully landing that punch. I gave him a fake smile as he took a step back—covering his chest—and I followed Mackenzie down the hall. “What is it, Mack?”

“They just fired the missiles.”

“What?” Blake almost yelled right behind me.

“NORAD launched the missiles,” Mackenzie repeated.

“How many did—”

“All of them,” she said.

I froze in my tracks. We’re too late.

By the time the missile warning alarms sounded at the Hexagon, it was already too late. Damien knew the Shield was going down. He’d received a call from Danny—in the Anaheim Safe House—that missiles would probably be on the way tonight. Danny had hoped they’d have several more hours—giving Damien enough time to get someone up to the Shield transmitter. They didn’t even get an hour.

It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Keena wouldn’t drop the Shield until the missiles were already well on their way, until just before they started hitting Hawaii. That’s how Baker would have it set up. That’s how the Libyan commander would have wanted it.

Danny figured Keena had programmed them all—probably even individually—at gunpoint. She’d hold out on the launch codes as long as possible, but eventually she’d break. Anyone would have. Danny told Damien about the Qi Jia forces following them to the bunker at Disneyland—certain word of their escape had made it back to Colorado. Commander Boli would know time was of the essence to launch those missiles and would do what was necessary to break Keena immediately.

Damien had awakened Stacy and Dewey fifteen minutes ago. They were currently sprinting up the Stairway to Heaven to power the Shield back up manually—when it did go down. He sent them up there just in case they had enough time, but he was relatively certain they wouldn’t. Captain Baker would have taken their every measure into account. If Keena had done it “right,” they’d have a one-minute window at best between the Shield going down and the missiles striking—and Damien knew she’d have had supervision the entire time. She’d have done it right.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Damien watched as the codes from NORAD flashed across his screen—almost a hundred nuclear missiles launching from silos all over the country. It seemed excessive for a few small islands, but they clearly weren’t taking any chances. At 15,000 miles per hour, the first ones would get here in five to ten minutes. Damien knew he could try to stop some of them—to essentially play a real-life game of Space Invaders —but he wouldn’t have time to do enough. The missiles were already screaming their way.

It was a little odd that Keena had programmed some from the East Coast too, given their maximum projected range was 3,500 miles or so—barely two-thirds of the way here—but Damien figured Baker had merely ordered them all launched. It wasn’t going to matter. The Shield would go down any minute now. Damien had to bunker them in.

It was Damien’s task to lock down Area 52 and seal it off—to take them deep and save as many lives as he could. He’d given Nicole exactly sixty seconds to get as many people as possible into this bunker before he had to close it off.

Nicole ran down the hall to the medical wing, screaming for Trigger and Twix to get everyone into the bunker immediately. Trigger picked up Tara while Twix and Deacon pushed Kate’s bed down the hall. Everyone made it in except the governor. No one knew where he was. Damien shouted that he had to close it and, despite a few objections, he sealed every door—and Area 52 slid down into its airtight nuke-prooof bubble.

Two minutes later, it was locked in place, safe from even the most direct of nuclear strikes. The thirteen of them huddled together in the control room—with two surgeons, three nurses and two security guards—watching the screens, waiting for them to go black, for the missiles to wipe out Hawaii—for the last American state to fall.

The missiles—as expected—decimated every city they hit. New York City, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, Anchorage, Toronto, Seattle, San Diego, Denver and Colorado Springs—the headquarters for each Qi Jia region and NORAD. Not a single missile made it to Hawaii. The Shield never went down. Inside the Area 52 bunker, the group watched in shock as missile after missile disappeared from the screen until there were none remaining. The ones that did head out over the Pacific fell well short of the islands. Something had gone wrong—terribly wrong. Or—rather—something had gone right—awesomely right.

As it sank in exactly what was happening, Damien frantically began hammering at his keyboard. He pulled up the screen of launch codes, trying to decipher the coordinates tagged in each. Nicole stood over his shoulder and searched the same numbers and letters, but even she couldn’t see it.