Ever Hayes - Emergency Exit

Danny knelt down at her feet and looked up at her face. “I’m sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. I want to leave you alone, but do you have any idea why your dad is in that truck?”

She shook her head, and Danny stood back up to let Jenna take Reagan away. But Reagan turned back for a second and pulled away from Jenna. “They had to have gotten his attention somehow and let him know they had us. That we were still alive.” She took a few deep breaths and continued. “He must have come out of hiding to try to save us. The Secret Service guys aren’t supposed to let him out of their sight, but my dad must have found a way.” She let that sink in and turned away again with Jenna. “They never would have found him otherwise.”

The place was buzzing. They’d captured the vice president, alive. All their intel had been correct. The American military command had moved him to a safe house up in the mountains outside Denver, and after a week of searching the soldiers had found his daughters and used them to lure him out of hiding. They were holding him at one of the three mini-camps in Estes Park tonight. Tomorrow morning he’d be airlifted down here to Central Command, and they would be able to interrogate the “standing President” of the United States in a live broadcast around the world, and then kill him in front of everyone—the coup de grace in America’s final chapter.

There was one problem. Major Eddie didn’t like this plan. No one else may have cared, but Eddie was boiling mad. First of all, he was pissed off he didn’t know the agenda of the men he was now working with, and clearly subservient to, at Central Command. He was kept in the dark as to what was actually taking place in Estes Park. As the supposed second in command of the Intelligence Division, that gave him a significant personal issue with the Qi Jia commanders. Second, word was once they brought the vice president down, they were going to remove the troops from Estes Park. That was most problematic in that it would leave him with no way whatsoever to keep tabs on the area he assumed “his lions” were holed up. He understood there was no real reason to keep troops there. One hundred twenty men watching a few snow-blocked routes, to prevent the potential escape of a few Americans? That didn’t make sense. Not when they would probably die anyway trying to get out in the winter months. There was no point in keeping them there, but Eddie needed to come up with a reason. He needed the soldiers to stay there.

He was disappointed when the two soldiers’ bodies arrived from Estes Park. No gunshots. A girl, apparently the VP’s daughter, had fled one of the camps and stabbed one of the soldiers in the neck with his own knife. She’d crushed another one’s skull with a rock. When Eddie found out she’d been raped by these guys, he didn’t doubt she was capable of such brutal violence. He wouldn’t have minded shooting the guys himself. Eddie knew some of the other Qi Jia officers saw rape as an inevitable side effect of the invasion. They barely discouraged it, if at all, essentially turning a blind eye to it and/or participating in it themselves. Eddie had no tolerance for such brutality.

The one man above him in the Intelligence Division, Colonel Nobi, was supposed to take a squad of men up to Estes Park in the morning to pick up the vice president. Nobi didn’t want to go. Eddie was called before The Seven commanders, and offered the mission the colonel had passed on. Eddie considered declining the mission as well. He’d rather just stay here. His next in command would gladly sub in if that were Eddie’s decision.

As Eddie was about to decline, one of The Seven commanders spoke up. “Major. We also wanted to give you some good news. We flew some officers into Colorado Springs this morning from our command post in Casper, Wyoming. They had three men with them who fought in that battle at the depot in Cheyenne. Strangely, they didn’t recall you being there and didn’t know anyone else had survived that battle. Captain Kubar is bringing them here to Central Command tomorrow morning sometime. I’m sure you would love to see them again.”

Eddie nodded, reeling internally. “Absolutely sir. That is unbelievable! Did the Captain tell you their names? I’m sure one of my guys knows them at least.”

“Sorry,” the Japanese commander replied. “He did not. But you will see them tomorrow.”

“If it’s all right with you all,” Eddie spoke. “I’d be honored to retrieve the vice president for you in the morning. Hopefully we can do so and be back in time for me to get together with my comrades from Wyoming.”

“Fantastic,” the Russian commander said. “Thank you, Major. Your men will be waiting for you at the hangar at 0900.”

Major Eddie was fuming now as he walked back towards his office, where he’d already ordered his men to assemble. The problem with being a captain of his physical stature was people tended to remember him. It had no doubt surprised the commanders to learn these men, supposedly under Eddie’s command, had no idea who he was and didn’t remember him being in that fight. How do you forget a six foot seven, three hundred pound African?

Eddie knew for a fact none of his other men had survived, so these were definitely the men who had tracked him down from the Dakotas, and almost killed Lazzo at the depot. As soon as they saw him they would probably recognize him, and the entire master plan he’d developed would be over—likely his own life as well. Damage had already been done to his credibility. But how much? That remained unknown.

He swung the door open to his office, and Lazzo, Omar, and Cabo leapt to their feet. “We have a big problem,” he said angrily and told them the whole story. Eddie decided he needed to deal with this problem right now. He looked up the base address where Captain Kubar was stationed and jotted it down on a piece of paper. Eddie stood up to leave, and his men rose to follow him, but he held them off. He told them to meet him at the hangar at 8:30 in the morning. “I need to talk to this Captain Kubar on my own today.” Eddie said, waving off their objections. “Tomorrow we’ll take care of the other men.”

The drive to Colorado Springs took a little over an hour, which turned out to be more than enough time for Eddie to come up with the perfect plan of action.

Night had fallen again at the Alluvial Fan and over all of Horseshoe Park. Fires were burning down at the Endovalley troop camp, and Danny, Cameron, and I were watching the light dance above the trees from our vantage point on the ledge. It was shortly after 9 p.m., and Danny was trying to figure out his next move. His Special Ops training was telling him he had to get to the vice president somehow. But beyond that, he didn’t know what he would be expected to do. Reagan had shared with the group that her dad was ex-Special Forces. He knew what he was doing. He knew what he was getting himself into. Was Danny still supposed to try to rescue him at all costs? To potentially give his own life for a man that apparently had neglected his own political responsibilities and surrendered himself to try to save his daughters? Was he supposed to kill the vice president, so he couldn’t be used for the enemy’s purpose? Wouldn’t the vice president know how to kill himself to prevent that?

As far as we could tell, no additional security had been added to this camp. We found it curious they hadn’t even brought men from the other camps a few miles away. We guessed they weren’t worried about anyone in this area trying to free the vice president. In all likelihood, the VP wouldn’t be here long. It didn’t seem they were going to move him tonight, but surely they would in the morning.