Under Fire (Elite Force 3)

He collapsed back into his seat. Sullivan was a traitor and a murderer. And he had Rachel.

Each breath rattling harder than the last, Brandon searched the Humvee. He didn’t know if he would make it out alive or not, but he refused to let Rachel die because of him. He scoured the inside of the vehicle that was fast becoming his coffin, hunting until his eyes landed on the radio on the front dash.

One inch at a time, he crawled forward.

***

“He did what?” Liam asked, stunned.

Less than ten minutes into his interview with the OSI, questioning had been interrupted. He was told the base commander wanted to see him at the command post.

Pronto.

No sooner did Liam arrive than he was pulled into a small room with the base commander—a young colonel—who said General Ted Sullivan had stolen an airplane. And damn it, that made him want to pound a wall. He’d known something was wrong back on the flight line when they’d all been separated, and there hadn’t been a thing he could do about it. Refusing to go with their escort hadn’t been an option. Drawing his weapon… also not a good idea then. Demanding that Rachel stay with him would have netted zero results, given that he was outranked.

Their plan to come in had turned into a cluster f**k and he had no idea how. Most important of all, where was Rachel? Last he’d seen of her, she was with the OSI captain.

Colonel Mary Zogby stood with her hands behind her back, a pulse ticking in her forehead along her dark hairline. “General Sullivan stole an airplane off the flight line. The only logical conclusion I can draw is that he has something to do with Lieutenant Harris’s data that’s being processed by our decoders.”

He didn’t need her to spell out the obvious. Protocol dictated the plane would be shot down without delay. “And I’ve been brought in, ma’am, because…?”

“Just as we became aware of the plane taking off, we received an emergency call over the radio in General Sullivan’s Humvee—from Lieutenant Harris. There’s no easy way to say this. The general shot Lieutenant Harris and then abducted your friend Rachel Flores.”

Liam reeled back a step, the air whooshing from his body as if he’d been kicked in the gut. Rachel was going to die. Either at General Sullivan’s hand or when that plane was shot down. And Liam had brought her here. To what he thought was safety. He couldn’t speak. He could barely stay on his feet.

Thank God, the colonel seemed to understand and continued talking while he got his shit together.

“We’re not sure how exactly, but the HC-130 on alert fired its engines and was rolling down the runway before security could get to it. Once we received the call from Lieutenant Harris, General Sullivan’s Humvee was recovered near the airplane, hidden between some aerospace ground equipment—generators, to be exact.”

“Lieutenant Harris?” he choked out.

“On his way to the hospital. Critical condition. He passed out before we could learn anything more from him.” She drew in a bracing breath. “In the back of the Humvee, a body was discovered. Special Agent Sylvia Cramer. Preliminary signs indicate she was strangled to death, and since she was in the vehicle Sullivan was driving, we can assume he’s the one who killed her. Right now, General Sullivan has nothing to lose.”

Liam closed his eyes briefly as he absorbed the news of Sylvia’s death and how her plans to bring them in had led to it. He would mourn the loss of his friend later. Right now, he had to focus on Rachel. They couldn’t have called him in to watch her die too. “And I was brought here because…?”

“NORTHCOM has a track on the craft and is launching fighters from Homestead.” Silence hung in the room for a few seconds.

Finally McCabe spoke. “They’re going to shoot it down.”

Colonel Zogby nodded. “General Sullivan is over the water, heading south, so he isn’t an immediate threat to homeland security. But once he turns toward land, we’ll have no other options.”

Options? She was talking options?

Hope stirred and took root tenaciously. “Ma’am, are you telling me we have a window of time to come up with a better plan before NORTHCOM launches that shot?”

“That is exactly why you were called in and exactly how I expect my elite force to react. My battle staff is already convening, awaiting you and your team.” She walked through the door, talking as he kept stride with her. “We want General Sullivan taken alive. And of course we want to prevent the loss of an innocent life.”

His creaky old knees didn’t give out on him, but it was a close call, with relief threatening to down him. He would hold strong, focus, and work with this colonel who’d offered an unexpected second chance for him.

For Rachel.

“Yes ma’am. I assume you are already getting a new alert aircraft fired up.” Determination powered his steps.

“We are.”

“Do you have a track on the aircraft?”

The colonel opened the door into the “war room.” A wall-size screen lit up. Rows of manned computers packed the room. She gestured toward the screen. “Our stolen aircraft headed away from the coast and is now turning south. Fighters have launched from Homestead, but they really can’t reach out to them until a tanker from MacDill gets to the area. Any idea where the general’s headed?”