Austin drove closer, ignoring the road now and bouncing over the grass.
Alicia saw them up ahead. They were scrambling and crawling between two small hills and the dip in between, where another flag was situated. She saw three mercs at first, then a fourth and another figure she thought might be Terri Lee. It was too far and too quick, but the cops appeared to have them pinned down.
“Faster!” she shouted. “Drive faster!”
The car bounced, the wheels spun hard. The cops turned around and one took aim, but then appeared to recognize the vehicle and re-joined his colleagues, focused on the mercs. Alicia could see four or five at a time — none were firing their weapons now — and guessed there had to be at least eight.
More than would fit in most cars if you included Crouch, Terri and Cutler. It appeared they had found reinforcements already then.
“Straight at them or stop?” Austin asked suddenly.
Alicia grimaced. “What?”
“Do you want me to drive straight at them? Or stop by the cops?”
Alicia narrowed her eyes. She had about five seconds to decide. There was an awful lot of potential firepower ahead and great risk to her friend. Frustrated once more, she chose the latter.
“Slow down.”
Then the mercs rose, four together, and loosed a volley across the golf course. The cops ducked down. Austin swung the wheel and the car slewed, sliding sideways across a dip, leaving muddy furrows in its wake. Everyone ducked down; Alicia crawling on the floor and pushing open the rear door away from the one the mercs were targeting. She scrabbled out quickly, followed by Caitlyn. More bullets smashed into their car and plowed a furrow in front of the cops’ hiding place. Alicia scrambled away and rolled down a small incline, putting more distance between herself and the car. She waited for the others to join her.
“Think we pissed them off?” Russo asked.
Alicia was about to reply in the affirmative when the deep, rumbling sound of rotor blades started booming among the clouds. At first, she thought it was their own chopper arriving but then understood what was happening.
“Shit, they’re getting ready to go. The mercs were clearing us away.”
“Still are.” Russo doubled over as more bullets turned the turf bank above them into swiss-cheese.
Alicia fastened on to the approaching chopper. It appeared out of the far distance, to the back of the golf course, sinking slowly toward the grounds as it approached the mercs. It was a large black beast, and she saw at least one man sitting in a gap where the door should be, an ominous object laid across his lap.
When the current spate of shooting stopped she rolled out of hiding.
Four mercs stood facing them, positioned atop a hillock. Four more ran out of the delve behind them, giving a thumbs-up to the pilot. Alicia then saw two more mercenaries pushing Terri Lee and Paul Cutler between them.
And another figure — Crouch!
“He’s here!”
The helicopter drifted down. Alicia saw the cops bob up and loose off a few rounds. One of the standing mercs cried out and fell backward, prompting the rest to unconcernedly open fire. One of the cops took a bullet to the shoulder and rolled down the hill. Another scrambled after him.
Alicia sighed and picked off one of the shooters, planting her bullet in the center of his forehead. At this stage the rest started to yell and fire indiscriminately. The chopper swung lazily around as it dropped lower and lower through the skies.
The lone gunman on board raised his ominous looking weapon with difficulty. Alicia’s eyes widened, and she rolled quickly behind the nearest hill, screaming at everyone to get down.
Large caliber gunfire filled the new day, bullets smashing through their car, mincing the metal to shreds. Enormous piles of dirt flew into the air where they struck the ground, showering Alicia and her colleagues with gravel and soil. It lasted thirty seconds, but felt like three hours.
Alicia had been waiting for the moment when the chopper fell too low to be able to utilize the large gun. Now, she rolled back out, sighting immediately and ready to run. Russo was with her. They saw two mercs already on the chopper, reaching back to haul Terri and Cutler aboard. Four more surrounded Crouch and made him run between them, pointing their weapons toward the cops and Alicia.
“Fuck!”
Feeling helpless, she readied to make a dash for it. Crouch was so close; she couldn’t risk losing him now. Taking a firmer grip of her gun and bending her knees, she prepared to attack.
Russo gripped her hand. “Wait.”
He nodded over her shoulder.
Alicia turned to see their own chopper approaching and grinned. “That’ll do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Alicia ran hard toward their airborne helicopter. The cops were busy attending their wounded man, but Alicia couldn’t let the mercs escape with Crouch again.
Or the banner, she decided, telling herself it wasn’t an afterthought.
Caitlyn had her cell clutched to her ear, shouting into the speaker and urging whoever was on the other side to let them take charge of the chopper. It wasn’t an easy task, but Alicia assumed one of the police officers had been contacted and had explained their situation. As they approached the landing helicopter, the pilot gave them a distinctive thumbs-up.
“He’s agreeable,” Caitlyn gasped.
“Fucking brilliant.” Alicia jumped onto a skid even before it properly landed, grabbing hold of the mainframe. “Follow that chopper!” she cried out.
Russo pushed her as she climbed inside. “I’m guessing that’s not the first time you’ve said that,” he commented drily.
Alicia grabbed his right arm and heaved him inside. “You’re right. It’s my go-to saying once I’ve started on my second bottle of red.”
“Second? What a bloody lightweight.”
“Sorry, but I do like to save myself for the main event at the end of the night.”
Russo frowned as Austin and Caitlyn climbed inside. “Main event?”
Alicia slapped the pilot’s seat to get him going. “Shit, Russo, you’re so pure. Want me to spell it out for you. S-H-A…”
“No, no, I got it thanks.”
Alicia peered through the cockpit window. The mercs’ chopper was already winging its way east, over the tops of tall trees and away from the golf course. Austin gave the wounded cop a commiserating salute and then they were swooping in pursuit.
“First by foot, then car and now helicopter,” Alicia growled. “We will chase these bastards down.”
The pilot then shouted across a comms system. “Hey guys, what the hell are we chasing here?”
Alicia found a way around the truth. “FBI agents, abducted by possible terrorists.”
“Crap! Why isn’t the entire country up here with us?”
“Sensitive personnel.” Alicia grimaced as she said it. “That’s all I can say.”
“Ah, no worries. I got my orders from the captain who got his from Washington’s top FBI honcho. I’m cool.”
Alicia stopped worrying about him and surveyed the chopper ahead. It was big so the extra personnel didn’t appear to bother it. She could see legs poking out of both rear doors, which suggested men with large-caliber guns were waiting to open fire. Their own pilot seemed to have spotted the danger, for he stayed directly behind it, catching up slowly. The helicopter bounced and jarred itself all around her, buffeted by winds and pockets of air.
Austin looked decidedly green around the cheeks. “Crap, first time in a helo and definitely the last.”
“Feeling out of control?” Russo asked.