“Arm Turtles,” Hail called out.
“No time,” Starling said. Just as she pressed the icon to arm the C-4 explosive, the man had already run past their deadly turtle and was ten yards up the trail.
“Hit it!” Hail yelled.
Starling pressed the DESTRUCT icon and the image being displayed from Turtles flashed white and then went black.
By this time, Wilson had gained altitude with Seagulls and had flown through the smoky cloud in time to see the blast down below. But the destruction didn’t stop there. The ground-shaking explosion caused one of the nearby land mines to detonate which caused the next land mine to detonate. In a cascading symphony of ruin, one land mine after another began to explode. It sounded like a demonic drum corps. Through Seagulls’ audio, Hail thought it sounded like someone had lit off a wad of giant firecrackers. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. The explosions continued. Branches, sand, shells and rock were blasted into the air surrounding the perimeter of the compound.
“Damn,” Hail yelled.
“You got that right,” Captain Nichols agreed. “Renner told you they had dug their mines too close together.”
“Renner is a smart guy,” Hail said.
Seagulls’ head swung around and was now pointing at the compound below. Kara and Kornev could no longer be seen, and Hail guessed that they had made it inside the house. But lower in the frame, they saw Diambu’s double still alive and running, almost reaching the base of the stairs.
Hail told Nichols, “We need to get Foo Fighters and Foreigner in the air.”
Nichols gave the order.
Snake Island, Nigeria
When Baako reached the bottom of the stairs, he encountered a very confused guard who was crouched down, swinging his weapon side-to-side, looking for potential targets.
“Why did you let them go up?” Baako yelled at the man.
“They told me that there was an attack on the beach, and they wanted to go into the house for safety.”
Baako yelled at the man, “I want you to get as many men as you can into Jeeps and seal off all roads that lead out of the compound. No one gets on or off this island, especially that man and woman.”
The guard grunted an acknowledgement. He then removed a radio from his belt and began to speak into the microphone. Baako sidestepped the guard and began running up the stairs.
Kara and Kornev reached the top of the stairs. Kara was in the lead with Kornev closely on her tail, huffing and puffing like he was going to pass out. Kornev’s recent wounds were taking a toll on him, and his lungs felt like they were on fire. It had been a long time since he had run an all-out sprint, and the deep sand and stairs had his leg muscles shaking and feeling like rubber.
Kara made a beeline for the kitchen for the keys that were hanging on the pegboard. The day before she had studied the keys, and she already knew which ones she wanted. Four of the fobs had little plastic labels on them that read Suburban-1, Suburban-2, Suburban-3, Suburban-4. She grabbed all the Suburban keys, shoving them in her shorts pocket. She then wrenched the entire pegboard off the wall, opened a lower kitchen cabinet, and tossed the pegboard with its remaining keys through the opening.
“We need to get to the garage,” she told Kornev.
Kornev was in no position to argue. He understood their lives depended on getting the hell out of there.
They ran over to the elevator and Kornev pressed the button.
The wait for the elevator was excruciating. She kept watching the openings where the sliding glass doors had once been, expecting at any time to see Baako run inside. Most likely he either was accompanied by a gun-toting guard or he had his weapon at the ready. She was certain Baako would be plenty pissed the missile had vaporized his brother. It didn’t take a college degree to understand that she and Kornev had something to do with the misfiring of the weapon. Compounding their guilt was the fact that they had run from the scene before the missile had fired.
The elevator arrived and the doors opened. Kara withdrew the keys to the vehicles from her pocket and separated them, so they would be ready. As the elevator doors began to close, she got her first glimpse of Baako. This time his face was not adorned by his usual smile like in the past. Instead, he looked more like Afua with the same unattached look of danger.
Baako saw Kornev and Kara framed inside the elevator. He made a break for the open elevator, leaping over the couch, but the doors closed just as he reached them.
Baako cursed as he repeatedly pressed the elevator button. He ran into the kitchen and headed straight for the pegboard. He knew it held the key to open the door that led down the stairs to the garage. But to Baako’s frustration, the pegboard was gone, which meant that the keys were also gone. Not knowing what to do, Baako began searching for the keys in a frenzy. First, he checked the trash can, followed by opening the dozens of top-level kitchen cabinets. Unsuccessful, he urgently opened the lower cabinets. Baako discovered the pegboard of keys in the cabinet that held the pots and pans. He pulled out the board, distraught to see that none of the hooks held any keys. They had fallen off inside the cabinet.
Like a madman, he began frantically pulling out pots and pans, looking in each one for the key he needed. Several minutes later, and after more cussing, Baako found the little Schlage key that opened the steel fire door leading to the garage stairway. Baako went into the pantry to retrieve his Sig Sauer 1911 Ultra .45 caliber pistol hanging on a hook above the doorjamb. He didn’t have to check if the gun was loaded. It was always loaded as were the dozens of other guns hidden around the home. They were well out of the children’s reach.
Leaving the kitchen, Baako ran across the living room to a door next to the elevator. After unlocking the door, he began running down the stairs toward the garage.
Once they reached the garage, Kara yelled to Kornev, “Find something to block the elevator door so it remains open.” She left the Russian with his foot propped in the elevator door and ran toward a line of black Suburban SUVs.
None of the SUVs were numbered in any fashion. To find the Suburban closest to her, she began a process of elimination. Nothing happened when she hit the door button on the first key fob. The second unlocked a vehicle down the line. She was relieved when the third fob unlocked the door of the Suburban in front of her. Kara opened the driver door and she jumped in behind the wheel. The new vehicle had a proximity ignition. She put her foot on the brake and pushed the ignition button. The SUV’s huge engine growled to life, and she racked the gear shifter into reverse while hitting the gas. Inside the garage, the screech of the tires sounded like someone was being tortured. She slammed the car into drive and began driving toward the exit. Up ahead, she saw Kornev still holding his foot in front of the elevator door. Kara lowered the window and pressed the unlock button. She screeched to a stop next to Kornev and yelled, “Get in!”
Kornev grabbed the passenger door handle behind Kara and pulled it open. Instead of sitting in the front, Kornev dove into the backseat of the SUV.
“I told you to find something to hold the doors open,” Kara yelled at him.
“I couldn’t find anything,” Kornev told her, his head popping up from behind Kara.