“I’ll be fine,” Gordon answered.
The two stood alert in the hallway, but minutes passed without sight of anyone. “Where is everyone?” Rubio hissed.
The men were facing opposite directions, watching for anyone to step into their kill zones.
“Are you sure he’s up here?” Rubio asked.
“No, I don’t know for sure, but if past behavior is an indicator of future performance, then we can be sure he’s around here.”
“Oh, great!” Rubio said sarcastically.
“Corporal, do you have a better place to be?” Gordon joked.
“Ah, no,” Rubio cracked. “Plus, it’s always fun shooting bad people.”
The stairwell door flew open and Lexi walked in with the little girl.
She grabbed her by the collar. “Where is his room?”
The girl was having a difficult time controlling her breathing. She was completely petrified.
“Where is he?” Lexi yelled at her.
The girl flinched but finally answered. She pointed down the hall to the left and said barely above a whisper, “Th-th-the one at the end.”
Gordon stood, petted the girl on the head, and said, “Thank you.” He felt bad that they had to drag a child into this—particularly one who was around his own daughter’s age—but in this situation, they needed to do what they could to move forward with their mission.
Lexi let go of her with a jolt and the girl took off, disappearing into the stairwell.
“Let’s line up,” Gordon ordered.
Gordon took point, with Lexi right behind him, and Rubio bringing up the rear.
Automatic gunfire could be heard outside now. This could only mean that Rahab’s other forces were coming.
They moved swiftly down the hall and took position around the door.
Rubio knelt at the door handle and applied a small explosive charge around it. Once detonated, this would blow off the handle and dead bolt and open the door.
“Done,” Rubio whispered.
Gordon and Lexi put their backs against the wall, anxiously waiting for Rubio to call out that the blast was coming. The nightmares, the daily thoughts of their murdered loved ones, were about to culminate in this one final confrontation with the man who had brought them together. Rahab’s cabal had destroyed many lives and had altered the lives of Gordon and Lexi forever. Even when this was all over the impact that he had on them would carry forward for the rest of their lives.
In the moments before the blast, Gordon felt his blood pumping, but a sense of calm overtook him. He glanced over at Lexi, who was fiercely concentrating on the door handle, as if she could will it off by looking at it alone. For the first time, she was scared. This was a moment she had been waiting for, been dreaming of, really, but without knowing what was behind that door, anxiety overwhelmed her.
“One, two, three, fire in the hole!” Rubio finally called out. The blast tore a hole in the door where the handle and dead bolt had been.
Moved to action, Gordon stepped up and kicked the door in.
They entered what appeared to be a large suite. A living room was the first space they walked into. Sofas and upholstered chairs occupied the area.
“Left!” Gordon cried out as he entered, indicating he was heading off in that direction. Rubio had gone right.
A wide-eyed woman ran out of an adjacent room and rushed toward Gordon with a knife in her hands. Gordon put the laser sight on her chest and squeezed off two rounds. She crashed into a glass coffee table.
The large square room had adjacent rooms coming from the right and left. They could hear children crying and whimpering in the room to the left.
“Room left, going in!” Gordon cried out.
“Room right!” Rubio then responded.
Gordon turned the corner and when the room came into view, there he was.
“He’s here! I got him!” Gordon yelled. At those words, Lexi rushed behind him.
Rahab stood with his arms wide open. About a dozen children were hovered around him at his feet. He was looking up, murmuring something. Rahab didn’t even seem to notice them; it was as if he was in a trance.
Gordon saw that Rahab didn’t have a weapon. Letting his two-point sling do its job, he let go of his rifle and pulled out Gunny’s knife.
Holding the knife tightly in his right hand, he shouted, “Rahab, you were right. Every time I looked in the mirror I thought of you and my son. After I kill you I’ll think about the moment I took your life!”
Startled, Rahab looked toward Gordon. “Who is that? Who are you?”
“It’s Gordon Van Zandt!”
Lexi stepped next to Gordon and placed the red dot from her sight on Rahab’s face.
“Gordon Van Zandt? I’m impressed.”
Gordon stepped in front of Lexi and farther into the sparsely lit and shadowy room where Rahab stood, but stopped when he saw the wire coming from his hand.
“Gordon, I am impressed that you found me. I applaud your persistence, but unless you want to die, you should leave now,” Rahab said, his thumb firmly pressed against the trigger of the device.
Gordon followed the wire from his hand as it traveled down his arm to his chest, then down to other smaller packages around the room.
“Lexi, you and Rubio need to clear out! He’s packed with explosives!”
“Fuck him!” she yelled out, ready to shoot.
“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!”
Lexi stepped out from behind Gordon and placed the red dot of her sight again on Rahab’s face.
“Who did you bring along with you to die?” Rahab laughed out.
“Your nemesis, bitch!” Lexi screamed and began to squeeze the trigger.
“No, he’s got a dead man’s trigger!” Gordon yelled.
“I don’t give a fuck!” Lexi yelled.
Rubio came up behind her and said, “You better fucking care, I don’t want to die right now.”
“Rahab, we’ll leave. Let us take the children and we’ll go!” Gordon said, attempting to prevent him from detonating the bombs.
“Let him go? We came all this way and now we’ll let him go?” Lexi challenged.
“Once his thumb leaves that trigger it’ll detonate the bombs. We don’t have a choice, and I’m with Rubio. I didn’t come here to die.”
“Listen to Gordon, Lexi,” Rubio urged.
“Rahab, we will leave. Let us take the children with us,” Gordon said.
“These are my children, they stay!” Rahab barked.
Gordon stepped back and away from Rahab. He knew that at any moment, Rahab could release the trigger and blow them and half the building up.
“I can’t believe this, I can’t believe we’re going to leave this man alive. He murdered your son, he murdered my sister!” Lexi screamed at Gordon.
“Who was your sister?” Rahab asked with a smile.
“Fuck you! You piece of shit!” Lexi yelled back.
Gordon sheathed the knife and asked, “Can I take the children, please!”
Rahab aggressively thrust the hand that held the trigger toward Gordon. “Leave!”
Gordon slowly stepped backward till he walked into Lexi. He turned to her and whispered, “This isn’t over, I promise. But this here, we can’t win. We can try to find him again, I swear.”
“Argh! This is such bullshit!” Lexi hollered.
The whimpering children ate at Gordon’s conscience, but there was nothing he could do.
“C’mon,” Rubio said.
They all started to back slowly away from the bedroom and into the living room of the suite.
Lexi was mumbling something under her breath, then darted back toward the bedroom.
“No!” Gordon screamed after her. He reached and managed to grab her by the collar of her tactical vest but not before she had squeezed off a couple of shots, hitting Rahab squarely in the chest.
Gordon dragged her from the room and into the hallway. Rubio was ahead of them, running toward the stairwell.