Savage Son (James Reece #3) - Jack Carr Page 0,137
it to extract, we are getting left behind, so let’s get you up and out of here.”
Raife turned his head to look at the steep scree slope before them.
“I’m really glad you joined me for those workouts. Looks like I’m back to owing you one,” Raife said.
“If I make it to the top of this hill, you will. Up you go,” Reece said as he grabbed the larger man by the wrist and leg, rolling him up and into a fireman’s carry.
One step at a time, Reece.
CHAPTER 84
REECE PUSHED THE SIX-WHEELED off-road vehicle through the falling sleet. Raife kept drifting in and out of consciousness in the second row of seats. Without a GPS to guide him, Reece drove toward the rising sun just visible as a lighter section of the horizon, hidden behind a gray wall of clouds. They were two hours late for extract and Reece knew the odds of getting off this island with his friend were minuscule.
They had launched with too little information and broke the cardinal rule of mission planning: they had no secondary or tertiary plan for extract. Everything hinged on making it to the Albatross, which Thorn would pilot as close to the wave tops as possible until hitting international airspace. Russian technology remained encapsulated in the late 1980s, which gave them a slim chance.
Never tell me the odds.
The weather was turning for the worse. If Thorn and Jonathan had delayed extract it was likely they were all trapped on the island with no means of escape.
Reece rounded a bend and turned the wheel right, leaving what passed for a road and going directly for the Bering Sea, a horseshoe-shaped cove visible through the windshield. It looked protected enough from the weather; it would be possible to get a plane in and out. The only thing missing was the plane.
Reece slammed on the brakes as a lone figure stepped into their path fifty yards ahead, a Belgian-made FAL rifle pointed directly at them.
Reece managed to find the door handle and pushed it open, showing his empty hands to the old gunfighter before exposing his head and identifying himself to Raife’s father.
The old man lowered his rifle and charged toward the vehicle.
“What the bloody hell? Where’s Raife?”
Reece paused and closed his eyes.
“Raife’s in the back, sir. He’s pretty banged up. I think a broken arm and a bad leg break. Probably a concussion. If we don’t get him medical attention, he’s not going to make it.”
The old man’s eyes bore straight through the younger commando in front of him, the same green eyes as his son, asking the question without saying the words. What happened to my daughter?
“Eli told me, Reece. He told me Hanna is dead.”
Reece’s eyes filled with emotion. “I’m sorry, sir. We were too late.”
Jonathan was a man accustomed to the loss that comes from a lifetime of war in the African bush, but now the old man felt a new and awful emptiness move into his soul. He’d left the death, the executions, the genocide, and the torture behind on the Dark Continent and even so, the darkness had found him. Now his youngest was gone. Her wild spirit was free.
“Jonathan,” Reece said in a measured tone. “We have to get out of here. How long ago did the plane leave?”
The usually stoic old warrior swallowed hard. He’d aged a decade since Montana.
“Jonathan!”
“They left an hour ago. Thorn, Farkus, Devan, Eli, and Chavez, along with the prisoners. Farkus wasn’t doing well. Those crazy bastards all wanted to stay but I wouldn’t hear of it. They’d done enough. If my son and daughter weren’t leaving this island, then I wasn’t, either. I couldn’t go home without my children. They could go home to theirs.”
“Attu Island is our only way out. It’s directly east. Load up.”
“What are you going to do, lad? Drive there?”
“There has got to be a way to communicate in that lodge. These Russians had working night vision, which means they had a secure area where whatever they hit us with to take out our electronics wouldn’t penetrate. We need to find it and reach the naval base on Attu.”
“No one is going to send the Coast Guard to invade Russia and rescue us. We’re a band of mercenaries. Thorn and the team are probably getting locked up as we speak. I saw it in Africa, Reece. No one is coming but Russians. I plan on taking as many as I can with me before I go.”