the dead man off her prone body. Relief hit him as he saw the man hadn’t accomplished his heinous and depraved mission. He caught the terrified look in her eyes and held his hand up, as if calming a skittish animal.
Her wild eyes went between him and Skinner.
“Rachel, my name is Special Agent Reid. We’re with the FBI. I need to know if you can walk?” He watched as she nodded. “Good, we’re going to have to go out the window and descend using ropes. I’m going to need to secure you to a harness. Okay?”
Again, she nodded, but this time moved to stand. He saw the blood and bruises on her face and felt his blood boil. Pushing back the anger, he moved to her and quickly secured her to a harness attached to Skinner.
“Captain K, this is Tack. Sitrep.”
“Tack, this is Captain K. We’ve secured the target and taken out one of the tangos.”
“Good copy. Please move to exfil. Helo is five mikes out.”
“Good copy, Tack. Captain K out.”
The room was filling with smoke now, the roar of fire beneath them loud in his ears. Sweat poured from his body as the heat increased around them.
Skinner moved out first and Reid instructed Rachel to swing her leg over the edge. The girl followed his lead as Reid began to cough on the smoke.
“Go, I’m right behind you.”
Skinner nodded and began the climb down with the girl. Reid was about to swing his leg over when the floor beneath him gave way and he found himself falling through the ceiling of the large dining room.
The oak dining table broke his fall. The landing stole the breath from him. He felt a rib crack, sharp pain lanced through him as ash and fiery debris rained down. Rolling off the table he fell to the floor as the fire around him burned everything in sight. Glass smashing from the heat gave him a vague idea where the window might be.
Limping, he moved in that direction and he felt someone plough into his body, knocking him to the floor. Twisting, he fought with the man on top of him. His attacker tightened his forearm around his throat in choke hold. Spots danced in front of his eyes, a combination of lack of air in the room and the tight hold around his throat. He knew he needed to get free and fast.
Sliding his left arm up inside the choke hold, he pushed his attacker’s face to the side and with his right arm locked his hands and applied quick pressure, making the tango release his hold. Rolling, Reid hit the man with a one-two punch, but the smoke was getting to him now and his strength dissipated.
He needed to end this fight quickly but couldn’t get to his gun. Applying the same choke hold the attacker had used on him, he used the last of his strength to choke the man out. He fell back on the ground as he heard voices from the window. As his vision began to blur, he saw Clayton East’s face, his oldest friend and FBI Medic.
“Always getting yourself into shit and needing me to come save your, ass,” he said with a grin as he lifted Reid and half dragged, half carried him to the window before pushing him into Holler’s waiting arms.
As soon as the cold air, fresh air hit his lungs he began to cough, hacking up the smoke from his lungs. “The girl?” he asked in between bouts of coughing.
“The girl is secure and on her way to Memorial Hospital. We need to exfil and get you to the same place.”
The three of them jogged to the second exfil sight on the outer ridge of the property, close to a ravine. He ignored the pain in his ribs and throat and ran beside Clay and Holler. The helo was hovering above them as they moved to crouch behind the rocks. A sudden burst of machine gunfire made them duck and Reid watched in horror as Holler fell, his body riddled with bullets.
Noise and pain fell away as Reid collapsed to his knees beside his friend trying to save him even as he knew it was too late. The responding fire from the helo made the night fall silent again.
“Reid, come on, we need to go,” Clay called.
Reid nodded, his emotions in a fog as he acted on instinct. He pushed his arms under the knees of his friend and lifted him. Clay moved