The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,76
the large video map. “It looks like there are guards here and here and here…”
Hayley grabbed her phone and took photos of the screen and tossed it to Quentin. “Good?”
“Good.”
I pulled a bullet-proof vest over my shirt. It was a little too big. I put on a helmet and tightened the chin strap. There were some folded uniforms along the back wall. We found another vest and put it on Quentin though he wanted Hayley to wear it.
She refused, saying, “Who can drive the helicopter? You. You wear the vest.”
“Ready?” He asked, hoping for a unanimous ‘ready’ from the rest of us.
Instead he got, “Aye,” and, “Sort of,” and, “I hope so,” and, “Is the helmet supposed to fit?”
“Let me rephrase that. Some man has kidnapped the king, our friend, Magnus, and he’s irritating the hell out of us like a flea biting at our balls—”
Fraoch said, “Yer bawbag?”
“Yes, like a flea biting our bawbag. Are we going to let that continue?”
“Hell no,” most of us said.
“Good, now we’re ready.”
Hayley said, “Fraoch, you ready for a helicopter?”
He grinned. “I am ready for anythin’.”
He was not ready for the helicopter.
He held on and looked like he was going to cry, a little bit, while praying under his breath. Hayley held his hand and held on herself. None of us were judgmental about it. Helicopters were loud and scary, at night it was dark and cold, this seemed extremely ill-advised.
We were wearing ear protection, but the sound vibrated my whole body.
James started humming that Apocalypse Now song.
Fraoch complained, “Och, yer voice is loud.”
James helped Fraoch turn down the volume while he continued to hum. “Better? Because humming is all that’s getting me through this.”
“Aye.”
I wondered about the weight of the bullet-proof jacket on my chest and worried about how heavy it was and how my heart was weighted down by fear and worry.
As we approached the stone circle, Quentin said, “Whoa, the tunnel is crawling with enemy soldiers, a whole platoon, over that rise.” I held onto my seat as he whipped the helicopter into a u-turn. “Dammit, we need eyes on the ground!” He sped us over a hill and lowered us into a valley.
We watched behind us. James said, “I don’t think any one is coming...” Finally he added, “You lost them, fuck, good driving, Quentin.”
Hayley was watching the GPS monitor in her lap. “He was right here...” She pointed at a spot in the castle. “...it looks like they’re moving him.”
A brutally long moment passed, then she said, “Yes! They moved him, look, he’s moving through the castle.” She frowned. “Oh no! They moved him.”
Quentin said, “It might actually be good news. We are not getting through that heavily guarded tunnel.” He brought the helicopter into another wide turn. “Watch, Hayley, see the button I’m pushing? You’ll need to drive in a moment, okay?”
“No, not okay, but fine.” She turned her attention from the GPS monitor to the helicopter console. “This is go?”
He nodded, but mostly ignored her question. “It’s self-drive, no big deal.”
“If it was truly self-drive, you wouldn’t be telling me how to do anything.”
“I’m going to approach the castle from the back, pass the GPS monitor to Katie. Katie, tell me as soon as you have his location.”
“Sure.” It took me a moment to adjust my eyes. “He’s… He’s not anywhere. Dammit. Hold up,”
“Katie, we’re coming up on the castle, the guards will see us… We need a location.”
“I know, I know.” I scanned the monitor screen.
James reached for it.
“No, I got this…” Magnus’s life depended on it. I turned it over to check the back. “He’s not there…”
“He can’t have disappeared, Katie! You have to get me a location, one… two… three…”
“I do not work well with counting, you know that — wait! He’s here, he’s on the top floor, east corner—”
Quentin said, “The royal residence.”
“Yep.”
He swooped the helicopter around to the east side of the castle. “We’re going to bang-crash through the big-arse windows. Hayley, change places.”
They struggled to move around each other in the tight cockpit. She took his seat. “What do I do?”
“You’re going to let it pull itself up to the castle. When I tell you, push this button.”
“This button.” Her finger got dangerously close.
“Hayley!”
“Oops, damn — this is good, I’m cool.” She shivered.
I was quaking in my boots and it wasn’t just the night air and the wind rushing around the cabin causing it. I asked, “Am I going with you guys?”