Chapter 20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trevor pulled Honor to the ground and covered her body with his own as the gunfire exploded. He braced himself for the multiple entry wounds that would soon enter his back, hoping that none would reach Honor. He heard bullets whistling overhead.

It took a second or two for Trevor realize that the bullets were not coming from the direction of the Syrians.

Neither he nor Honor had been hit.

He did not yet hear a single shot coming from Orfali’s direction though the wail of gunfire was nearly earsplitting. The bullets were raining down on Orfali and his men from behind Trevor’s position.

“Stay down, Boot!” he heard screamed at him from behind. It was Wolf’s voice. It was unmistakable. Wolf was here and he had brought men with him.

Trevor continued to cover Honor as much as possible with his body. Four of Orfali’s men had been gunned down in the opening salvo. That left Orfali himself and two others, who were now returning fire. Trevor could tell the opening salvo from Wolf and the men he’d brought with him had decimated the Syrians, and taken the fight out of them. The return fire was wild and irregular, .

Trevor looked toward the position Orfali and his men held. Trevor could see bloodied bodies, trees splintered, vehicles pierced with multiple rounds.  Paco had hit the ground when the shooting began. He appeared to be unharmed. Orfali’s men never stood a chance once the gunfire began.

After another fifteen seconds, return gunfire from Orfali’s two remaining men fell silent. They were either dead or had decided to run. Snake lay motionless on the ground. He saw that Orfali himself had positioned himself behind Paco, and was now holding a gun to his head. Whether Snake was alive or dead he didn’t know.

Wolf and three men emerged from the position of cover he held from the rear. With Wolf were Juan, Francisco and Alejandro, the assault-weapon toting young sentries from the fight club. All were walking slowly toward Orfali. Wolf was clearly limping and moving slowly, but moving nonetheless. His gun was trained on Orfali as he approached. Orfali was sweating profusely but had a firm grip on Paco and held the gun to his temple.

Wolf paused when he reached Trevor and Honor. Without breaking eye contact he spoke, “Are you and Honor okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, thanks to you,” he said. “How did you know where to find us? Where did this team come from?”

“That’s a story for later, Boot,” he replied. “For when the final chapter of this story is written.”

“Well, let hope this has a happy ending,” Trevor said.

“How bad has Snake been hit?” he asked, his gun still trained on Orfali.

“It’s bad,” Trevor said. “Gut shot. If he is still alive he needs to get to a hospital, and soon.”

“The chopper will be here in five minutes,” Wolf replied. “We need to resolve this situation before then.”

As if on cue, Orfali yelled out, “Drop your weapons, or this man dies.”

“That won’t be happening,” Wolf replied.

“You’d really let this man die?” he asked.

“The man you have captive is a former Ranger, a patriot in every sense of the word. He knew what he was getting into,” Wolf replied. “He signed up for this duty. He knows full well you’d never let him or us live through this. You, however, can live through this, Orfali. It’s your choice. Drop your weapon now or die.”

“You forget where I come from,” he replied.

“Think about it, Orfali,” Wolf yelled. “Honor, Bootstrap and I are all alive. When I knew you discovered Snake was a SEAL and not Mr. Carpenter, I called the FBI in Seattle. Mr. Carpenter is already in protective custody, as are four more of your men. They are singing like little birdies, I’m told. Sorry. It’s over. You failed.”

“You lie!” Orfali screamed.

Wolf noticed Orfali positioned his own head behind Paco’s, but when he spoke leaned his head to the side slightly, exposing it for a second or two as he spoke.

In the distance helicopter blades could be heard, getting louder quickly as it approached. The medical chopper was moments away.

“Wouldn’t you rather give up and go to a maximum-security prison for the rest of your life, where all the Neo-Nazis will fight over the privilege of making you their bitch?” Wolf replied. He trained his weapon to the immediate right of Paco’s head.

Orfali leaned his head to the side to speak, “Got to hell, SEAL man. I am prepared to die if necessary.”

Wolf squeezed off a shot when he saw Orfali’s head peeking out from behind Paco’s. The bullet entered Orfali’s left eye and exited through the back of his head, killing him instantly. His body slumped to the ground.

Trevor and Honor ran to Snake’s aid.

“Consider it necessary,” Wolf said to Orfali’s dead body. “Have pleasant stay in hell.”

Paco approached Wolf, more than a little irritated, “You could have killed me. That bullet missed my head by three inches.”

“Relax,” Wolf said. “The key word in your sentence was ‘missed.’ I ‘missed’ you head by three inches.  I’ve done this before.”

“How could you bring these punks?” he asked pointing to Alejandro and the other two.

“Those punks just saved all our hides,” Wolf said. “You said yourself they were good with a gun. I knew what I was doing. We were hidden in an elevated position firing on an enemy who had stepped out in the open. These boys know how to handle themselves. I told them the score. They wanted to come. They performed bravely. You need to cut them some slack.  You’d be dead right now if they hadn’t come.”

Paco looked at Alejandro and let out a breath of exasperation, then nodded.

“Maybe you are not so useless after all,” he said.

The medical chopper arrived. It landed moments later without incident. EMT’s began to attend to Snake immediately. He still had a pulse, although it was weak.

“Is he going to make it?” Wolf asked one of the EMT’s.

“I don’t know,” came the reply. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”

“You take care of him, you hear?” Trevor admonished.

“We’ll do what we can,” the EMT replied. “Now step back so we can stabilize and prepare him for transport.”

Trevor found Honor again and hugged her as the EMT’s prepared Snake for transport.

“Is this horror over?” she asked.

“I hope so,” he replied. “Wolf, is Mr. Carpenter truly safe?”

“He is,” Wolf said. “I didn’t know for sure that our ruse with Snake posing as Mr. Carpenter was compromised but I called up to Seattle for reinforcements just in case. I knew Barkley had seen Snake. The FBI captured four terrorists who were attempting to take Mr. Carpenter about an hour after I made the call. We are officially out of the woods.”

Honor hugged Wolf, “I can’t thank you enough,” she said.

“None of this explains how you knew where we were,” Trevor said.

“Do you remember that GPS button I gave you and Snake back in Seattle?” Wolf began.

Trevor looked down at the “Levi’s” button on his “Naked and Famous” jeans. The GPS button was there. With all the chaos, he had totally forgotten it.

“When you went rogue on me, I knew I had to do something,” Wolf said.

“I see you’re limping, but how is it you can even move?” Trevor asked. “Your ankle was in horrible shape.”

“It still is. In the hospital, my doc was a former military field medic,” Wolf said. “He served two tours in the line of fire. When I told him what was going on he said he understood. The field dressing and a healthy dose of Oxycodone outside the recommended dosage is all that’s keeping me standing. I will pay the price later but currently I am in a happy place for the moment.”

“Those three?” Trevor asked, pointing at Alejandro and his two buddies.

“I got Alejandro’s number at the arena,” he said. “I was going to try to recruit him into the Navy later. I heard they were good with a gun, so I thought I might see for myself. When I called him, he and the other two jumped all over it.”

Alejandro walked over to Wolf, Trevor and Honor, toting his automatic weapon on his shoulder. He smiled and shook Trevor’s hand.

Wolf slapped him on the shoulder.

Paco approached them, “Snake is critical but he has a fighting chance.”

“That’s great news,” Trevor said. “We could have never pulled this off without him.”

“What about Barkley?” Wolf said. “Is his body out there with the rest?”

“He’s not here,” Paco said, shaking his head. “I count five of Orfali’s men, dead. That means Barkley and one of them fled. It won’t take long to round up Orfali’s man. When the shooting started, Barkley took off like a scared rabbit, not that I blame him. I’d chase him down now but he knows this area even better than I do. But don’t worry, Barkley is like a bad penny. He’ll turn up soon enough.”

“Paco, I can’t thank you enough,” Trevor said. “None of this would have gone well without you. If I can ever do anything to repay you…”

Paco raised his hand, “We’re brothers, man. What now?”

“You take Alejandro and the boys and get out of here before the authorities arrive,” Wolf said. “You need to be gone before anyone sees you. You were never here, you understand?”

Paco nodded.

Wolf turned to Alejandro. He nodded as well.

“What about you?” Paco said.

“We saved Honor,” Wolf said. “That’s what we came for. No one will like it that we did this on our own but Bootstrap and I will deal with the consequences.”

“I’ll stay,” Paco said.

“No,” Wolf insisted. “You have a record. If they find you or these boys here, you’re going to jail and they’ll throw away the key. Take off. You’ve done your job. No one will know you were here.”

“You take off, too,” Trevor said to Wolf. “No one needs to know you were here. I don’t mind taking the heat.”

“It’s not happening,” Wolf said. “We’ll face the music--- and we’ll do it together.”