Chapter Thirty-Two
Ghost
T he Citation hit hard.
Managing to keep her on top of a swell, aiming not to overturn, holding her steady, I kept us upright until the nose dipped.
Then I was fucking moving.
Unbuckling my harness, ignoring the shooting pain in my left side as a swell slammed into the rapidly sinking plane, I yelled aft cabin. "Ares, sitrep!"
"Three breathing souls back here. Taking on water, deploying life raft." He kicked open the cabin door, tossed out the raft, then yanked the inflation lanyard. "You injured?"
"Negative." My focus on the doubled-over woman next to Helios, I climbed out of the cockpit and left my HK416. " Safiya ."
She didn't fucking answer.
The fuselage rocked up on another swell, and water rushed into the cabin.
Ares held onto the raft's painter line. "Grab her first. I'll get H after you're both secure."
"Copy." I reached for her. "Safiya." Not shaking. Not moving.
No response.
Fighting fucking rage like I'd never known before, I felt for a pulse.
Thready, weak.
Undoing her seat belt, I fucking lost it. "You said no goddamn injuries, Ares!" Skimming my hands carefully over her neck and back, I checked for broken bones. "Grab the med kit!"
Another swell hit the plane, and Ares yelled back. "I said breathing, and I'm holding on to the fucking raft. We're out of time. Grab her ."
I picked her up.
Limp, too little body heat, her head lolled.
"Hold it steady." Stepping around him, I maneuvered to one knee and set her in the raft on an upswell before standing back up.
"Get in," Ares ordered. "I'll grab H."
"Going for the med kit. Do not let go of her."
Ares grabbed my arm and got in my face. "You're limping. We're sinking. There's no fucking time, Grayson. Look around you ."
I glanced forward cabin. The galley was half submerged, the cockpit fully submerged.
Ares shoved me toward the raft. "Go!"
I climbed over Safiya, then pulled her into my lap. "Loop the line through the door latch, then toss it to me. I'll keep us tethered till you get Helios."
"No, the plane's sinking too fast. It'll—"
"Just do it!"
Ares quickly looped the painter line, then tossed it at me before disappearing from view.
Catching it, I yanked the line and held it through another swell that stretched my left side and made my stab wound roar with fucking pain.
It was nothing compared to the sight of an unconscious Safiya in my lap. "Come on, beautiful, come on ." I bounced my knee to gently jostle her.
Another swell hit, and the tethered side of the raft jerked down with the sinking plane.
"Drop the line!" Knee deep in water, Ares appeared in the open door with Helios over his shoulder. " Incoming ."
I released the line, pulled Safiya back, and Ares launched toward the raft.
Helios landed inside. Ares made it halfway. I grabbed the back of his tactical vest. He swung his legs over, and the tail wing sank below the surface.
The raft lobbed on a swell.
Ares sat up and stared at where the Citation had been. "H is going to be pissed ."
I was too fucking enraged at Helios to care. "Is he alive?" I hadn't checked him for a pulse.
"Yeah." Ares stared another few seconds, then shook his head as if to snap himself out of it before undoing the Velcro on his vest, pulling it off, and yanking his T-shirt over his head. "He took a couple rounds to his shoulder. Didn't say anything when he got in the cockpit."
Of course he fucking didn't. Pulling Safiya closer, checking her pulse and breathing, then the rest of her for any visible injuries or obvious broken bones, I hated myself for not grabbing the med kit that had a thermal blanket. "You got comms? Ammo?" Her dress bloody and wet, her body temp dropping, dawn too fucking far away, I hated myself for a lot of shit.
"Low on ammo. Lost comms on impact." Ares reached into his pants pocket and grabbed the switchblade he'd had since we were kids, then half cut, half ripped his T-shirt into a makeshift bandage. "You?"
"Only my Glock and ditto on comms." The second I saw his unsuppressed M4 back at the compound, I should've fucking shot Helios, then taken out al-Hashimi. If I had, we wouldn't be here. She wouldn't be here. Fucking unconscious. While I had no goddamn…
Shit —comms.
I glanced up right as Ares looked at me, and we both had the same thought.
"Check his left ear," I ordered, but Ares was already rolling Helios.
"Got it." Grabbing his comm, Ares handed it to me.
The second I fit it in, I heard November in between bursts of static.
"Helios… Ares, Gh…. Do… copy?"
"Bad comms." I glanced past Ares tying his shirt around Helios's shoulder and scanned the dark ocean. "In water. Critical injuries. Need immediate evac. How copy?"
"Good copy. Sending…" Static sounded again, cutting off the rest of his transmission.
"Repeat. Bad comms. Need immediate evac." I glanced at my watch, then reached for the survival kit that was on the raft. "Location transmitted approximately five minutes ago. Citation lost. Low on firepower, no supplies. In heavy swells." I dug through the kit. "Two hand flares on raft. Advise." Before I'd ditched, November had said he had friendlies in the area.
"Hold… frequency…. Stand…" November cut out again.
Goddamn it.
"Anything?" Ares tightened the knot on his makeshift dressing, and Helios groaned.
"Standing by." I brushed Safiya's hair from her face as the fucking raft pitched again. "Helios?"
"Through and throughs, blood loss, LOC. He's had worse." Ares glanced at Safiya as he threw his tactical vest back on. "How's she doing?"
"She's unconscious with no visible injuries." How the fuck did he think she was?
Ares checked Helios's shoulder, then glanced at her again. "Might've been the altitude, something they gave her, or combo of both."
"It was the ditching." The hard fucking landing because I'd lost both engines, visibility was shit, and my goddamn stab wound had impaired my strength and ability to hold the plane steady. Now she was unconscious, potentially with internal bleeding or a spinal injury, and I'd never fucking forgive myself if she didn't come to.
Ares looked me square in the eye. "You got us down. You did good."
"You panicked," I accused.
"You've ditched before," he threw right back.
How the fuck did he know that? "How the fuck do you know that?"
"So it's true?"
I didn't reply.
He didn't drop it. "There're a lot of rumors about you." Another swell hit, and Ares grabbed Helios to keep him from rolling into us. "Off the coast of Baja, a few years back, a stolen turbo prop from a regional airport in San Diego went down in the ocean. No survivors, but witness accounts at the airfield and crash site matched your description. Incident hit the Spec Ops community."
I'd stolen a lot of shit over the years. That particular plane and flight had been a diversion tactic. Middle of the day, heavily trafficked private airstrip, I'd purposely calculated the sightings before ditching because I'd needed to be dead—again.
Ignoring Ares's comments, I tapped the comm to make sure it was still receiving. "November, copy?"
The hacker came back online. "Affirmative, new frequency. Should be clear on your end. Getting latest ETA, tracking your position."
"Where's our evac?" He'd had me alter course last minute before we lost the second engine to get closer to his contact. "We're low on firepower and have critical injuries. You said you had friendlies in the area." Where the fuck were they?
"Copy that. The Solace is in range. Her tender was deployed before you hit the water. ETA three minutes. You said you have hand flares?"
The fucking Solace. "Affirmative on two flares. Who's currently on board the Solace?" Alpha's right-hand man, Zulu, and his woman were the owners of the superyacht. More specifically, she was the owner. Not that I was going to refuse any evac, but Zulu's woman was a goddamn target because of her background. The seventy-two-meter Solace was the opposite of inconspicuous.
"Currently, skeleton crew only on board. They were bringing the yacht back to the States from her shipyard after an engine upgrade when I had them redirect. The captain will transport you to Virgin Gorda Airport in BVI. Zulu and Blade are already en route with Talerco. They'll be on apron at VIJ when you get there, and Talerco will triage on the flight back to Miami."
"Good copy." This time, I didn't refuse the offer of the SARC's help before I asked the second-most critical question after evac. "Did you send it?"
"Affirmative."
I exhaled, but I wasn't going to trust anything until I had my own visual confirmation and heard back from my strike teams. "I'm going to need a new kitted-out go bag. Burners, weapons, ammo, clothes." I glanced at Ares. "Ares too." Helios could fuck off.
"Already on board the Gulfstream for you, Ares, and Helios. Clothes for the female, too, but there are also supplies on the Solace. Anything else?"
"Negative." I'd get my own ID and either retrieve hers from the cabin at a later date or get her new ones.
"Copy. Sitrep on injuries?"
"Helios is critical, GSWs." I glanced down at the woman on my lap who should've come to by now. "Safiya's unconscious, condition unknown."
"Understood," November replied. "In sixty seconds, you should hear the tender. Light the first flare. Reserve the second in case another attempt to locate is needed. Sitrep once you're on the Solace. Save the battery on your comm for now."
"Copy. Going radio silent."
"Radio silent," November confirmed.
I tapped the comm off.
Ares glanced my way. "Evac?"
I read him in. "One minute. Limo tender to the Solace, then transport to VIJ in BVI. An AES Gulfstream with Talerco on board will be waiting on the tarmac when we get there. Talerco can triage on the flight back to Miami." I readied the flare.
Ares checked Helios's bandage. "H might not make it to Miami."
I glanced at the blood all over the raft. "There'll be supplies on the Solace."
I heard the tender and lit the flare.
The wake of our incoming rescue rocked us up a swell, then a guy wearing a polo with the Solace insignia was grabbing one of the raft's straps and securing it to their limo tender.
"Simon Jonah, Solace crew," he offered by way of greeting, quickly assessing the situation with military precision. "Hand me the woman first." He held out his arms.
Reluctantly, I lifted Safiya up to him. "Watch her neck and head."
Glancing at the blood I'd gotten on her dress, carefully taking her, he knowingly met my gaze. "Spinal injury?"
"Unclear." His countenance, demeanor, slight accent—I put it together. "IDF?"
"Israeli Navy." He set Safiya inside the tender.
He was more than that, but I didn't comment as I climbed aboard, then turned to help Ares. "Lift Helios to the sidewall. I'll grab his vest."
We got Helios on board the tender, and Ares followed.
"Switchblade." I held out my hand to Ares.
He handed it over, and I slashed the life raft.
A minute later, with all evidence of our crash sunk, the limo tender was doing forty knots, heading toward the Solace.