Fall Back Read online

  “Not till 2300 hours,” said Stratch.

  “We’ll be gone long before then.” Jax reached into the pocket of his seat and pulled out a brown paper bag. “Hey, either of you hungry? We’ve got some leftover hotdogs. They’re not exactly hot anymore, but…”

  “Yessir!” Perry all but yelped. “Thank you, sir. I’d kill for a hot dog.”

  “Me, too, sir,” said Stratch. “I’m getting awful tired of bean soup and spaghetti.”

  The men shouldered their rifles and Jax handed Stratch the bag as he exited the van. On the passenger side, Roth got out and opened the side door to let the men out of the back. Six of them took a loose formation around him while the others hung back. They all left their weapons in the van.

  Perry gobbled his hot dog greedily. “Jesus, that’s good,” he said, showing off a mouthful of half-chewed food. “Who’d have thought you could miss tube steak so much?”

  “That’s what she said,” Stratch joked, then snorted a laugh and almost choked on his own meal.

  Jax chuckled along and clapped Stratch on the back as they headed to the hangar doors. “Settle down, there, Private. Smith would have my ass if I went back and told him one of his men had choked on a tube steak.”

  That prompted a snort from Perry beside them.

  “Christ, Perry!” Jax said, still laughing. “What’d I just say? We need every able-bodied man we have right now!”

  “Yessir. Thanks again for the chow, sir.”

  As they reached the doors, Stratch and Perry went to either side and simultaneously punched in a code. They glanced at each other, nodded, then each pressed another button in tandem. A second later, the heavy steel doors rolled sideways. Inside, Jax could see floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with racks of semi-auto rifles, pistols and crates of ammunition. There had to have been a thousand or more weapons and millions of rounds of ammo.

  In another area were dozens of grenade launchers and corresponding crates of grenades. Ten pairs of crates next to those read HEAT, which stood for High Explosive Anti-Tank. It meant the boxes housed shaped charge warheads that could be used on their own or with a variety of launching weapons. Given the lack of that type of weapon here, Jax assumed it would be for the latter.

  “Do you need any help, sir?” asked Perry. “It’s actually pretty boring duty. No one ever comes out here.”

  Jax glanced at Roth as he entered, expecting to see his eyes dancing like a kid on Christmas morning. Instead, the man looked grim. Jax thought he might see that expression on the face of a surgeon heading into a complex operation that had little chance of succeeding. Again, for just a moment, he wondered what he was missing in the equation.

  “Thank you, gentlemen,” said Roth. “But you’ve already done more than enough.”

  With a raised hand, he drew out the six men who had stayed at the van. They emerged from the other side of the van with their weapons drawn and advanced on the stunned soldiers.

  “Sir?” Stratch asked nervously. “What’s going on?”

  “Just do what they tell you and you’ll be all right,” Jax said through clenched teeth.

  “This is what’s known as a heist,” Roth said amiably. “We want the weapons, not you.”

  Another gesture and two men removed the soldiers’ weapons. Stratch and Perry stood against a wall, hands in the air, as two of Roth’s men kept their own rifles trained on them.

  The SUV carrying Ruben, Carly and their two passengers pulled up silently alongside them. They got out and joined the group inside the warehouse.

  “Now what?” asked Ruben.

  “Now we wait,” said Roth.

  “For what?”

  “For the next part of the plan.”

  Chapter 25

  In the distance they heard the growling of a powerful gasoline engine. It grew louder over a handful of seconds until they saw a vehicle screaming through the lane of the parking lot toward them. For a few alarming seconds, Jax thought the car would keep on going and drive straight into the building at full speed.

  About a hundred yards out, the car—a low, wide sports model—suddenly turned to the left and drifted towards them, brakes screeching, leaving a trail of burnt rubber on the asphalt between the rows of dead vehicles as it spun a full 360 degrees before coming to a stop.

  “For Christ’s sake,” Roth muttered. He jogged toward the car as its gull-wing doors clicked open.

  The man whose voice Jax had recognized on the radio stepped out of the driver’s seat. He’d shaved his head, but Jax could still make out that it was the same kid who’d tried to stare them down at the strip mall. Bile rose in his throat at the thought of this bastard next to his little Hayley.

  The girl stepped shakily out of the passenger side and Jax instinctively broke ranks and headed toward her.

  “Stop him!” Roth called, and two of his men drew their rifles on Jax.

  “We’ll shoot!” one of them hollered. “Don’t think we won’t!”

  Jax slowed and raised his hands. He believed them, even if they hadn’t shown any propensity for violence so far. He had to if he wanted to ensure everyone made it out of this alive.

  “Jax!” Hayley called. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, kiddo,” he said, trying to keep his emotions in check. The coolness that usually overtook him in combat hadn’t come yet; in fact, his guts were popping like a live wire. “What about you?”

  The red rims of her eyes told him she’d been crying. Jax glared at the driver, willing him to die.

  “The drive was scary,” she said. “But I’m all right.”

  “God damn it, Malcolm.” Roth was quietly dressing down the kid. “We need to keep a low profile.”

  “Whatever, man,” said Malcolm, who clearly wasn’t amused with the conversation. “These are my people, not yours. Remember that.” He stormed into the warehouse.

  Roth nodded in Jax’s direction. “You can go to her if you want.”

  He jogged in Hayley’s direction, but she sprinted toward him and crossed the space between them in two seconds flat. Jax instinctively dropped to one knee as she leapt into his arms. As she did, he thought he’d never known the meaning of the word relief until that moment.

  “I was brave,” she sobbed in his ear. “Just like you.”

  “I know you were, honey.” He clamped down on a wave of his own emotions. There was no place for them; not right now. “I’m proud of you.”

  He stood and took her by the hand, leading her over to Ruben and Carly. They both hugged her in turn. Three of Roth’s men approached, weapons drawn, and ordered them into the building.

  “What’s happening?” Hayley asked, taking Jax’s hand again.

  “I’d like to know the answer to that myself,” Ruben said quietly. “They’re going to load this up and just drive away? Sounds too simple. Why are we even here?”

  Jax brought them up to speed about using him to get the guards to open up. The fact the men were still alive almost made him believe that Roth was closer to Robin Hood than terrorist, at least in the man’s own mind.

  An air force transport truck that had been sitting in the parking lot suddenly fired to life as someone inside let out a satisfied whoop. Jax saw Roth grin as the truck started driving toward them.

  “Awesome,” Malcolm said with a snide grin. “We got a truck. Now what, plan man?”

  The obvious discord between Roth and the kid could come in handy, Jax thought. He’d just have to wait for an opening.

  “We need to get these on the truck,” said Roth, pointing at the weapons. “That forklift over there is probably running low on juice. If the government had sprung for new ones, we could be out of here in no time. Unfortunately, they just retrofitted the old diesel ones to electric with cheap Chinese batteries that don’t hold their charge. So we load as much of the heavy stuff as we can before it runs out, then switch to manual.”

  Malcolm’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, manual?”

  “We load it by hand
,” Roth said. “Jesus, did you even go to school?”

  A couple of the men who’d been standing around waiting for their orders chuckled at that. Malcolm rounded on them, eyes flashing.

  “You think that’s funny?” he snapped. “So we bust our asses loading up this truck and then we take off where? Into the woods? Then what?”

  “We talked about this,” Roth sighed. “We keep going until we find where we want to settle down.”

  “So we’re picking up weapons just so we can run.” Malcolm shook his head. “What a great plan.”

  “We discussed—”

  “No, you told us what we were going to do. How’s that any different from what the army wants to do?”

  The men all seemed to be listening intently to the conversation, even the five who were aiming their rifles at Jax and crew and the two guards.

  “That’s a good question,” said Jax. Maybe he could sow a little chaos. “Sounds like same shit, different commander to me.”

  Roth glowered. “Don’t listen to him. We talked about this. We have the freedom to decide our own destinies. Once we’re armed, we can have the confidence to make our own way. Go anywhere we want, do anything we want.”

  “What if we don’t all want to go to the same place?” asked Malcolm. “What then?”

  “We can decide later where we’ll end up,” said Roth. “But right now we’re burning daylight. We need to get loaded up.”

  “I never did get that part of it,” said one of the men who was guarding Stratch and Perry. “I mean, I grew up here. This is my home. I don’t know if I want to leave.”

  Malcolm was nodding and pointing to the soldier. “Exactly my point. And no matter where we go, you can sure as shit count on one thing: There ain’t gonna be a Cheyenne Mountain base there. This is the safest place in the country right now. Why do you think the fucking military chose the place?”

  Several of the men nodded along, seemingly agreeing with Malcolm, at least in part.

  Roth was getting visibly angry. “Jesus, you men! We’ve been over this! We can’t attack Cheyenne and take it over. It would be suicide!”

  “Not if we go in through both doors! They’d be trapped inside! Like shooting fish in a barrel!”

  “We’d need a hell of a lot more men, you idiot! And they’d have to be trained! And have killer instincts!” Roth rounded on his men, eyes wide. “Anyone here ever kill someone? Ever even been in a real fight? Holding guns on unarmed people is a far cry from going into battle.”

  “He’s right,” said Jax. “I’ve been in combat. It’s a different reality. You’d all be killed.”

  The men were glancing furtively at each other now. Jax got the feeling that they were all second-guessing this whole situation. But they were committed now.

  “Just stick to the plan and everything will be fine!” Roth barked. “Agreed?”

  The men nodded, though without much conviction.

  Roth turned on Malcolm and put a hand on the holster attached to his belt. “You need to get out of here, Austin. Just get in that sports car of yours and take off.”

  Malcolm crossed his arms on his chest. “I’m not going anywhere. I told you, these are my men.”

  “Hey, Austin,” said one of the men. “Just chill, will you? Nick is making sense. We can’t go after Cheyenne.”

  “What are we gonna do then, Steve? I didn’t sign on to this to go live in the fucking woods!”

  Jax squeezed Hayley’s hand as he realized the girl had spent close to an hour trapped in a vehicle with this maniac.

  “What did we sign on for, then?” asked Steve. “If we want to run our own lives, this is the only way we’re going to do it. Yeah, it’s not going to be easy, but Nick’s plan is solid, man. You’re starting to sound crazy.”

  “Wasn’t so crazy when it was just us, before this asshole showed up,” Malcolm said, tossing his chin in Roth’s direction. His pouting tone both disgusted and frightened Jax. This was the kid he remembered from the stand-off with the jerry can at the strip mall.

  “That’s it,” said Roth. He drew his SIG Sauer. “This ends here. Get lost, Austin, or I’ll put a bullet in you right here.”

  Macolm’s eyes widened. He wasn’t expecting this. Jax saw the potential for an opening.

  “Big man with a gun,” the kid said. “Put it down and we’ll see who walks away from this.”

  “We don’t have time for this!” Roth roared. “Men, show Mr. Austin we mean business.”

  The others shared a few glances before turning to face Malcolm, their weapons now trained on him. Jax saw his opening—he managed to catch Perry’s eye and motioned for him to use the radio on his hip. Perry nodded, reaching slowly to his belt. While all eyes were on Malcolm, the guard yanked the walkie free and brought it to his mouth.

  “Cheyenne, this is Schriever!” he bellowed. “Mayday mayday mayday! The stronghold has been breached, repeat, the stronghold has been breached! Capt. Booth and his team are here! A dozen hostiles—”

  Before Jax could breathe, the man closest to Perry had already spun and fired his weapon. Jax watched in horror as the guard’s chest exploded out his back.

  “Jesus!” Roth cried. “Stand down!”

  Jax’s mind raced: his first thought was to grab the AR-15 from the man closest to him, but he quickly kiboshed it; there was too much potential for him to suffer the same fate as Perry. In the end, he held his ground.

  Immediately, he saw that Malcolm had the same idea. The kid grabbed the rifle from Steve, struggling to wrestle it from his grip as the rest of the men looked from Perry to Malcolm, back and forth, frozen in panic.

  Jax instinctively threw Hayley to the concrete floor and covered her with his own body. Ruben and Carly hit the decks right after, landing beside him. A moment later, the air around them exploded with the sound of .223 Remington rounds flying over their heads.

  “Get down!” they heard Roth yell. More gunfire followed. Jax raised his head just in time to see Malcolm Austin sprinting for the ridiculous car he’d arrived in with Hayley. His former colleagues were still firing on him, though the shots weren’t even close to striking home. A few seconds later, the kid reached the car, tossed his rife in the back and jumped in. The tires shrieked like a hawk as the car sped off into the parking lot before finally disappearing into the distance, driving toward the sun as it sat above the western horizon.

  “Hold your fire!” The authority of Roth’s voice was undeniable, built up by years of command.

  Jax and Ruben looked up, then at each other. The immediate threat appeared to be over. The rest of Roth’s men seemed stunned by what had just happened, including their own roles in it. They blinked owlishly, gazing around the place.

  Roth ran a hand down his face. “Jesus Christ,” he groaned. “What a shit show.”

  Jax picked up Hayley and stood. She was trembling, tears streaming down her face, but unhurt. He hugged her tight, feeling her little heart racing against his chest.

  “Shhh,” he whispered into her hair. “It’s over. We won’t let anything happen to you. You’re safe.”

  Ruben pulled Carly to her feet as Jax soothed Hayley. When she had her feet again, she rounded on Roth, naked fury in her eyes and crimson blood in her pale cheeks.

  “Look at what you’ve done, you bastard!” she screeched. “Just take the goddamned van and get out of here! Troops won’t be here for at least a half-hour. You have enough of a head start.”

  Roth looked stricken. “We just killed a soldier, Carly,” he said quietly. “We’re trying to steal weapons. You think they’ll slap us on the wrist and let us get away?”

  “You can go in any direction,” Jax growled. “They can’t track you from the air. You can make it out of here easily. Just go!”

  Roth shook his head. “Not without the weapons. If the army didn’t have enough reason to come after us before, they sure as hell will now.” He looked at his wrist, then to his men. “We have twenty minutes to get as much of this on the
truck as we can, then we head out.”

  He looked at Jax and Ruben. “You, too.” Then to Stratch. “That includes you, soldier. Double time.”

  The private’s jaw dropped. “You just killed a man!” he cried. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

  “Quite possibly,” Roth sighed. “If you don’t want to join him, move it. One more dead body doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot these days. The buildings around us are full of them.”

  Ruben looked at Jax and shrugged. “Any point in resisting?”

  “No. The sooner they get out of here, the sooner this is over with.”

  Jax dropped to a knee beside Hayley. “Just try to stay out of the way, okay? We have to do some work but we’ll get out of here soon and then we can go back to the mountain.”

  Roth appeared beside them with a length of nylon rope in his hand and an apologetic look on his face.

  “Sorry,” he said. “We can’t risk her running around.”

  Ruben stepped between him and the girl. “Get the fuck out of here with that before I wrap it around your neck, asshole.”

  “Ruben,” Jax said. “It’s not worth it.” He turned to Hayley. “I’m sorry, kiddo. It’s only for a little while.”

  She gave Jax a resigned nod that kicked him straight in the guts and held out her hands. Roth wrapped the rope loosely around her tiny wrists, then secured it with a complex knot.

  “I’m sorry about this,” he told her.

  “Blow it out your ass,” she replied solemnly.

  Jax felt his heart swell with pride even as Ruben stifled a laugh and Carly’s eyes widened into saucers. Even Roth smiled.

  “You’ve got a very brave girl there, Captain. The smoother things go here, the sooner you can get back to whatever lives you’ve managed to build here in our glorious new republic.”

  “Blow it out your ass,” Jax said.

  Roth chuckled and shook his head. Jax felt he was putting on a good show of hiding his horror at what had happened. Jax himself had seen death before, up close and personal. It was abundantly clear that Roth hadn’t.