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  Twenty minutes later, the truck had forty crates of ammo, two hundred rifles, just as many pistols, four grenade launchers and two crates of shaped charges under its tarp. The forklift had lasted just long enough to get the crates on board before crapping out. Jax, Ruben and Stratch had stripped down to their T-shirts to do the work while Carly sat with Hayley.

  “Good work,” said Roth. “Let’s get these five secured and get the fuck out of here.”

  Jax frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  Three men with ropes approached them. “Sorry,” said Roth. “You said it yourself: We can take any direction we want. I’m not going to risk the possibility that one of you will see which direction that is. Look on the bright side: the cavalry can’t be more than fifteen minutes out.”

  He sighed. Roth had him. “Fine, just get it over with.”

  The men worked quickly under Roth’s supervision, securing the ropes so that all the adults were bound wrist to ankle. Hayley’s wrists were still tied in front of her. They weren’t going anywhere any time soon.

  Roth told Steve to collect the van they’d arrived in, then directed half of the men to ride with him and the others to board the transport truck.

  “We’re in the home stretch,” he said. “We’ve got what we need, an open road and a head start.”

  Another of the men took the weapons the guards had been assigned and tossed them into the back of the truck. “That’s all of it, boss.”

  “Have a nice life,” Ruben said with a grin. “Best keep an eye in your rearview camera, just in case Jax and I ever get an urge to go on a road trip.”

  Roth hunkered next to where they sat on the floor, beside an office at the back of the building.

  “You still don’t quite get what I’ve been saying, do you?” he asked with a grin of his own. “There’s nothing but space in America now. We don’t have to run into each other ever again if we don’t want to. There’s a whole country out there. A little piece for everyone.”

  “Yeah, well, a piece of my foot will be up your ass if we ever meet again, that’s all I’m saying.”

  “I don’t think either of you have to worry about it,” said a dull voice from inside the office. “Neither of you is leaving here alive.”

  Chapter 26

  Jax looked up to see Malcolm Austin standing in the office doorway, the rifle he’d stolen from one of the other men trained on them—including Roth.

  His instinct was to struggle with his ropes, but an instant later he knew it was pointless. He wasn’t going to be able to move. Beside him, he could see Ruben coming to the same conclusion.

  Roth’s expression dropped as he realized who was speaking behind him. He was still crouched next to them, his back to the office. Jax looked into the room and saw the small door they’d propped open to draw a breeze in while they’d worked. Shit, he thought with an internal groan. Shit shit shit.

  Roth raised his hands slowly and rose from the floor, his back still to Malcolm.

  “You came back,” he said evenly. “How did you get in without us noticing?”

  “Cool thing about the Nighthawk,” said the kid. “It’s got an electric mode. Nobody ever uses it, but it does. Totally silent. I’ve been back since you started loading the truck.”

  “And you didn’t help?” said Ruben. “No dessert for you tonight.”

  “Shut up.” He jerked the gun toward the center of the building. “Get over there, Nick. We’re gonna have a meeting.”

  “It’s a coup, then?” Roth said as he walked.

  “A what?”

  “Never mind.”

  Jax leaned closer to the rest of his crew. “This is bad,” he whispered. “At least with Roth we were dealing with someone we could predict. I don’t like the look in that kid’s eyes.”

  “He’s crazy,” Hayley hissed. “You should have heard what he was talking about on the way here. About how he was going to get back at everyone who hurt him since he was a kid. He said his dad used to beat him up when he was a kid, and that he was glad when he got killed at the school.”

  “Jesus,” said Carly. “Roth signed a deal with the devil when he joined forces with him.”

  They watched as Roth and Malcolm stopped next to the remaining weapons and ammo stocked in the center of the building. Outside the big front doors, they saw the rest of the men milling about with the van and the truck, obviously waiting on Roth.

  “Guys!” Malcolm called out. “Little confab here, all right?”

  “We don’t have time for this shit,” Roth growled as the other men wandered into the building. “The army is on its way here as we speak, you stupid little shit!”

  “The fuck?” one of the other men said. “What’s he doing here?”

  “He’s about to get us killed is what he’s doing,” said Roth. “Shoot him. Now.”

  Jax saw an opening: delay them until they didn’t have time to get away.

  “Really, Roth?” he called from their spot by the office. “You want your men to kill one of their own? Tell me how you’re better than the army again. At least we feed our men.”

  “Shut up!” Roth barked, clearly desperate now. “We don’t have time for this! Tie Austin up, knock him out, whatever it takes. Just do it and let’s get out of here!”

  The other men looked at each other, all of them obviously wondering who would take care of Malcolm.

  “Anybody makes a move on me and Roth is done, too,” the kid said. “Then you got no leader at all.”

  Jax wouldn’t have believed what happened next if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes: Roth dropped his right hand from behind his head and knocked the barrel of Malcolm’s rifle downward, where it discharged, tearing pieces of concrete out of the floor. Roth was easily thirty years older than the kid, but he clearly remembered his training.

  Unfortunately for him, Malcolm was quick as a mongoose. He recovered quickly and brought the barrel back up in an arc, hoping to position it under Roth’s chin. The former colonel managed to grab it in his right fist, but the leverage was almost non-existent. Another burst of gunfire shook and heated the barrel in his hand and he cried out in shock and pain.

  “Do something!” Jax heard Steve yell from the crowd. “Save him!”

  “Which one?” another answered.

  Jax’s combat instincts kicked in as he saw Malcolm jerk back, yanking the weapon away from Roth. The kid overcompensated and stumbled backwards, landing hard on his ass. As he did, Jax yelled for his companions to duck as he knocked Hayley to the ground yet again with his shoulder and rolled on top of her.

  Malcolm’s rifle fired a burst of rounds that were close enough that Jax could swear he almost felt them. His heart thundered in his chest as he prayed to whatever gods there might be that another burst wasn’t coming in their direction.

  A hard thwack from Malcolm’s direction drew Jax’s attention up from the floor. He looked up just in time to see the kid staggering after a blow from the stock of one of his comrades’ rifles.

  “Jax!” Ruben hissed from beside him. “Twelve o’clock!”

  He looked above them to see what Ruben was pointing out: the bullets had torn through a metal shelf on a unit next to the wall outside the office, leaving a jagged edge on the corner. His heart leapt at the sight.

  “Go!” he whispered back, and Ruben was immediately there, sawing the rope around his wrist across the metal edge, back and forth until it snapped. In those precious few seconds, Malcolm had managed to recover and was running with his rifle in their direction, firing back at Roth.

  Once Ruben’s wrists were free, Jax motioned for Carly to follow suit. She was flushed with panic but managed to do what she had to until her hands were also free. While she and Ruben untied their ankles, Jax motioned for Stratch to take his turn. Hayley, smart little soldier that she had become, stayed flat on the floor.

  The warehouse was a symphony of gunfire now as Malcolm fired at his former friends and they fired at him. The only one with any re
al shooting experience was Roth, and he was the only one without a weapon at the moment. The risk of them being hit by a stray bullet was strong enough that Jax motioned his colleagues to stay back down on the floor.

  “Motherfucker!” one of the men yelled. Jax looked up to see Steve clutch his right shoulder with his left hand, blood gushing from a fresh wound. He staggered to his right as Roth reached him and snatched his rifle.

  Jax grabbed Hayley and pulled her into the office with him in an obstacle course crawl as the other three followed. Once inside, Jax hurried to the door that had been propped open. It was at the back of the building and so faced the opposite direction of the main doors.

  The roaring gunfire inside made it hard to hear anything, but Jax could see what he’d been hoping for in the distance: Three armored troop transports headed up the back way toward them.

  “They’re here!” he said, pulling Ruben to the door so he could see as well. “All we need to do is hunker in here until they all kill themselves out there, or the cavalry gets here. Either one is fine with me.”

  “There’s nothing in this world as beautiful as an armed transport headed your way,” Ruben said with a wide grin. “We might just get out of this yet.”

  That was when they heard the shriek.

  Chapter 27

  They both turned to see Carly holding onto Hayley’s legs as Malcolm Austin pulled her by her bound wrists with his left hand. His right was on a SIG Sauer and it was pointed at her temple.

  “Let her go, you bastard!” Carly spat, but she knew it was a lost cause.

  Stratch stood and raised his fists and yelled: “Take me, tough guy!”

  “Fuck off,” Malcolm said absently as he hauled Hayley, twisting and screaming like a wet cat, out into the gunfire. Jax’s belly was ice as he contemplated making a run for it and knocking her to the floor.

  Before he could move, Malcolm was in position behind a crate. “Hold your fire!” he hollered. “I have the little girl!”

  Roth held his fist up, a signal for the others to stop shooting. “She’s not part of this, Austin! I’ll throw my weapon to you, then you let her go! I’ll be unarmed!”

  Malcolm’s grin made Jax’s breath freeze in his chest: Whatever rudimentary intelligence might have once been behind the kid’s eyes before had been replaced with sheer madness.

  “Ain’t gonna happen!” he cried. “She’s my ticket outta here! You idiots can’t see it, but the army’s already here! Coming right up our tailpipe!”

  Jax watched the other men scatter, looking for a way to see what was coming. Roth yelled for them to maintain position, but none of them did. Some of them took refuge behind crates as if preparing for a firefight. A couple even threw their weapons on the floor and stood there, frozen, looking like they were trying to wake themselves from a nightmare.

  Roth was wild-eyed now, calling for them all to surrender. They had no other option. Jax saw the words were falling on deaf ears with Malcolm; he still thought he was going to skate out of here because he had Hayley.

  As the transport vehicles got closer, Jax weighed his options. He and the rest of his team were a good twenty yards from Malcolm, and there was no cover between them and him. None of them were armed. Jax could risk his life and make a run for her, try to overpower Malcolm, but the odds of success were just too low. At least Hayley was alive, and Malcolm, crazy as he was, had enough sense not to do anything drastic—yet.

  “They need to know there’s a hostage situation in here,” Carly said from beside him. “They have to be prepared to negotiate.”

  It suddenly occurred to Jax that Stratch still had his walkie-talkie. He grabbed it from the private’s belt and hit the button.

  “Mayday mayday mayday!” he hissed into the mic. “This is Booth! They have my girl hostage, repeat, my girl is a hostage in the Schriever situation! Approach with extreme caution and be prepared for negotiations!”

  He waited but there was no response. Inside the building, everyone seemed to be holding their breath. Even Malcolm simply stood there, holding a struggling Hayley in place and panting with exertion. They all seemed to be waiting to see how the army would deal with them. Jax had no doubt some of them were praying that they would have a future. He had no idea what Archer’s punishment for treason would be in this new republic, but he was sure Roth wasn’t in any hurry to find out. The man seemed to be searching for a window to jump out of.

  “Still radio silence,” said Ruben. “What the hell?”

  Jax scowled. “Maybe we should tell them there’s only one armed hostile left.”

  “Guys,” said Carly.

  “If they didn’t answer the first time, what makes you think they’ll answer a second?”

  “Guys.”

  “Have to try. Whatever it takes to keep them from startling Malcolm.”

  “Guys!”

  They turned to Carly and saw what she was seeing through the open door of the office. The three troop transports were closer now: low and wide, with three six-foot wheels and an M61 Vulcan 20-millimeter rotary cannon capable of firing a hundred rounds per second on each side. Each had a half-dozen roof-mounted Hydra 250 rockets capable of blowing through several feet of concrete. The vehicles were nicknamed Gargoyles and, in short, they were hell on wheels.

  And they weren’t stopping.

  “What the fuck…” Ruben breathed.

  Carly gripped Jax’s shoulder. “What are they doing?”

  Jax waited for the blanket of calm that always enveloped him in combat and, again, it didn’t come. But his mind didn’t fail him: He was calculating at the speed of light, running scenarios, weighing odds and risks.

  The answer came to him a fraction of a second before the chaos started—an answer that would have horrified him if he’d had time to think about it. But he didn’t, and that likely saved all their lives.

  Jax grabbed Ruben and Carly by their collars and yanked them forward with the momentum of his sprint. Stratch stood directly in front of him and was tackled along with them as Jax’s legs pumped like pistons, pulling them forward and down as the Hydra 250 left its tube on the top of the lead Gargoyle and rocketed its way to the wall where they had been standing only moments earlier.

  As they moved forward and down, back to the floor yet again, Jax caught sight of Hayley struggling against Malcolm. Brave little Hayley, kicking at the kid’s shins and raking his hand with her nails. His mind formed a quick, intense prayer that wasn’t in the form of words, but the gist of it was this: If there’s anyone listening, please let her live. If she can’t live, please make it quick.

  Then the world blew up. Jax felt the Hydra’s impact as pressure against his eardrums rather than actual sound. Behind them, chunks of concrete imploded into the room with enough force to drive him and his companions forward several inches along the surface of the floor. Jax felt a vague tearing sensation in his left calf but ignored it as he waited two beats before staggering to his feet.

  He knew the Gargoyle’s crew would wait a handful of seconds to assess the damage before attacking again. He had only that much time to get Hayley out of the line of fire. As he stumbled forward, he could see them as shadows through the smoke and concrete dust. Malcolm was getting to his feet, still gripping her shirt in his fist.

  Jax could make out more detail as he got closer: Both of them were covered in dust and blood, but the barbed wire around his guts loosened when he saw Hayley move and heard her cough. Malcolm was working hard to keep his footing, but still he wouldn’t let the girl go. And the SIG was still in his other hand.

  A dozen yards away, the remainder of Roth’s men were in various stages of dealing with the Hydra’s effects. They were lucky they had been as far from the wall as they were when the rocket hit, but some still sported bleeding wounds. Roth himself was nowhere to be seen.

  Jax registered all of this in less than a heartbeat. He also saw that Malcolm still hadn’t fully regained his equilibrium, and that was his opening. He reached out and gr
abbed Hayley’s arm, pulling her toward him until she was like a tug-o-war rope between the two of them. As he did, an exquisite jolt of pain rode through his calf like lightning and Jax dropped to one knee, leaving him with no leverage.

  The dust and smoke cleared enough for Jax to see the kid’s eyes: they swam and rolled in a way that made Jax think of the time he was a teenager back in Texas and had to rescue a cow that had been trapped in mud by a flash flood. It was mad panic.

  “Let go of her!” he shouted with a desperation he’d never known before. “It’s over! She can’t help you anymore!”

  “Then what good is she?” he asked blandly. He gave one final tug to pull her closer to him and jammed the barrel of the SIG into the hollow at the back of her skull.

  The sound of the shot hit Jax like a spear to his heart.

  Chapter 28

  Malcolm spun forward and to his left as the slug tore through his scapula and exited through the front of his deltoid muscle in a shower of blood, bone and cartilage. Hayley screamed as some of it landed in her hair. Jax thought absently that he’d never heard such a wonderful sound in his life.

  The kid’s now useless left hand finally let go of the girl and Jax pushed himself upright with his one good leg. As he grabbed Hayley, he saw Roth swaying some fifty feet beyond them, the stock of the AR-15 he’d shot Malcolm with still propped in his shoulder. All of it had taken place in the space of less than five seconds.

  Jax limped with Hayley toward a steel storage bin that was the only solid shelter they could reach. He knew what was coming next, even if the others didn’t. Meanwhile, Malcolm had managed to right himself and was slowly raising the SIG in Roth’s direction. The last sight Jax saw before he pulled Hayley to him and curled the two of them into a ball was the kid’s bloody teeth grinning like a jack-o-lantern’s.

  “Toldja we shoulda taken the fight to them,” he gurgled before Roth’s next shot took his head off his shoulders.

  Now that he was facing the wall again, Jax could see what he knew was coming. The Gargoyle had moved closer and was now less than twenty yards from the hole the Hyrda had blown in the wall. Now the matching pair of Vulcans were staring at them like cold eyes in the smoke and dust.