Deadly Descent (20 page)

The SEAL squad leader squinted up at the sky when the first bang reverberated through the mountain air.
“Ah, shit.
That’s not good.”

Ryan couldn’t answer the soft observation.
He was too busy staring in horror through his binoculars at the smoke coming from Devon’s damaged aircraft.
He’d recognized her voice over the radio.
The hidden enemy they’d been after were no doubt gleefully following the wounded bird in hopes of getting to the crash site and finishing off any survivors.
Goddammit, he hadn’t warned her in time.

His hands clenched around the binos.
There was fuck all he could do to help her at this distance, and any air support he called in would show up too late.
He flinched and held his breath when another round narrowly missed the fuselage.
He could hear the stress in Dev and the co-pilot’s voices over the radio, and could see the return fire coming from the open bay doors.
Just when he thought she’d cleared the worst of the fire, a sharp bang made him freeze in place.
Staring through the lenses, he saw a round had hit the engine housing.
A tall plume of black smoke spewed from it.
The Hawk began to drop.
Ah, fuck, Devon…

The co-pilot called in a Mayday.
Another round exploded.
More smoke, but this time the bird clipped the cliff face and went into a deadly spin as it hurtled forward, plunging toward the ground.
“Shit,” he breathed, snatching up his radio with one hand, the other holding his binoculars in place.
He was too far away to hear the impact, but thank God he didn’t see an answering fireball.
Just more coal black smoke that would draw every militant brandishing an AK and RPG for miles around.
He couldn’t lose visual on the crash site.
Maybe they had survived.

Knowing it was Devon’s bird almost paralyzed him.
He’d heard every word she’d said on the radio.
Ripping his radio out, he switched to the ops center frequency.
“Wizard one, be advised, Angel one-niner is down.
I repeat, Angel one-niner is down.
Deploy search and rescue.” Checking his map, he relayed the site’s coordinates.
The co-pilot hadn’t gotten the location out before they hit.

“Roger that, Stingray.
Requesting CSAR now.”

He switched to another frequency, shocked by how unsteady his hands were as he turned the knob.
Jesus, he couldn’t get past the knowledge he’d just watched a good friend go down to enemy fire.
“Angel one-niner, do you read?” He waited a beat, but only static came back.
“Spike, do you read?” Nothing but dead air.
Heart in his throat, he glanced over at the SEAL platoon commander who had hunkered down beside him.
“No response.
I can’t tell if there are any survivors.” From the looks of the crash, he had to accept the fact that everyone on board was most likely dead, or dying.

“Let’s get in there then,” the SEAL said, motioning for his men to move out.
“Any survivors won’t last long without help.” He radioed the ops center about their intentions.

Ryan hurriedly packed up his gear and hoisted his ruck into position, then fell into line with the SEALs.
Jesus, Cam was probably en route back to link up with them right now.
How the hell was he going to tell him when he got back?
He pushed it from his mind.
He had one job now—to get to the crash site and protect it from the enemy.
The terrain was the shits, lots of rock formations and loose shale.
They were only two klicks from the downed Black Hawk, but God only knew how long it would take them to get into position.
Devon might be dead by then, if she wasn’t already.

Just move.
Get in there and do your damn job.

Even if Devon was already gone, he would get her out of there.
No matter what happened, he and Cam would get her home again, just like they had Ty.

Cam was re-packing his gear at Bagram when Jackson walked in.

“You taking everything this time?”

“I lightened my load some.” Jettisoning unnecessary weight now would be a godsend once the chopper put them in the mountains.
He considered pulling out the chicken plates in his body armor.
They added another twenty pounds.
Did he really need to lug that around on top of his weapons, ammo and med ruck?
He looked up at Jackson, thinking of Ty.
They might have saved him if he’d been wearing them.
“You got your plates in?”

“Yeah, but I was gonna lose ‘em.”

“Leave them on.” He added more packs of Ringer’s fluid just in case.
It was going to be a bitch carrying that load at higher altitude, but he’d just have to suck it up.

A grim-faced lieutenant came running up to them.
“Medevac was just shot down in the mountains,” the man said quickly.
“Your team in the field is moving there now.”

Cam shot to his feet, dragging his bulging med ruck off the floor.
His legs and back strained under the weight as he followed the officer at a run beside Jackson.
“Chinook?”

“No.
Black Hawk.”

A bolt of fear hit him square in the heart.
Jesus Christ, it wasn’t Devon, was it?
He exchanged a look with Jackson, and the other man’s eyes were grave.

As his boots pounded over the asphalt, he ordered himself to calm down.
There were lots of H-60 pilots that flew medevac.
Didn’t mean it was her.

The sick feeling in his stomach said differently.

Someone rushed up with a fistful of print-outs and shoved them at him.
“No word from the crew,” the man reported.
“Two pilots, crew chief, two medics and four patients aboard.
Enemy’s moving in fast.”

His mind whirled as he studied the maps and intel reports.
“Who was the pilot?”

“Not sure, sir.
Here’s the crew authentication info.”

He grabbed them and kept running because he didn’t want to look until he was on the bird.
No communication didn’t mean they were dead, he told himself.
Maybe the radios had been damaged in the crash.
“How long until the team reaches them?”

“Unknown at this time.
SEAL platoon is en route to the crash site, and their CCT with them.
He’s already called in for air support to be on station in the area.”

Thank God
.
If there were survivors, Ryan’s air-to-ground fire would keep the enemy at bay until the ground forces could get there to establish a secure perimeter.
“Where are we inserting?”

“You’re linking back up with the team en route, then going in to secure the area.”

“Roger that.” On their way to the bird Jackson grabbed a cooler full of whole blood, and together they ran out to the Chinook waiting on the tarmac.

They climbed aboard and Cam recognized Liam’s face staring back at him from the cockpit.
His visor was up, and the somber expression on his face said it all.

It was Devon’s bird.

Cam’s heart dropped into his stomach then started hammering wildly.
Jesus
.
He plugged his cord into the ICS to hear what was going on up front.
“How far out are we?”

“Eighteen minutes, once we’re airborne,” Liam answered.
“I’ve been in contact with your ground team through the ops center.”

Cam bit back a sharp command to tell him to get moving and sat his ass down to go over the charts and maps with his fellow PJ.
The topo map showed the crash site to be a shallow canyon, with the surrounding terrain undulating as it approached the foothills.
No good place for a Chinook to put down nearby.
They’d either have to fast-rope in at the site, or land several klicks away and hump it in.
From the sounds of it, the crew didn’t have that kind of time to wait around for them.
They were going to have to go in right at the site and hope like hell the Air Force gunships Ryan called in had taken care of the enemy forces that were no doubt swarming down on the area.

“Any contact with the crew yet?” he shouted over the noise of the huge rotors.
He found a pair of earphones and pulled them on.

“Negative,” Liam responded over the ICS.
“You boys ready back there?”

She’s not dead.
She can’t be dead
.
“Yeah, let’s go.”

The radio crackled with communications between the pilots, tower and TOC, and finally the Chinook lifted its huge body off the ground.
Cam planned the upcoming mission with Jackson and checked his weapons and equipment, but he couldn’t bury his unrelenting fear for Devon.
“Any details about the crash?” he asked Liam.

“They went down hard, but there was no explosion.”

Okay.
No explosion was good.
But was she injured?
Too far gone to make radio contact?
“We picking the others up en route?”

“Negative,” Liam answered.
“The higher powers want you guys going in on foot to avoid another shoot down until the enemy is cleared away.”

Ah, Christ.
Humping the few klicks to the crash site in that terrain was going to cost Devon and the others time they didn’t have.
He didn’t want to have to pull her dead body from the wreckage.
He couldn’t handle that.

Shoving aside all the negative thoughts that kept trying to burst through his concentration, he took out the crew authentication cards.
Memorizing them with Jackson, he pictured her beautiful smile in his mind.
Hang on, Dev.
I’m coming for you.

The flight seemed to take forever, especially with the sun up.
Liam made several fake landings to try and fool any enemy forces watching from the ground.
They’d either think they had dozens of soldiers going in, or at least be confused about the exact point where they’d inserted.

“Okay boys, this is it,” Liam announced.
The bird descended with a throaty roar, the rotors kicking up dust and snow in a blinding cloud.
One of the crew chiefs got the rope ready and as soon as the tail ramp began to drop, he tossed it out the back.
“Good to go,” Liam said.
“Go bring her home.”

“Will do.” Cam gripped the rope between his gloved hands and boots and slid to the ground.
As soon as his feet touched the earth he raised his rifle and rushed to take cover beside a boulder, waiting for Jackson to join him.
When the Chinook took off in a cloud of dirty snow, they radioed the rest of the team.
He checked the map one last time and keyed his radio.
“Moving to intercept you now.”

He spotted the column of smoke rising in the distance that marked the downed Black Hawk.
Dev
.
He was worried as hell, but he couldn’t dwell on that now.
They were in enemy infested territory and he had to stay sharp.
He thanked God he had Jackson with him to watch his back.
The unnatural stillness made him uneasy.
They followed the bearings he’d taken with his compass, moving north-northwest.
The terrain was goddamn awful.
All rocks and outcroppings that took precious time climbing over and working around.

He was already sweating underneath all his layers when his headset crackled to life.
“We’ve got a visual of you.”

“Copy that.” They kept walking until one of the SEALs appeared beside a group of boulders.

“Hey.
Glad you guys could make it.”

Yeah, he was sure they were thrilled about having to wait and link up with a couple of PJs when they had their own medic.
Well too bad, because with the number of wounded they were looking at, the SEALs were going to need a hand.
And he was going after Devon no matter what.

He found Ryan at the rear of the group and caught his eye.
“Hear anything from her?”

“Not yet.” His face was grave.
“We’ll get her, though.”

Cam nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“Her?” the SEAL platoon leader asked.

“Yeah,” Ryan answered.
“The dedicated chick that came to see us off?
She’s the downed command pilot.”

The other man turned to Cam.
“Shit man.
That sucks.”

I fucking know it.

Without slowing his stride, the SEAL looked over his shoulder at all of them.
“Let’s get moving.
We’re burning daylight.”