Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(53)

Everybody heard it explode seconds later.

"I need another rocket," Opal shouted at me.

"It's in there, just fire," I shouted back over the truck's roar. The remaining helicopter fired its rockets at us; Opal fired at them at the same time. I had to disarm the ones aimed at us while they were flying toward us. Opal hit her target; the helicopter exploded in a fireball behind us as its disarmed missiles hit the back of our truck with a huge, metallic clank. The truck careened and fishtailed from the impact, tossing up clouds of dirt and mud; Rafe braked and manhandled the steering wheel, trying to keep the vehicle on the road after we'd been hit.

The canvas cover on the back of the truck was now in shreds, with strips of cloth flapping noisily behind us as Rafe righted the vehicle and hit the gas. I'm sure he was mentally telling Maye ahead of us to drive faster; he had no desire for more helicopters to show up.

By the time we neared the entrance to the park, we met the police on their way up. Thankfully, some of ours had been dispatched with them. Poor Nathan Cross was having a breakdown in the back seat, so Richard and I went to tend him.

*

Notes-Colonel Hunter

"These photographs of the area are all we have-this site was bombed shortly after our people got there." I handed the tablet with the images pulled up to Madam President.

"What about your people?"

"Barely got away," I said. "They found bombs on their vehicles; they disarmed those and drove away, only to be attacked by two helicopters before they could get out of the park."

"Then what?"

"Luckily, they had a rocket launcher with them," I said. That was true-but they hadn't started out with one. Corinne had seen to that; Opal had fired the weapon, bringing down both helicopters. Corinne also made sure the rockets fired at them didn't explode-both landed in the back of their truck. I didn't mention the damage to the vehicle from that impact-the President looked worried enough as it was.

Those unexploded rockets and the bombs attached to the trucks were given to Captain Finch later, so he and his team could determine their origin.

To say Finch wasn't happy would be putting it mildly. His Lieutenant-Nathan Cross-hadn't recalled much of what happened. Richard, posing as a medic for the group, said it was possibly due to the shock waves from the first blast. He said Lieutenant Cross had been closest to it and was knocked down, hitting his head.

He had bruises and swelling, that much was true. I just hoped the enemy didn't become suspicious over their miraculous survival.

"Where are they now?" Madam President asked, handing the tablet back to me. "Your people?"

"Back in San Cristobal, but they may be in danger, staying there. The police are still asking questions, and they have their experts swarming over the helicopter wreckage. I'm worried the Secretary of State may have to get involved to get them out of the country again. They're refusing to let them investigate further, until they resolve this mess."

"Which could take a while," Madam President sighed. "Go ahead, get Chuck Marshall involved. If the locals don't want them to investigate further, then we'll pull them out."

"Thank you, Madam President."

The call from Matt Michaels came not long after I left the White House. "What do you have?" I asked.

"The rocket shells are old and pretty battered-they look like leftovers from World War II," he said.

"Somebody sold old warheads? No wonder these didn't explode," I snapped.

"No, that's not it," he said. "The outer shells are probably that. What's inside is another story."

"What did they put in there?" I stopped walking for a moment.

"Newer technology," Matt said. "We haven't identified it, yet. Hell-my team hasn't seen anything like it before."

"Nothing to tie it to the Russians?"

"Not yet. We're working on that. Any word on getting yours out of there?"

"I have to see Chuck Marshall about that-the locals are still trying to make some connection to them for all this, when they were the ones attacked."

"If Chuck doesn't have any luck at this, let me know. I may have a trick or two up my sleeve."

He and I were dancing around the fact that Corinne had already played as much of her hand as it was safe to play-we didn't need them disappearing into thin air. "I'll take anything, as long as it doesn't land us in hot water," I agreed.

*

Corinne

Since Nathan had been a member of our party, Finch instructed him to stay with us until the locals were done with their investigation. From what I'd seen already, that could take a while.

It made me wonder, too, how long it would take the enemy to bribe or coerce the locals into giving them our information. They knew where we were, after all.

Since we couldn't leave the country and had been advised to stay close to our quarters by an angry Captain Finch, I turned my attention to Merle Askins and the Joint Chiefs. There had to be a way to implicate them instead of Auggie, but so far, I didn't know what that was.

Rafe found me on the back porch three mornings after our narrow escape in Chingaza, soaking up sunlight and pondering Merle Askins' ability to always slip away from any blame.

"Cabbage," he leaned down to kiss me.