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The helicopter sped over the forest, the bottom of the bird less than fifty feet above the treetops. Shea kept them low to minimize the odds of them being spotted from miles out. He had them moving at a fast clip, knowing time wasn’t on their side.
Everyone else sat in the back, facing each other.
The early evening sun glinted off the windshield.
Within an hour, night would arrive.
The entire flight only took thirty minutes as the theme park was less than fifty miles away by air. Driving there would have taken significantly longer and made the mission nearly impossible to pull off before the men from Washington arrived and took over.
They found a small field in the middle of the forest that they’d determined would be a good place to land before they’d left the Psych Ward. Shea put them down in a hurry and killed the engine. The team hopped out and moved twenty yards away. They congregated in a small circle as they all performed a final check of their weapons.
“We’re all gonna fry for this.” Briggs pulled the black ski mask down over his face. “We mighta got a slap on the wrist for being involved with this outfit, but now we’re toast. Ain’t no way they’ll see this as anything other than treason.”
“Too late to turn back now,” Huxx said.
Bree struggled to maintain her composure. Just that morning, her primary concern was the result of an investigation into her shooting someone in the line of duty. Now she stood on the precipice of a lifelong stay in Guantanamo Bay. She’d gone from being a cop to being a traitor in the matter of a single day.
Only the knowledge that their actions were just kept her going.
“Asher is our golden ticket. If we get him back, we might get a reprieve.” Detective Lloyd lifted his M4 rifle to his shoulder. “He’s our best shot at getting out of this.”
“And we’re his,” Tate said. He eyed Lloyd. “You sure you’re up to this? That wrist of yours doesn’t look too strong.”
“I’m fine. Not that I have much of a choice.”
Huxx and Shea stood beside Bree, their attention fixed on the forest wall to their north. Neither said much as they rehashed their plan.
In the blueprints, Tate and Lloyd had zeroed in on the power lines running to the former amusement park. The plan they’d devised consisted of two of them cutting the power while the rest positioned themselves around the area where they believed the underground facility to be.
When the electricity went out, they would press forward as quickly as possible. There appeared to be backup generators in the plans, so Lloyd estimated they wouldn’t have long before they kicked in and the power came back on.
Getting inside and extracting Benson would be tricky. They didn’t know how many men Smith had or where they would have Benson imprisoned. All the dominoes would have to fall perfectly in place for them to pull the search-and-rescue mission off.
Bree didn’t feel too confident that everything would go smoothly.
But if anyone could accomplish such a task, it was the men surrounding her.
They were good. Damn good.
“Remember,” Lloyd said. “Take down any targets you see when I give the signal.”
Huxx motioned at the woods. “We need to move. If they saw us land, they’ll be on us in a hurry.”
“We’ll meet you there soon as we can.” Briggs looked to Lloyd. “Ready for this?”
Lloyd clicked the safety off his rifle. “Payback time.”
The two of them set off to the west, running at a fast jog. Because the odds of them encountering resistance at the point where they planned to cut the power lines were low, the decision had been made to only send two of them.
The other four would head straight for the amusement park and search for targets. After they were in place and ready to fire, Lloyd would cut the lights, and it would be go time. The rest of the team would eliminate the hostiles they’d targeted. Those first shots would bring the cavalry down upon them.
Bree’s rifle in particular would reverb through the grounds when she fired. It wouldn’t be long after she popped off a few rounds that they would find her.
Tate jabbed two fingers to the north, and the four of them set off.
Bree brought up the rear of the group, focusing on her breathing. She needed to be calm and relaxed if she was to survive the next few minutes. Her shots had to be true, her nerves icy. There was little doubt that the resistance at the park would be worse than anything she’d ever encountered during her time with SWAT.
These weren’t strung-out crackheads they were taking down.
They found a deer trail and followed it, moving at a rapid pace. The helicopter sat roughly a mile outside of their objective. Getting there would be easy. Grabbing Benson and hoofing the mile back after a shootout was their biggest concern.
And they had to get the hell out of Dodge before the first drone strikes hit. Assuming that would even happen anyway. Nelson and Lloyd had made a lot of guesses about what the government would do when they found out what was happening. Their assumptions were educated, but they were assumptions nonetheless.
After several minutes of running, Tate dropped to a knee and motioned forward with his hand. The rest of the group knelt beside him. Bree brought her rifle up and scanned the forest through the scope.
With the daylight failing, it was difficult for her to spot much through the foliage and the shadows of the trees.
But then she spotted a small roof with missing shingles. She traced the edge of the building and saw a sign signaling that the structure used to be a restroom.
“Do you remember any of this?” Tate whispered to her.
“Not yet.” Bree shifted the rifle to the right. “There’s no telling how much of the place is still intact.”
“Shea, you’re with me.” Tate pointed to the left. “We’ll clear that first building. You two circle right and find a good vantage point.”
Without a word, Huxx moved quickly along the path. Bree got up and fell in line behind him. They moved in relative silence due to the worn-down nature of the deer trail.
“We’re almost in position,” Lloyd said in Bree’s earpiece.
“Hold,” Tate replied. “Advancing now.”
Huxx slowed as they approached the edge of a clearing. Just beyond the line of trees sat the remnants of an old ride. Dozens of rusted swings hung from an old, circular structure.
A vivid memory hit Bree as they angled behind it.
Her father had sat in one of the swings behind her, laughing as the machine lifted them off the ground and then spun them around in a wide circle. It was one of the first rides she could ever remember going on. Though it moved at a leisurely pace, she’d felt as if she were flying. She’d made her father take her on it twice in a row.
It also jogged a few memories about the layout of the park.
When Huxx stopped behind a large tree, she eased down beside him.
“The bumper cars will be straight ahead,” she whispered. “A roller coaster is further in.”
“And the Ferris wheel?”
“I think it’s off to the left, but I can’t quite remember.”
During their rapidly assembled plans, Drew had identified some wiring in the blueprints that mentioned a Ferris wheel. That seemed as good a place as any to focus the search for the underground facility.
“We’re going to move behind this ride, then wait. When the power goes out, we’ll fire on any hostiles we find. If we don’t see any, then we’ll hoof it to the roller coaster.” Huxx kept his attention forward as he whispered to her. “Signal to me if you see anyone. Don’t shoot until I’m in position, unless they don’t give you a choice.”
“Got it.” Bree squeezed the heavy rifle in her hands.
“Moving.” Huxx hustled to the swing ride and stopped at the base, hiding by the small control station.
Bree stopped beside him and took a knee. She peered around the side of the rusted ride.
The remnants of the old park had deteriorated immensely since Bree had last seen the place. Rust attacked the metal rides. Tall grass covered the small lawn areas where families used to sit and relax. The paved walkways had cracked, weeds poking their way through.
A refreshment stand was toppled over a dozen meters away, shards of glass littering the area around it. Peeling paint covered small food stands and mini-games, their treats and prizes long gone.
The bumper cars stood farther out, the inside bathed in heavy shadows.
Silence blanketed the area.
It didn’t seem like the location of an international terrorist ring.
As if reading her mind, Huxx said, “They’re here.”
“How can you tell?”
“Security camera on the corner of the spider ride.”
Bree leaned out a hair further and spotted a dirty, faded car attached to a long, metallic arm. More than twenty cars were attached to several arms, some of them close to the ground, others nearly twenty feet in the air. Bree remembered riding that one as it whirled around and thrust them up and down.
In the middle of the machine was a green cylinder that housed the engine and hydraulics. On the top right corner sat a small, black object. As she stared at it, the thing moved.
“How did you see that?” she asked.
“I see everything.”
Bree rolled her eyes. Huxx barely spoke and when he did, something smart-assed came out. Working around men all the time had its positives, but sometimes, she wanted to smack all of them upside their heads.
Huxx reached over her shoulder and pointed past her face. “See all the buildings? No graffiti. An abandoned place like this should be covered in it.”
The sides of the buildings, though weathered and deteriorating, didn’t have any of the spray-paint art usually found on the sides of abandoned buildings in cities. So much of Philadelphia’s rougher neighborhoods, where Bree had grown up and worked, were tagged to a staggering degree. Much of the street art was so well done that it had become a kind of minor tourist attraction.
“Ready,” Tate said in her ear.
Huxx grabbed his mic. “Ready.”
“We’re in position.” Lloyd paused a moment, rustling coming over their connection. “Go in five.”
Bree got to her feet, prepared herself for the sprint to come. With the power out, they hoped any security measures the facility had in place would go down. Depending on how high-end the backup generators were, they would only have a short amount of time to move forward.
The five-second wait had her heart racing.
“Moving.” Huxx ran forward, rifle up.
They sprinted toward the bumper cars, Huxx in the lead. Though they’d suffered through an incredibly long day, Bree felt no fatigue as she followed him. Adrenaline and fear coursed through her system, overriding everything else.
Her head turned on a swivel, surveying everything around them. Nothing moved. If Smith’s men really inhabited the former amusement park, then they didn’t bother with a large security force.
They ran past the fallen refreshment stand and ducked under a canopy of trees between rides. Huxx kept going, Bree hot on his heels.
When they reached the bumper-car building, Huxx put a hand on a small railing used for organizing the line of waiting riders and leaped over it. He plunged into the dark shadows and disappeared from Bree’s view.
She vaulted the railing with ease.
Dove into the darkness.
Her eyes adjusted and she spotted Huxx ducked behind a red bumper car. The antennae stretching to the ceiling was bent in the middle, the tip jutting sideways. Huxx aimed over the top of the car.
Bree dropped low when she saw him sighting something and slithered forward.
“Two men by the pirate ship,” Huxx whispered.
Following his aim, Bree picked out two men in gray suits about fifty meters away. They stood to the east of another ride, this one a large pirate ship that swung high into the sky when in operation. Each had an M4 slung over his shoulder, the barrels hanging freely by their hips.
Seeing the armed men made Bree’s stomach clench. Though she truly wanted to find and free Asher Benson, part of her had hoped that the early signs of Smith’s men were just misreadings on Huxx’s part. Knowing that another gunfight was imminent made her nauseated.
Bree raised her rifle, inspected the men through the scope.
Neither of them seemed to be alerted to anything suspicious. They spoke to each other casually, their bodies relaxed, eyes not scanning the park around them.
“They’re just shooting the shit,” Bree whispered.
Beyond them, stretching above the tree line, Bree saw the top of the Ferris wheel. One of the cars dangled from its station, appearing as if it could plummet to the earth at any moment. A spoke was missing underneath it. To get to there, they would have to either take out the guards or circle around them.
Further to their right, another hundred or so meters deeper into the park, sat the entrance to the roller coaster. It was an old, wooden ride that had creaked and rattled twenty years ago when Bree had last ridden on it. She couldn’t imagine the condition it would be in now.
“See the coaster?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“I think I’ll have a clear line of sight to the Ferris wheel from there.”
“You sure?”
“No, but what option is better?”
Huxx ground his teeth as he inspected the park around them. “That’ll have to do.”
“We have three hostiles by a Wild West section,” Tate said.
“Two by a pirate ship,” Huxx replied.
“We’re just now entering the park,” Drew huffed.
Bree remembered the Wild West attraction of Woodsland. It had a saloon, stable, jail, hotel, and general store. There used to be an odd attraction situated in the middle that you could walk through. The rooms were constructed in a way that canted everything at sharp angles, making you feel like you were going to fall over when you walked in. There were a few other buildings in there, but she couldn’t quite recall what they had been.
Huxx glanced behind them. “The camera is moving again. The generators have kicked in.”
Bree looked around the area before them, but she didn’t spot any other security equipment. There were so many hiding places around the park that she doubted they could spot all of them even if they spent an entire week searching.
“Lead the way.” Huxx glanced at Bree. “I’ll cover our six and keep an eye on those two. We’ll take them out when we get in position by the coaster.”
Bree took a deep breath through her nose.
Then she slinked her way through the bumper cars and exited the attraction.