Author's note. I don't know if it is necessary to keep saying this, but I don't know Chuck.
Although they didn't know exactly what Chuck meant, the gist of it was clear. There was no time to lose. They had to get Alex out through the wall and into the van. The entire time Alex hadn't said a word. Not when Casey took off the gag, not while they hugged, not when Sarah and Chuck came in, and not when Sarah examined her for any cuts, sprains, breaks or tracking devices. Nothing. She just kept looking through the windows, or at them. The last of the blood was still slowly running down the window, turning a darker red, then brown as it dried.
Casey placed his hand on her back and said, "Come on Alex, Morgan is waiting for you." She didn't move right away; she just continued to looking at the windows. Finally she spoke, "Umm... dad?"
"Yes Alex," he leaned in to hear her better.
"There's more coming."
Chuck and Sarah moved to the door to see a crowd gathering outside the gate through the gate house windows. They could hear an engine rev as the driver of an old Mazda pickup truck pushed the front of the truck against door. They turned to tell Casey to get her out, but he was already gone. The shattering of the wooden door caught Sarah and Chuck's attention again. "Chuck, cover their exit, I'll draw attention for a minute so everyone can load the van."
Chuck followed Casey and Alex through the wall. Morgan was coming out of the church with the nearly empty bags and threw them into the van. Andrew, the driver, was nowhere to be found, but some of the children heard the shots and had come over toward the church to see what was going on. Jonathan had heard the shots too and was heading to the church in front of the children. Sarah's voice over the comm alerted Morgan that more men were on the way, so when Jonathan reached him he said, "Jonathan, ah hey, look. I'm sorry about the noise. It's probably just some Chinese fireworks or something." Jonathan didn't look convinced, or pleased. "But umm, just in case, ah... maybe school should be out for today."
"I am going to help the teachers get these children on their way home, but I would really appreciate a minute with all of you after so I may understand exactly what is going on here."
"Well, here's the thing Jonathan, we're going have to take a rain-check on that pow wow buddy."
"A what? on what?"
"Yea, ah... hey, you get the kids tucked away and come on back, okay."
Casey was helping Alex through the split in the fence and rushing her to the van. Jonathan saw this, then turned to help evacuate the students. He was fairly certain 'evacuate' was the right word here.
Alex ran to Morgan and knocked him off balance and back into the side of the van. She sobbed heavily onto his shoulder. "It's okay now Alex, but we kinda have to get going," he spoke softly into her ear.
"Tell me you didn't shoot anyone to get me out of here," she answered back into his ear.
"What? Me? Of course not. You think they give me live ammunition? No, all I've got is this dart gun." He pulled his jacket back to show her the butt of the gun.
"I'm so glad Morgan." She continued to cling to him as he moved her to the side door of the van and helped her into the row of seats in the back. The flipped the middle seat back in place and Casey climbed in next.
"You have that map memorized, right Grimes?"
"Yes sir."
Chuck came through the wall next. Kids were scurrying everywhere, but most of them where moving toward the gates that led out. They were wide open now as most of the kids piled through them. They tried to avoid a panic, but the teachers did their best to impart a sense of urgency as they gave directions. Many of the older children could remember the riots after the election of 2008 so they were no strangers to gunfire or masses of people pushing to escape danger - real or imagined. Compared to that nightmare, this was as routine as a fire drill.
A few children stayed behind to see what was causing all of the commotion. They slipped through the web of the teachers who were herding them to the exit. As Chuck reached the van, Morgan was already in the driver's seat and using Sarah's key to start it.
"Hold on just second buddy. We have one more passenger to pick up."
"Yea, Sarah. Of course.
Sarah grabbed the chair Alex's captors tied her to and took it outside. The pickup truck, filled with seven or eight armed guards, just came to a rest in the courtyard and men were fanning out to either side. Sarah placed the chair against the wall and used it to help her reach the roof of the low grey building. From atop the building, Sarah looked for easy targets. One guard, slow to get out of the bed of the truck was her first. Then the last man into the building on her right. Two men inside the building on her left saw her on the roof and started shooting at her. She didn't have a clear shot so she crouched and made her way across the roof as shots issued from her left. A few more steps to her right and she had the angle she wanted. Two shots from her silenced K100 brought an end to their gunfire. When she reached the edge of the roof four men rushed toward her from the doorway of the building on her right. She shot the first two men then leapt to the ground. The remaining two raised their guns as they continued to charge forward. Sarah slid though the breach in the wall while the guards shot all around the opening.
The next few seconds happened for Sarah in incredibly vivid slow motion. It started with her looking to see if the van was still parked in front of the church. It was. As she started to turn her head back to the wall she caught a hint of yellow out of the corner of her eye. She looked back toward the center of the Salvation Army camp and she saw Margaret. Margaret's smile of recognition disappeared as soon as she noticed the gun in Sarah's right hand. Margaret's eyes widened and she turned to run away. As she did, she tripped and fell. Sarah, hearing more shots from the guards who were now almost to the breach in the wall, spun on them and fired into the gap. She saw one man fall and the other turn to run away. She took two steps closer to the opening, brought her left hand up to steady her aim, and shot the fleeing guard in the back.
Turning back to head for the van, Sarah couldn't help but look to Margaret. She had witnessed the entire event. The little girl shrieked, eyes wide and filled with tears. Clawing at the ground and kicking her feet, she finally got up and ran hysterically away from Sarah. Sarah just stood there, arms at her side as she watched the beautiful little girl in the yellow dress run in terror away from her.
Sarah opened the front passenger door of the van and stepped in. "Let's go Morgan."
As Morgan took the van through the ocean of children moving through the gate, Jonathan, Andrew and the two teachers just stood, expressionless and motionless. Sarah refused to meet their gaze as the van left the Salvation Army camp. Chuck put his hand on Sarah's shoulder. She spun around and her expressionless eyes met his. He raised his eyebrows, removed his hand and slowly leaned back into his seat. She returned to face the front.
"Hold tight kids, this isn't over yet." Casey surveyed the area. He had seen enough insurgencies to recognize when the population was mobilizing. Men and women ran behind the rows of houses that lined the road. Some of them ran back deeper into the slum, but most of them were running ahead. "See all of those people running up the hill ahead of us?" Casey pointed for Chuck, "Well, chances are most of them are tied into Larry's network. With Larry dead, someone will have to fill the void. There," pointing again, "are your leading candidates. The one that takes out this van - the new leader."
Sarah dug into her bag for the map. She had five different areas labeled with circled letters. "I've uploaded copies of this map to all our mobile devices. We may have to separate. When we do, you can identify your position by referring to one of the circled locations. Alex doesn't have a cell, so we need to make sure someone has eyes on her at all times." The van climbed the hill more and more slowly as the crowd grew. "At the top of this hill there is a 'T' in the road. Chuck and I will get out there. Morgan, you get this van to rendezvous point C - it's the City Market in downtown Nairobi. Chuck and I should be able to make it there on foot."
"Okay, or here's an idea, why don't we all just stay in the van and hope people just get out of the way?" Chuck offered.
"You heard Casey. Look outside," the crowd looked much more like a mob now. The top of the hill was clearly visible. The street was packed with men bouncing up and down in unison. While Chuck didn't understand Swahili, the chant sounded particularly militant. "We need to draw them away so Morgan has a chance. Casey, no matter what things look like for us, don't shoot. They overtake this van and the mission is a wash. With any luck, we'll look like easy prey and they will forget about the van."
"We'll just look like easy prey, right? I mean, you have some plan that will make us not actually be easy prey, don't you?" Chuck asked.
"Of course I do," Sarah sounded confident. If Chuck were convinced she actually had a plan, he would have asked for specifics. He didn't.
As the van reached the intersection, it was slowing to a crawl. If Morgan was going to continue forward, he would have to begin running people over. Sarah climbed between the front seats in order to join Chuck and Casey in back. People were beginning to bang on the windows and shout. The van started to rock as it inched forward. "Casey, Chuck, help me with the roof. On my count we need to release the latches and lift it up," Sarah had already reached up and flipped the middle two handles. "Casey, you get the back two. Chuck and I will get the two in front and slide out on top of the cab. As soon as our legs are clear," she was shouting now so Casey could hear her, "lock it up."
"Affirmative," Casey barked back. Alex was curled up and hunched down in the back seat now. Casey looked down at her and saw the locket still around her neck.
"Now!" Chuck flashed, the lightning speeding back through his brain again. In unison, he and Sarah flipped open the latches and sprung up onto the cab on the van. The roof fell back into place as hands reached up to grab Chuck and Sarah's ankles. "This way," Sarah said.
With that, she jumped from the top of the van aiming for the roof of a shack about three feet away. A hand had light hold of her ankle, just enough to send her, off balance, face first into the roof. Her head, shoulders and arms were above the roofline, but her torso hung below. People in the crowd began clearing the ditch that ran along the road to go after the blond woman. Chuck took one step and covered the three foot gap with ease. He reached down and pulled Sarah up. She kicked two people loose as he pulled. A cut had opened on her head that ran from the outside corner of her right eye back to her ear where she hit the edge of the corrugated metal roof.
Once to her feet Sarah opened fire on the crowd with one of her two tranq guns. She put down three rioters. This detered some of the people in the crowd and they began to back away, but most of the mob continued to chant and bounce in unison, advancing to either side of the shack. She ran along roof up the hill. The small shacks were built one right next to the other and the roofs formed an elevated pathway that would allow them easy access to the intersection.
Sarah holstered the tranq gun, pulled out her K100 and unscrewed the silencer. About this time Chuck really wished he asked for more details about the plan, because right now all he was doing was running behind Sarah and hoping for the best. When she crossed onto the roof of the house at the corner of the "T" she stopped, pointed the pistol toward the intersection and paused. Chuck ran up behind her. One of the rioters had climbed up on the building just behind them. Chuck turned and used a roundhouse kick to send him back down into the crowd.
Chuck heard two loud shots and turned to see Sarah, with gun raised above her head shooting into the air. She lowered it again. Chuck flashed the shouted "Kukimba!" toward the crowd. Sarah shot into the intersection - three rounds. All of them striking the ground. The resolve of many in the crowd seemed to wane as people began to back away. Taking advantage of the momentum, Sarah ran two steps and soared, right foot leading, down into the crowd. "This must be the plan," Chuck said under his breath as he too dove into the crowd. Before he left the roof Chuck did notice that the van had made it through the intersection, turned left, and was slowly picking up speed down the road. The faster the van went, the more hesitant people were to try and step in front of it.
Chuck landed near Sarah and they were fighting back to back, taking on one, two, three attackers at once. Each new hand that grasped at one of his arms or legs was met by a parry and a counter. A hand went for Chuck's tranq gun on his right hip. Chuck grabbed the hand at the wrist with his left hand, pulled the man's arm across his body and drove his right elbow deep into the mans side. Ribs cracked and the man fell. Chuck brought his right arm forward and drove an open palm up and into the chin of a man directly in front of him.
As the fought, Chuck worked to stay next to Sarah. She seemed to be making her way across the street to the row of houses at the top of the "T". She delivered kicks to the knees, groin, stomach, followed by punches to the throat and eye gouges.
Chuck glanced back at Sarah every few seconds. Her chest heaved as her breathing got harder and harder. He was also having more and more difficulty getting air as he continued to take on attacker after attacker.
They were about four feet away from the doorway of a shack when Chuck turned to see Sarah trying to free herself from a man who had her around the neck from behind. Another man advanced on her from the front, but a sharp kick sent him reeling. Chuck could see Sarah weakening. She began to reach for her pistol. Chuck delivered a snap kick with his right foot to an attacker in front of him, returned to a stance, then drove his left foot backwards and down hard onto the right leg of the man choking Sarah. Then Chuck spun around to his left and continued through with his right hand into the man's right kidney. The attacker collapsed to the ground.
Chuck grabbed Sarah by the waist and shoved her into the doorway in front of them. Chuck dispatched two more attackers and followed Sarah into the small building. A mother and two young children sat huddled in the far corner of the ten by ten room. A small iron wood stove stood in the middle of the room and two small benches and several straw mats completed furnishings. The mother held out a kitchen knife and thrust it toward Sarah and Chuck. Men from the crowd outside stomped cautiously toward the doorway shouting fiercely, but they stopped short of actually entering the room. Sarah rested against the wall for a few seconds. Sweat had soaked through her blouse under the dark windbreaker and strings of wet hair ringed her face. She eyed a window on the back wall then looked back to Chuck. "Ready?"
Three strides, the she dove head first through the glassless window. Chuck climbed through the window after her. The crowd had not yet poured to the back of this row of houses. To get here, they would have to go all the way down to the end of the 'block' about sixty feet in either direction and then converge. This would buy them the time they would need to run to the wall that separated Kibera from some fairly upscale condominiums.
The closer they got to the wall the taller it looked as Chuck and Sarah weaved toward it through the maze hovels. It was soon clear that it would be nearly impossible to scale the wall with a mob of attackers in pursuit. Sarah cleared the last row of houses and came to a short patch of grass between her and the wall. Looking left, she spotted a large culvert about forty yards away. She sprinted for it, Chuck right behind her. At ten feet, she spotted two men with ax handles standing guard in front of the opening. As if by reflex, she drew her .9mm and dropped them with one shot each.
Chuck stopped, staring at the two dead men. "You coming?" Sarah said as she crouched down and entered the five foot high culvert.