Chapter 65

RPOV

As Santos and I placed a wooden box on the floor I heard the sound of faint footsteps above me. I stopped what Santos was doing while listening and then handed him the key. He knew if I did that, he had to open the box, remove the contents into a secure pouch inside my rucksack. As he was doing that, I watched unobserved, what was happening in the main room of the crypt. I immediately recognized Cal as he emerged and understood the sign that he gave me, we needed to to cut all communication. Steph was unaware that he was behind her until he held her tightly against him with a hand over her mouth to stop her screaming. As he did that, he shook his head and looked up the stairs. I'd stepped forward as he held onto Steph, hearing her flashlight fall to the ground then understanding what Cal expected of me I immediately vanished back into the shadows. It was pitch black now that all the lights had been turned off.

That heightened my hearing and I was aware of someone else coming down the steps. As they stepped from the last step I sprang forward, an arm around their neck and a hand braced around their head, my legs banded around his thighs as I took him down on the floor. He stopped struggling which surprised me, normally an enemy would fight against this hold. Santos stepped out and held a penlight to his face. What the hell was he doing here and how the fuck had my men let him get past them?
"Gannon what the hell are you doing here?"
"Major General Gregory told me to keep my eyes on Dempsey. He's headed this way. As soon as I realized where he was heading I made sure I got here first to warn you"
"How did you know to come here?"
"This was the only place that seemed logical, it's where Buckley's funeral was, so I made a guess"
"My men?"

I spoke with Tank when I arrived and he walked with me into the church. Hector suggested I came down and spoke with you but I think Cal was suspicious of me so he insisted on coming down first"

"Why would you think Dempsey is on his way here?"
"It looked like Dempsey sent some men ahead of him. Two cars pulled up outside just as I came into the church. I'd say they're waiting for Dempsey"

"Is it safe to go up?"
"Should be"

I took the rucksack from the floor and strapped it to my back and then nodded to Santos who retrieved the box.

"It was here then?"
I wasn't about to get into a conversation with Gannon about the box, we needed to get out of here safely.

"Cal, go first. Gannon follow, Santos you next. I'll bring Steph out ahead of me"

I watched as the men slowly and quietly started up the steps and then held onto Steph's shoulders to lead her ahead of me. I was literally against her back with my gun pointed over her shoulder. I was surprised that she had her gun drawn but pointed down to the floor. No doubt she didn't want to shoot anyone by mistake.

As we stepped from behind the portrait the three men were heading toward the door. The moon was full tonight and cast an eerie light through the windows making it possible to see where the rest of the men were. Hector was to the right of the door, I couldn't see Ram but knew that he would have tried to get access to the tower, to be able to see what was happening outside. I heard him come down some wooden stairs and walked forward to meet him.

"Report"
"Two black cars parked across the road. Looks like two occupants inside just sat waiting. Tank and Miguel have them covered front and back. Hal and Bobby are watching the side door"
"Hector comms?"

"We're on radio silence in case they can pick up our signal"

If the men outside were going to be waiting for Dempsey to arrive then we didn't have much time to move out.

"Hector watch the main door, Ram head back up the tower. We'll use the side entrance. Santos take Cal and Gannon and head for your car. Make your drop off"
"What about you and Beautiful?"
"We'll head around the back of the church and double back to our car"

I waited until my men were in position and then nodded to Santos to head toward the side of the church. As I thought, Gannon seemed intent on keeping Santos and the box in his sight. Once at the side door Cal led the other two men across and toward where Bobby and Hal were supposed to be positioned. As Santos made his exit through the door, I gave him a slight nod of my head. He would know that by carrying the box he would create the diversion away from me and Steph.

"You ready Babe?"
She nodded and held my hand firmly as we followed through the door. As the three men headed straight across the cemetery we veered to the right, along the side of the church and then continued toward the field where Zeph would pick us up. As we left the safety of the building, I pressed a button on my pad that would let Zeph know ETA was two minutes. I kept the pace at a reasonable speed so Steph could keep up and was relieved to hear the sound of the helicopter as we reached the open space of the field.

He came in low and fast meeting us as we crossed the field. "I'll hoist you in" was all I said as I literally lifted Steph up and pushed her through the open door. Once my feet were on the skids, Zeph started to lift away and from there I hoisted myself into the cabin with Steph pulling me up by my shoulders. I slid the door closed, bracing myself as we banked steeply turning away from the church and up into the air. The men below knew that as soon as the helicopter was airborne a signal would go out to evacuate the area and run interference for the car with Santos in.

As Steph sat down I could see that she was worried about something, she was frantically looking around until her eyes locked with mine.

"The box, Les has the box"
"He just has the box, I have the contents and the key"
"So they'll think Les has the programs"

"Yeah, just a distraction Babe"

I watched as Steph pulled a piece of paper from a pocket and as she handed it to me.

"These are the coordinates for where Zeph needs to fly"
"How did you get them?"
"Uncle Andrew sent them to my Dad who wrote them down"

"Keep your seat belt on tight, Zeph will be doing a lot of maneuvers to make sure we're not followed or tracked"

I left my seat and went up front, tapping Zeph on his shoulder.

"Coordinates"
"Ranger. Can you input them into the navigation system. I need to focus on staying below the radar"
I input the numbers into the unit and watched as it computed where we needed to be, surprised when it showed the rendezvous point as being somewhere in the Nevada desert. It gave the flight time, if we flew straight there, as being nearly six hours.

"Six hours on a direct path"

"Add on an hour, at the least, to throw anyone off us"
"You got enough fuel for that?"
"Yes, but I'll need to refuel for the flight back"
It was now 0300hrs so I headed back to sit with Steph. From the way her eyes were scrunched up I guessed she wasn't enjoying the flight. I sat next to her placing an arm around her and then unclasped her hands, placing one on my chest and holding the other.

"Just breathe slowly Babe"

"How long?"
"Five maybe six hours"
"Where are we heading to"
"Somewhere in the middle of the Nevada Desert"

"I didn't think, I mean I thought the place we were meeting would be closer"

"Zeph is an excellent pilot, relax"
"Yeah right"

Releasing her hand from mine I reclined both of our seats and then brought her head to lay on my shoulder. After about thirty minutes I could feel her relaxing pleased to see that she had fallen asleep. Half an hour later I felt she was deep in sleep so making sure she was comfortable with some pillows and a blanket that I found in one of the overhead lockers went up front to keep Zeph company. I had no idea who we were meeting and still felt uneasy as we made our way west, hopefully the transfer of the rucksack would be quick and easy, and we could be on our way. In some ways the retreival of the programs had gone surprisingly well, especially as we had Steph with us. Maybe secret to a successful job was making sure that she was totally involved in the planning.

As I watched the map on the navigation unit, and looked out across the horizon, I suddenly had an idea. Impulsive for me, but it felt right.