Chapter 11
"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon." – Napoleon Bonaparte
Rainbow was still on their high from the win they finally got two week ago when they managed to find and save the First Lady. Although it was the First Lady and not President it gave them new found hope that they would be able to do the same for the President. They knew that finding and saving the President was going to be harder work because that was the man that Dixon wanted so they knew she would put some thought into hiding and killing the man if the moment called for it.
As the days passed Kevin was proving to be a valuable asset. He was able to see things about Dixon that Henry and Lexie couldn't see. Even though Henry and Lexie knew Dixon better than he did, Dixon used that to her advantage. She led Henry and Lexie into a numerous amounts dead ends. Kevin however was able to see through her tricks and get the team one step closer to finding Dixon and the President.
The atmosphere was a little bit lighter, while Lexie, Henry and Kevin worked at finding the President the other members of Rainbow were slowing getting back to the way they used to be. The members of Alpha and Bravo team were starting to trash talk each other about who was the better team. The video game playing started to pick up as well. Tim, Nick and the others on Delta team we downstairs in central command trying their hand at Super Smash Brothers with the other teams while Lexie, Henry and Kevin worked quietly in the corner. An outsider looking in would find it unfair that the others get to goof around while Lexie, Henry and Kevin did all the hard work, but that was how Rainbow worked.
Lexie, Henry and Kevin were the brain of Rainbow. They pointed the others in the direction that they needed to go in, and they worked better and faster without the others because they did nothing but slow them down, and now was not the time to go slow.
While everyone was in central command Arizona found herself upstairs in mat room out of breath. "Stop being a baby and just do it." Arizona said hunched her over her knees with her hands on hips as she tried to catch her breath.
"No, I'm just going hurt you. I mean look at you, you are drenched in sweat, panting and you look tired after go to town on that punching bag." Callie paused for second. "Getting into a fight with me is just going to be a bad idea. I'll start nice and easy until something inside of me snaps and I feel that need to win and then all bets are off."
"Good," Arizona stood up straight. "Come at me," she waved to Callie.
"No," Callie crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head no.
"Fine," Arizona said under her breath before she lunged at Callie. She wrapped her arms around Callie's waist for a brief moment as she tried to push Callie on to the ground, but it didn't work. Arizona was too tired and weak, which gave Callie the upper hand in the spurring match that Arizona so desperately wanted.
Arizona tried to push Callie on to the mat, but Callie's feet stayed planted where they were. As Arizona tried to push Callie off balance, Callie grabbed Arizona's left arm and unwrapped it from her waist. When she fully had Arizona's left arm she used the last of Arizona's momentum to turn her around so Arizona's back was facing her. She managed to push Arizona on the floor with her left arm behind her twisted across her lower back while her right arm was trying to push herself off the mat.
Usually when spurring with Arizona, Callie avoided fighting with her on the floor because that was Arizona's strong suite, however, Arizona was weak and tired from working out for most of the day so she knew that there was very little that Arizona could do at the moment. As for her right arm, Callie wasn't worried too much about it because Arizona was ambidextrous and when it came to fighting her dominant side was her left side, which Callie had under control.
Callie leaned of over Arizona so her lips were inches away from Arizona's right ear. "See you're tired so this wouldn't be a fair fight. Because I know when I beat you, you'll bitch, you'll say you were tired and you had a lot on your mind, and blah blah." Callie whispered.
Callie started to smirk to herself when felt Arizona fight more to get out from under her. She knew if she started to get cocky with the young general it would cause her fight a little harder. Callie leaned over Arizona once more to say something, but when she opened her mouth she let out a loud groan when Arizona's right arm elbowed hit her right in side of her stomach. Her hand let go of Arizona's left arm as she grabbed the right side of her stomach.
Callie rolled off Arizona, which allowed Arizona to reverse rolls with Callie. Now it was Arizona who was on top, and Callie who was on the bottom. Arizona was about to grab on to Callie's wrist but Callie slipped out of Arizona's grip and wrapped her arms around Arizona's neck forcing her come closer to Callie. The elbow to stomach was a dirty move and if Arizona wanted to fight dirty than Callie would be more than happy to play dirty with Arizona.
When she felt Arizona try to pull her head back up Callie pushed down again on Arizona's neck bring her closer before she closed the distance between two. Callie's lips found Arizona's and in a matter of seconds Arizona let her guard down. Callie deepens their kiss as her legs wrapped around Arizona's waist. Instead of their bodies fighting, it was their tongues fighting for dominance. Arizona's hands stop what they were doing and rested on either side of Callie's head, and Callie's hands slowly let go of Arizona's neck and slid up and down her chest before moving over to left arm.
With Arizona not paying attention Callie could place a shoulder lock on the blonde, which was a submission move. Without breaking or slowing down their kiss, Callie lightly grabbed Arizona's left arm just below her elbow and bent it downwards. Callie unwrapped her legs around Arizona's waist and slowly started to wedge her left leg between them until her left knee was right in crook of Arizona's left elbow. Callie was about to pull down on Arizona's left arm while pushing her left knee up when Arizona broke away from their kiss.
Callie was trying to be sneaky, but it wasn't sneaky enough. Arizona saw what she was trying do and countered Callie's failed attempt at a shoulder lock and put the brunette in a very gruesome knee bar. Before Callie could move her right leg from Arizona's waist she grabbed it before she turned around and fell backwards holding on Callie's leg. The moment Arizona's back hit the mat it caused Callie's knee to hyperextend. Callie felt the sharp pain, and it did nothing but grow as Arizona continued to pull. Callie's fist slammed against the mat and her eyes slammed shut, "You win," Callie screamed.
Arizona let go of Callie's leg with a grin, however, their dirty fight wasn't over. In Callie's eyes she never tapped out and when Arizona and she always fight, they would fight until the other got tired and said 'I quiet' which Callie did neither of the two.
In flash before Arizona could say or do anything Callie quickly slid behind Arizona and wrapped her arms around chest and leaned backwards causing them both to fall to the ground again only this time Arizona's back on Callie's chest. By the time Arizona let out a gasp Callie already had her legs locked around Arizona keeping her in place. Callie's right arm was fully wrapped around Arizona's pushing her neck downwards and her left arm was as behind Arizona's head pushing forward. Callie's Kimura shoulder lock might have failed but her sleeper hold would not.
It took exactly three seconds for Arizona to pass out completely. Callie was one of the few who knew how apply the sleeper hold correctly so instead of taking the average ten seconds for some to pass out it only took her three.
A few seconds later when Callie let her go was when Arizona came too again. For a moment her vision was blurred and the voices around her were muffled.
"Jesus Flagstaff, you need to learn how to fight dirty." Tim said from Arizona's right side.
When Arizona fully came too she saw that Callie was on her left with her hand on her left arm, Tim was on her right and Nick was right in front of her.
"What happened?" Arizona said as her right hand rubbed her forehead.
"Your girlfriend kicked your ass with a beautifully applied sleeper hold." Nick said with a slight smirk. "But we'll put the jokes aside for a moment because Henry found the President, and everyone is to report to central command."
Callie and Tim helped Arizona to her feet before the four of them went downstairs to CC.
While Alpha and Bravo ganged up on Delta team in Super Smash Brothers, Henry was just staring at his computer screen looking at another dead end. Since Henry and Dixon were no longer working together, Dixon was proving to be the smarter one out of the two of them. The devices and weapons that she built to do harm to the world was something Henry could only dream of. So since then Henry had been upping his game and working on new projects ideas to prove that he was the better one of the two. Some of his ideas were genius while others were not. For some reason it was Henry idea to put a tracker in the guns that Rainbow used. He didn't know where he got the idea from or why he followed through on the idea, but it proved it to be a good idea. Two weeks after of the First Lady was found and three weeks since the death Izzie, her gun had been missing, and it wasn't until that very moment he didn't know where it was until the tracker came on line indicating that someone had fired it. The current location of the weapon was the Zugspitze Mountains in Germany.
When Henry saw this he used the one of the many government satellites to check the location of the weapon. When he found the exact location of the weapon and pulled up a real time image of the area he was greeting with the picture of a huge fortress that was both inside and outside of the mountain. He studied the area and people that were around the fortress for over ten minutes until finally a yellow Hummer H2 pulled up into a large opening. A tall man with short black hair that was clearly dyed stepped out the front passenger side door, followed by Dixon who was on the driver's side door. Henry took a quick screen of the Dixon several times as she walked into the mountain. Once he got his pictures he booted up the top secret Government Issue program that allowed him to scan the area of the mountains and make a blue print of the fortress so Rainbow could access it and move through it without any problems.
In total it took Henry 3 nonstop hours before he had a report ready enough to present to the others. He called Rainbow into Central Command and waited as they slowly filed in and took their seats. The gunshot wounds that Callie, Cristina and Bailey had received in the crash of Air Force weren't too severe so they were cleared for active duty a week after the crash. Once every member was in the room Henry started his presentation. "I have good news and bad news," Henry started as he stepped in front of everyone. "The good news is I was able to find Dixon and the President of the United States. They are in the Zugspitze Mountains in Germany. The bad news is Dixon turned the mountain in to a small fortress with only 1 entrance and 2 exits." Henry pulled up the blueprint that he made earlier. "If you want to get into the fortress we have to use the front door. There is no back entrance and there will be no stealth in this mission. They will see you coming and you will be in a gun fight every second that you are there." Henry showed them the front entrance that they would be using. "Here is where it gets tricky."
"Because shooting are way into the fortress and alerting everyone there isn't tricky already." Cristina said in a monotone voice.
"Yang, watch it," Teddy stepped in.
Cristina looked over to Teddy for a moment and shrugged at her, "just saying."
"Well it gets trickier." Henry regained control of the conversation. "The President is located in an underground bunker that is exactly 3.5 miles in the fortress. All you have to do is walk forward and not veer off in any direction."
"Oh is that-"
"Yang! One more outburst I'm going to slap so hard you'll be picking yourself up from the other side of this base!" Teddy yelled.
Cristina didn't say anything in return as she sank down a little bit in her chair.
Henry looked over to Teddy who nodded her head silently telling him to continue. "You'll see a small metal door on the ground that can't be opened unless you have Dixon's retina and finger prints." Henry paused for a moment expecting a smartass remark to come from Cristina, but she never gave one. Mainly because Cristina knew that if it came down to fight between her and Teddy. Teddy would win hands down even before Cristina touched the mat. Not to mention the fact that she still had the scar on her left kneecap to remind her about the last time she tried to define Teddy.
"Since we can't open the door, we'll have to blow it up. Once the door is open someone will have to repeal down and get the President. After that Derek, Ben or Eli can use the second entrance/exit to get the President out." Henry moved up the blueprint to show the top the part of the fortress. "The middle part of her fortress has a large hole big enough for 4 Blackhawks to land simultaneously. One of you needs to hover long enough for the President to get in, and then you can leave. From what I could see she doesn't have any anti-aircraft missiles on the top part of her fortress, but that doesn't mean that you are safe. She likes to invite stuff just as much as I do, so use extreme caution when you enter the fortress." Henry said to Derek, Ben and Eli.
"I don't know why you looking at Ben or Eli, because I'm going to be one that goes into fortress." Derek said.
"Just playing it safe, it's Dixon we are dealing with here. You could have problems while Ben or Eli doesn't have any problems."
Derek just shook his head lightly. Henry did have point, Dixon probably knows that Derek would be the one to enter to fortress and has probably planned on how to take him down already.
Rainbow spent another 2 hours going over their plan and drilling into each other heads. They had to move quickly together to make to President before Dixon and him escaped or worst, Dixon killed him. After they knew how they were going to enter, who was going to blow up the door and enter the bunker they went upstairs to change into a rarely used Rainbow outfit, white camouflage.
"One more thing I forgot give/tell you guys before you head out." Henry came running into the changing room. "I made new radios for us. The enemy can't jam them and you don't have to worry about them falling out of your ear when you get into a tough or violent situation." Henry took the time to look at each custom radio before locating its rightful master.
"Henry?" Owen questioned when he looked at new radio piece.
"It's a molar cap, all you have to do is talk and it will pick up everything you say." Henry said as he watched the members of Rainbow put their new radios into their mouths. "It's still in the testing phase kind of, it should be immune to most jamming signals and the signal won't quiet so you don't really have to worry about lost communication, but for the moment they will only be used for real mission's because I haven't figured out how to program them to different frequencies when we do our training exercises so we still use the old ones." Henry took one last look around the room. "They should fit perfectly over your right molar," he said when he noticed that some people were still having a hard time getting it to fit over their molar. "I took the liberty and looked at everyone's dental records when I made them so it should be a perfect match." That was last thing that Henry said before he left the room so they could continue to get ready.
They were going into the mountains in the dead of winter where the snow would be everywhere. They had white cargo winter camo pants with matching white boots. The white long sleeve shirts were different than the black ones that they usually wore. The white shirts were thicker, they were meant to keep in heat and keep them warm, while the black shirts were light and breathable to help cool them down. Their vests of course were white along with their helmets, and they had white gloves, which everyone hated using, to help keep their hands and fingers warm.
Derek flew a Blackhawk by himself, while Alpha team flew with Eli and Bravo team stayed with their pilot. The plan was for Rainbow to sneak around the back of the fortress where Dixon and her men couldn't see them coming. They knew that this wasn't going to stealth mission, but they were going be stealthy as long as possible.
Once Rainbow got to the mountain's they split up as they made their way to the entrance. Alpha team came in from the west side while Bravo came in from the east side. After a 2 hour hike around the mountain Rainbow were together once again. There was small two lane road that separated Rainbow from the entrance.
At the moment Rainbow was hiding behind small snow mounds that the wind had created thought out the week. They were found themselves in a straight line as well as they faced the entrance of the fortress. Arizona was at one end while Teddy was at the other end. Although Delta team was split up and put into Alpha and Bravo team they found themselves in the middle of the group together.
They were close enough to the entrance to see in and around it, so Arizona didn't get out her binoculars. The area around the fortress was the large and wide open. There were crates that had explosives and other things them, but Arizona couldn't really tell from the outside of the box. There were a few military grade truck as well as Hummers, Tahoe's, and Land Rovers parked out front. There were two large look out towers that had at least 4 people walking around at the top on the outside, but Arizona had no clue how many people were in the small box at the top of the tower as well. There were several people walking around the outside area every single person she saw had a gun, and she didn't know what they were going to face when they walked through the mile long entrance to the fortress.
"I say we let the snipers do their job until we get seen and we just go from there." Teddy was the first to break the radio silence among the group.
"We could do that, but what if Dixon has the entrance rigged to close if she thinks she's in danger?" Arizona shot back.
"Either way they are going to see us. If she does have a door rigged to close in case of a dangerous situation we can make an easy run for the door because we took out most of the outside guards." Teddy said.
Arizona thought for 5 long hard minutes before she agreed with Teddy. "Alright, snipers you know what to do." Arizona said to the others.
"Make sure your silencers are on," was the first thing out of Addison's mouth. "Shot who can when you can," was the next thing out of her mouth.
Even though they were trying to shoot as many people as they could without being seen there were too many people for them to handle so they couldn't do a synchronized shot every time they shot someone.
Somehow they managed to clear both guard towers without being seen. April was in the middle of changing her clip when sun decided that it wanted to come out and play for a little bit. The angle at which April was holding her gun mixed with the angle that the sun was at gave away her position to guard that was on the ground. The scope from her gun created a bright glare that even got her attention. In an instant April stopped with she was doing and lowered her weapon hoping nobody saw the glare, but they did. They was a lot of yelling before the sounds of gunshots were heard and bullets were being sent in the direction of the Rainbow.
"Well now that we have been seen let's push our way into that fortress." Arizona said as she lifted her head and started to return fire.
Arizona was the first to fire back, and when she did everyone else in Rainbow followed her lead.
The gun fire from the fortress was too heavy for anyone in Rainbow to stand up in. "We have to distract or kill them." Teddy yelled.
Arizona was hiding at the moment when Teddy made the comment. When the gunfire stopped coming at her and moved to another team member Arizona lifted her head up and scanned the area. A smile came to her face when she saw her answer. She lifted up her gun and aimed it at a stack of crates that had the explosive sticker on it. It took a half of clip before the bottom stack finally caught on fire and exploded, causing the other 4 crates to do the same. The explosion was big enough to kill a 3 or 4 people, injury 2 more and confuse the rest. With the outside guard's temporary distracted it was enough time for Rainbow to move. "Let's move, Rainbow." Arizona said as she stood up and slowly started to walk towards the entrance of the fortress. Her gun was drawn and if someone was in her line of sight she shot them before they could shoot her.
Rainbow cleared the outside area and was lingering around the entrance of the fortress when a thunderous boom got most of their attention. "Sniper, top right corner," Yang yelled as she hid behind one of the military trucks that was half outside and half inside. The sniper was aiming right at her.
Addison was about 2 feet away from Cristina hidden in the shadows behind some wooden creates. She was shooting at the endless amount of enemies that were emerging from the back of the fortress. When Cristina yelled she turned attention to the top right corner and shot the sniper before he could shoot again. When Addison shot the sniper it gave away her position and most of the fire was now concentrated on her, which meant she couldn't really move to a new hiding spot.
Meredith was hiding behind a rock and popped her head up just in time to see a sniper aiming at Addison, and by the looks of things he had a good shot lined up. Before the man's index finger could find the trigger Meredith shot him. His body fell to ground below him and Addison moved to another hiding position.
"We have to move forward or we'll lose," Arizona said as she stood up taking out two people that were closing in on her. "Bravo cover the ground, Alpha cover the top floor."
Rainbow listened to Arizona instructions as they pushed their way through the fortress. Still remaining in a straight line taking cover where they could Rainbow made it to the location of the hidden underground bunker. The metal doors were close to the left side of the wall making it easy for Rainbow to provide cover fire. As Mark and Callie set the charges and repeal rope around the door the rest of Rainbow stood around them providing cover fire. They worked quickly together since everyone in Rainbow was out in the open total exposed, once everything was done Rainbow scattered to different hiding places still shooting, while Mark and Callie remained out in the open on opposite sides of the metal door. Callie held the remote in her hand as she looked over to Mark, who shook his head telling her that he was ready.
Callie pushed the button and the metal door came flying off. Callie was the first to reach the door so she repealed down the first with Mark quick on her tail. Callie was on the right side of the door, while Mark was on the left side of the door.
The room was dim and poorly lit as they repealed down to the bunker. Callie didn't wait before she started to shoot the people on her side of the room, and Mark did the same. As they slid down further into the bunker they cleared both of their sides. When they unclipped themselves they cleared the bunker before they went to the far left corner of the room where the President was being held.
Callie untied the man while Mark watched her back. "We have the President, Derek; get your ass over here now." Mark said over the radio.
"Copy that, ETA 10 minutes." Derek replied.
"Are you hurt sir?" Callie asked as she untied him from the chair.
"A few bumps and bruises but I think I'll live." He hissed in pain as he wrapped his arm around Callie's neck and she wrapped her arm around his waist. "Dixon doesn't have the launch code for the U.S." he gave the best smile he could. "Once I heard that you saved my wife I knew it would only be a matter of time before you found me."
"Alright," Callie turned around so her back was facing the President. "Hang on tight, because we have to climb out of here." Callie said as she clipped herself back to the rope. Mark started his climb first so he could provide cover fire for Callie and the President as they made their way to the helicopter.
By the time Callie and the President made it out of the bunker Derek was not more than 10 feet in front of them hovering. Callie, Mark and the President stepped in the helicopter first. "Everyone get in! There is too many of them." Arizona yelled.
Everyone slowly made their way to Derek and got in; however, when most of Alpha and Bravo made it to the helicopter like always someone brought an RPG to a gunfight. The missile missed Derek by a by an inch, "Arizona," Derek started.
"I know get out of here." Arizona started as she hid behind small bolder. "I think we can shoot our way to door."
"If you get to the entrance I will be their waiting for you," Ben said over the radio.
Arizona glanced around to see who was still in the fortress with her. Addison was to her left taking care of people that were on one of the many catwalks above them and Owen was right next to Addison. When she looked to her right she saw her brother, the four of them were all that were left in fortress.
"Alright guys let's get out of here." Arizona said as she ran to another bolder. Together the four ran back towards the entrance taking cover every few feet. It was pointless for them to shoot back because now it would be a waste of ammo and they were starting to run pretty low. Everything was going good, they were no more than 500 feet from the exit and they could see Ben in the background waiting for them to get out of the fortress.
Arizona started to move towards another bolder when a sniper shot her right knee causing her fall to the ground immediately. She let out a loud yelp that her older brother heard. Tim turned around to see Arizona slowly crawl up to her feet only to be shot again in her left shoulder. Without saying anything she fell down to ground.
"Flagstaff!" Tim yelled as he ran back to help his younger sister.
When Tim started to yell it got the attention of both Addison and Owen who were right by the exit. They were about to run over towards them but Tim stopped them.
"No, go to the helicopter. One of us has to make it out of here alive." Tim said as he grabbed on to Arizona. He was in the middle of helping her up when the same sniper shot him in the right shoulder as well.
He dropped Arizona and they both fell to the ground. "Go, without me." Arizona looked over to her brother.
"No," Tim shook his head as he stood up. Once he stood up he grabbed Arizona by the collar of her vest and started to drag her to the exit. "Watch my back."
"I'm slowing you down. Leave me."
"No! You're in a serious relationship now, which means your rain as being the hero in the family is over. Its mine turn and I am not leaving you in here to die. Now shut up and shoot." Tim yelled.
Arizona didn't say anything else and just listened to her brother as he dragged her out of fortress. However Arizona was right, Tim pulling Arizona was slowing them down so much that Tim was shot again in the lower back. When Tim fell to ground it was Arizona's turn to find the strength to pull herself and her brother. Arizona slowly stood up and grabbed her brother's vest collar with her right hand and slowly limped towards their exit.
It took her 5 painful minutes to make it about ten feet. She was about to give up when she heard a thunderous boom come from the exit. Arizona looked up to see that Addison and Owen had made it to helicopter and Addison was doing what she does best. She shot the sniper that had been shooting at Tim and Arizona. For the entire 15 minutes it took for Arizona to drag her brother out of the fortress, Addison shot one man after the other, after the other.
Addison had pretty much cleared the whole the entire entrance to the fortress for them. They thought that they had a clear shot to the helicopter, but they were dealing with Dixon. Nothing was what it seemed to be.
Arizona and Tim were no more than 20 feet away from the entrance and maybe another 10 feet away from the helicopter. Arizona stopped moving and slowly turned back around to face the entrance of the fortress when both she and her brother heard a low rumbling come deep within fortress and mountain.
"That doesn't sound good." Tim said a little breathless.
"No, it doesn't." Arizona tried to stand up more and put some of her weight on her right leg but the pain from her knee was too much and she fell down to one knee before she gave out a cry of pain.
"Flagstaff," Tim said in a low drawn out voice, which caused Arizona to turn around once again and face the fortress.
"Oh god," Arizona whispered.
Together at the moment they were frozen in their spot as they watched a huge ball of flames come from within the fortress.
Dixon knew that once Rainbow found the First Lady it only be a matter of time before they found the President. So she made sure that if Rainbow ever did step foot in the fortress it would be the last one they took. She had rigged the fortress with explosives to go off when they stepped foot in it, and with the physical state of Arizona and her brother, Dixon would be taking out 2 of 24 members of Rainbow. Tim was still new and hadn't had the chance to show off his real skills to team, but Arizona on the other hand was the glue that held the team together. With her out of the picture taking down Rainbow would be a lot easier for Dixon.
Arizona tried to pull them out of fortress as fast as she could, but it wasn't working. She was too slow and weak at the moment. Just a few seconds after discovering the flames that were coming towards them, those flames then engulfed Arizona and her brother.
When Addison and Owen watch the scene unfold in front of them they jumped out of the helicopter and started to run towards the fortress. Only it was too late, after the flame had engulfed them, the fortress along with mountain imploded on itself trapping or killing everyone inside.