And still, as I moved along the fence line and saw nothing, those nagging doubts ate at me. I couldn’t fuck this up. I couldn’t fail now when I’d never failed at a mission before. Granted, this was very, very different from any other mission I’d ever been on, but it was also the most important.
And then my radio cracked to life. “Captain, found a breach in the fence. Over,” Travis said.
“Stay there. On my way. Over and out.”
I clipped my radio to my belt and turned, heading back toward Travis at a fast jog, relief spreading through me. A few minutes later, I spotted him up ahead, crouched down next to the fence.
I stopped and moved up next to him. He spread the fence wide open. “Someone cut in here,” he said. “Did a thorough job. Looks recent too. See how shiny?”
I looked closely, and sure enough the links were shiny. “Okay. This is where they went in.” I pulled out my map. “We came down here.” I pointed. “That means we’re just about . . . here.”
Travis nodded. “And look. Control room.” He made a direct line with his finger.
“Shit,” I said.
“Plan?”
I thought for a second and then nodded. “You go this way, with your rifle. I’ll head in up this way. We’ll trap them here.”
He nodded as I pointed. “Piece of cake.”
I put the map away and then slipped in through the fence. Travis came on my heels as we ran across the space, keeping as low as we could.
There was a single door ahead marked by a red emergency light. I couldn’t hear any alarms, so unless they had somehow disabled them, we were still in time. I pressed myself up against the wall as Travis gently pushed the door open.
It moved inward with no problem. “Clear,” Travis said.
We moved inside together into a long, dimly lit hallway. It was a service tunnel, meant for cleaning staff and maintenance crew. From the looks of the door, Omar’s crew has used thermite to cut through the heavy-duty lock.
We got to the end of the hall. There was a T-junction there, and we stopped in the middle.
“I leave you here, cap,” Travis said.
“Got it. Good luck.”
“Be careful. I’ll be watching.”
I nodded, turned, and left. I heard Travis’s footsteps softly pad away from me, heading in the opposite direction.
I knew I was getting close. I could feel it in my fucking bones. Omar was nearby, so fucking close that I could practically taste him.
Up ahead was another door, this one unlocked and left slightly ajar. I guessed that Tara’s dad was opening doors from the inside with his clearance, which was likely his main purpose.
I moved in through the door and stopped. Ahead, I heard something, footsteps. I ducked down a side corridor as two men turned the corner up ahead of me.
I kept myself flat against the wall, hidden in the shadows. They paused briefly, looking down the hallway, and I saw the glint of metal in their hands.
They weren’t employees of the power plant, unless employees carried guns.
I took aim with my pistol and fired four shots in quick succession. My first two took the first man in the head, and my next took the second man in the head and the chest. Both men toppled to the ground.
I moved forward and paused by them. Neither was Omar Hooth. I moved down the hallway, inching closer to the control room.
I felt calm, like I was floating through the ocean. This was my natural habitat, living on the edge between life and death. I was a warrior in my element, and as soon as those first shots were fired, nothing else mattered.
I came to the end of the hall. There were plenty of side doors I could have gone down, but I stuck to the map in my head. I knew that Omar and his men would be moving toward the control room, and that was something we wanted.
I pressed myself against the door and peeked through the window. On the other side was a long hallway, and ahead I could see a small group of people moving forward.
My heart leapt in my chest. That was Omar’s group, without a doubt, heading toward the control room. We were right behind them, barely a step back. If we had waited just a few more minutes, we might never have caught them.
No time to worry about that. I unhooked a grenade from my belt, opened the door a crack, and rolled it down the hall.
The grenade moved slowly toward them, making a clinking noise. One of the men turned and spotted it.
“Fuck! Grenade!”
I ducked down as there was a loud boom, deafening in its roar, and an incredibly bright white light spilled out from the window.
It disappeared as soon as it had appeared. I waited a couple seconds and then pushed the door open.
Bullets riddled the door around me, forcing me back. The men were firing serious rifles, and the bullets bit through the metal and the wood all around me. I peeked again and saw the group moving farther down the hall, and I didn’t bother trying to return fire yet. The two men in the back were spraying my end of the hallway with bullets, not even aiming.