Part 54 (1/2)

Of course, he wouldn't have been able to hear it over the sounds of the little caged girl in the back of the plane, who was crying rather loudly at this point.

”Hey, I'm the good guy,” Izzy told her as he took out his phone, but of course it had stopped. A missed call from Eden, who was really Dan, since Dan had Eden's phone. But it could could actually be Eden, because Dan should have found her and Jenni and Ben by now. ”I don't suppose you speak any English...?” actually be Eden, because Dan should have found her and Jenni and Ben by now. ”I don't suppose you speak any English...?”

If everything was going just just right, Izzy's wife, her two brothers, and his new sister-in-law should be hunkered down in that back northeast corner of the building, waiting for Izzy to take out the remaining bad guys. Which, okay, maybe he could do while safely ensconced in this plane, as if it were a great big Iron Mantype suit. right, Izzy's wife, her two brothers, and his new sister-in-law should be hunkered down in that back northeast corner of the building, waiting for Izzy to take out the remaining bad guys. Which, okay, maybe he could do while safely ensconced in this plane, as if it were a great big Iron Mantype suit.

As he called Eden's phone back, he moved Dumb and Dumber out of the c.o.c.kpit, and he could see through the winds.h.i.+eld that good old skinhead Jake was one of the surviving baddies. He and another man-skinny with a ponytail-were having an argument right there in the shelter from the open bay door.

It was too much to hope that Jake would eliminate another of the enemy, and sadly enough it didn't happen-nor did Eden or Dan pick up the phone. Which freaked Izzy out just a bit, and made him redo the math in his head. Twelve tangos, not counting the three on the plane, minus two via Dan, minus the one Izzy'd put in the truck, minus four at the bottom of the stairs, minus two was...three. Which left one unaccounted for and possibly doing damage to Dan, Eden, Jenni, and Ben, which was alarming.

He dialed Eden's number again.

As Izzy watched, Skinny disappeared back inside, while Jake leaned out of the doorway just a little bit to look up at the plane. As he did, he saw Izzy there in the c.o.c.kpit, and he raised his weapon and let loose a blast of bullets.

Izzy hit the deck, but the gla.s.s was apparently bulletproof, which really wasn't that big of a surprise on a high-end toy like this, particularly one used for nefarious deeds.

But Jake didn't seem all that nonplussed. He smiled at Izzy, and even came out a bit farther from his cover, no doubt because he now believed that Izzy couldn't shoot him, either. So he pointed a finger-gun at Izzy and pretend-shot him, like, bang bang, still with that big you are so dead you are so dead smile on his fugly face. smile on his fugly face.

Izzy was just about to prove how so not dead he was when Eden picked up.

”Izzy,” she gasped. ”We need help! Danny's been shot!”

Dan had zigged instead of zagged, taking up the rear as they'd run toward the shadowy crate that was closest to the back hallway door.

He'd seen the man coming-skinny with a ponytail-heading back toward the very doorway they'd just vacated, and he'd fired his weapon, half hoping he'd hit the son of a b.i.t.c.h, and half hoping he'd draw the man's fire, so he wouldn't kill Jenni, Eden, or Ben.

He'd gotten part of his wish.

Right before Dan made it to cover, he felt the bullet slap him, and he went down.

He tried to make it look intentional-like he was sliding into home. And he managed to bring his weapon up and fire back a long burst, so that even if the gunman knew he'd made contact, he didn't think they were defenseless back here.

Jenn knew, right away, that something was wrong. Particularly when Dan ordered Ben to climb up on top of the crate and unload his weapon at anything that moved.

”I'm hit,” he then told her, as if she couldn't tell, at this point, from the blood.

Jesus, it was his leg-his left one this time, and it was bleeding like a b.i.t.c.h.

”Tell me what to do,” Jenn said, calm and steady, as Eden got on the phone with Izzy.

”Tourniquet,” Dan said, ”something to slow the bleeding,” as Eden asked, ”Izzy wants to know how bad is it?” She turned to look and answered the question herself. ”It's bad.”

”It's not. I'm going to be okay,” Dan told Jenn even as she said to him, ”You're going to be fine.” She was taking off her bra, right out from under her s.h.i.+rt-a feminine talent that had always impressed him.

”Izzy wants to know how many of the twelve you took out,” Eden asked Dan as Jenn pulled it free and wrapped it around the top of his leg.

”Three,” Dan told her, and she forwarded the info to the other SEAL. ”Two outside, and one in.”

”He says we're down to two-the guy named Jake and the one who just shot you,” Eden reported.

”That's good news,” Dan told Jenn. He could see she didn't quite believe it, so he told her, ”I'm not leaving you.”

”You better not, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” she said. ”If you think you can just attempt to knock me up and then check out...”

Dan laughed, but then, Jesus, it started to hurt. ”Ben, you okay up there?” he called.

”I'm good,” Ben reported. ”There's movement, back by the doorway that we came out of. I'm pretty sure I'm too far away...”

”Hold your fire,” Dan said. ”Good call. But if they come any closer...”

”Yeah,” Eden was saying into the phone. ”There're all these crates in here. We're behind the one that's closest to the back of the building.”

”Closest to the northeast corner,” Dan told her, and she relayed that info, too.

”Izzy says to stay put,” Eden reported. ”To hold on. He says he's on his way.”

”Hey, Danny?” Ben called from atop the crate. ”The man who came out of that doorway? He's carrying-jeez, I don't know what that is, except...Holy c.r.a.p, Eed, I think it's that thing that they used against that demon on Buffy. The one in the mall? Where Zander had memories of being a soldier from that Halloween episode, right after Angel becomes Angelus in season two...?”

”Oh, s.h.i.+t,” Eden said into the phone, to Izzy. ”If Ben's right? I think they've got a rocket launcher.”

Driving a plane wasn't as easy as it looked when sitting in coach and traversing the airport runways.

And Izzy hadn't been one of those flip-a-coin-to-see-if-you-join-the-Air-Force-or-the-Navy kids who loved the water but also secretly yearned to fly. He'd never particularly wanted to learn how to be a pilot, mostly because his goal had been to jump out out of the plane, and you sure as h.e.l.l couldn't do that while you were sitting in the captain's chair. of the plane, and you sure as h.e.l.l couldn't do that while you were sitting in the captain's chair.

Still, he'd always been curious about how things worked, and he knew enough to finally figure out how to make this particular vehicle move.

And not a moment too soon.

”Hold on back there, little girl,” he shouted as he backed that sucker up, his phone tucked up under his chin.

”Little what what?” Eden said on the other end of the satellite signal, her voice traveling up into outer s.p.a.ce and bouncing back down to his phone, even though she was only some mere hundreds of yards away from him, in that gleaming white warehouse.

”There's a girl,” Izzy reported as he put that puppy back into the equivalent of drive, ”maybe nine or ten, in a cage, in the cabin of this plane.”

”Seriously?”

”You think I'd make this s.h.i.+t up?” Izzy asked.

Eden laughed, but then she stopped. ”Please, please please don't die,” she said. don't die,” she said.

”It's two against five,” he countered.

”But they have a rocket launcher.”

”And I'm about to drive a jet up their a.s.s. Ready or not, here I come.” And Izzy hit the equivalent of the gas.

Only Irving Zanella would crash a jet plane through the side of a building. He actually aimed the nose of the thing through the bay door and just kept going, and the sheet metal shrieked and tore. He hit a truck and then another truck, and a wing was clearly damaged, too, before the plane rolled to a stop.

Dan found himself looking up at the fans that were slowly spinning and the catwalk that he'd used when he first came in, and he was glad that nothing was directly overhead, to fall on them.