Vance wanted to kick himself. He'd screwed up again, managing to blind
himself with his own flash grenade. And having done that, he'd thought
it the better part of discretion to take cover and hope Pierre and the
team could take out Ramirez with a clear shot. Instead, Ramirez got
away.
Why didn't they get him? Instead they got into some kind of firefight.
Heck, he thought, if I'd known they were going to blow it, I could have
tried to take him out myself, half blind or no.
Now, though, Ramirez was back in Launch, in the control room. Worse
still, he told himself, I've really screwed things up. I blew the
element of surprise. Now what?
He sat down, feeling like a prisoner of the fog, and began to engage in
extensive self-recrimination. He was afraid to use the radio, and he
didn't know where the ARM team was. Everything had to be rethought. . .
.
"Michael, is that you? Are you all right?" Cally was a pale apparition
in the half-light, now working her way around the remains of the
gantry.
"I'm terrific."
"Thank goodness. I almost gave up on finding you."
"What happened down there?" He was relieved to see her, but otherwise
he still felt miserable. Also, he wondered if she was still angry.
"We got ambushed by somebody. From the direction of the shoreline. I
didn't know there were so many of them." She looked back down the hill,
puzzled. "It was strange. There was a lot of firing, and then it just
stopped. But one of your guys got hit."
"Who?" Our first casualty, he thought. The disaster grows.
"I don't know his name. I think he was Dutch."
"Willem or Hugo?" Vance loved them both and felt his heart turn.
"I don't know, but it looked like he's going to be all right. I decided
not to stick around."
"So you don't know where they went? Pierre and the team."
"Haven't a clue."
Vance sighed. "Okay, the way I see it, we've only got one chance left.
But I have to get Bill to help."
"That's going to be next to impossible. They're still holding him in
Command."
"Not any more. I think I saw him through the window there a couple of
minutes ago." He pointed. "There in Launch."
"That's not a good sign." She sighed. "It could mean they may be
getting ready to leave. And they're probably going to take him with
them."
"Then we've got to break protocol. Get on the radio and try to locate
Pierre."