"Ulysses to Sirene. Do you read me?"
When his radio crackled, Armont was in the medical facility of the
Bates Motel, watching as a plasma IV was attached to Dimitri's arm. He
immediately grabbed for it.
"I copy, Mike, but make this quick. Are you all right?"
"Never better. Where are you guys? Sorry to break radio silence, but I
think Ramirez may be getting ready to pull out. Could be now or never."
"We took down Command," Armont said into his walkie- talkie.
"Neutralized four of the bastards and cleared it. Looks to be a clean
job as far as the friendlies are concerned. A minor miracle,
considering. And when we got here to the Motel, there was a Greek, one
of them, but we took care of him."
"Nice work."
'That's the good news. They're all here with us now, and they seem
okay." He leaned out and took a peek down the hall. The SatCom systems
engineers were all collapsed on the floor, drinking Cokes from the
machine at the end. "There's bad news, too. In the first place, nobody
there would shut off the countdown. They're just afraid to do it. Has
to do with melting some kind of coil. The bird is still going up."
"What's the second place? The other bad news?"
"Dimitri got shot up. He's in pretty bad shape. We're in the emergency
room now, just keeping him alive. We've got to evacuate him out of here
and soon."
"I hear you," Vance replied back. "But the only way I know of right now
is with one of the helos, either the Agusta or their Sikorsky. How long
can he hold on? We still need to take out Ramirez. I haven't given up."
"Michael, the airspace is closed around the island. Totally shut down.
I guarantee it. There's no way he could get a chopper out. He's
trapped, going nowhere. We're staying with Dimitri till we're sure he's
stabilized, and then we'll come down there and handle that son of a
bitch. All in time."
"All right," Vance said. "Take care of Dimitri. In the meantime, let me
see what I can do at this end. And while you're there, you might want
to sweep that place for explosives. I think they were planning to get
everybody inside and blow it. I found some C-4 on a timer down on the
second level. By the elevator. There may also be some more of them
hanging around there, so be careful."
"Only way we know."