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Pulling her hand back from the woman’s belly, she grabbed at the rucksack and clawed for her cell. They’d been out of communication for a while now. Perhaps they were close enough to Tallinn. “Hello?” she gasped.
“Mary? Nutsbe here. Who is that screaming?”
Mary turned to the child, still crying in her car seat, jangling Mary’s overwrought nerves.
“Oh, thank god you’re on the phone. Halo will explain.”
“We can’t get through to Halo.”
“He’s here. Maybe we have different servers,” she said for absolutely no reason. This wasn’t a time for a chat. “We have a situation. I’m putting you on speaker and holding the phone out so Halo can tell you what’s going on.”
The phone shook in Mary’s hand. Her own nerves for being on the road like this under these circumstances. Her own worry about the mother and the reason why that child would not stop screaming.
The professionalism of their “affirmative” and “WILCO” helped.
“I have your shirt online,” Nutsbe said. “You are four minutes out from the hospital.”
“I’d like to keep this line open,” Halo said.
“Standing by,” Nutsbe responded.
Yes, it was nice just to know there was someone out there who was doing overwatch.
Chapter Twenty- Eight
Running on generators, up ahead, Halo saw that they had lights on at the hospital where they were out in the rest of the city.
Blocks away now, Halo knew Panther Force was there, ready to assist.
Here, the water was running deep, farther up his wheel rims than he’d like. And as he knew from many a mission past, you don’t count the win until you cross the finish line.
That thought had formed just as Halo felt the car lift and his control vanished.
Mary braced, sucking in a lungful of air.
The car behind them plowed into them, pushing them forward until they, too, hit the vehicle in front. Luckily, they were barely moving. Out of his window, he saw the water churning.
He called the situation out for the team to hear over their open line.
“Moving.”
And Halo knew that help was on the way.
He rolled down the windows lest the car roll or submerge, taking advantage of the limited time that the electrical system would function.
The rain poured in.
“Oh, wow, Halo, it’s up to the windows!” Mary called, leaning out.
“Get the child out of her seat.”
If they went under, Mary, Max, and the baby could get out the windows. Halo and the mother were too big to even try. Max was a strong swimmer, but Halo didn’t know about Mary’s skills other than that she was comfortable enough to swim in the black waters of the bog. But she’d try to save the child, and that would put them both at risk. He had to get the windshield out.
Yelling his directives back to Mary to cover everyone in the back seat with her poncho, Halo reached for the tarp and wrapped it over the pregnant mother. He curled over the top of her.
Each time another car was swept up and pressed forward by the raging waters, they bumped and jostled.
“Titus. Halo, we’ve entered the building in front of you from the parallel roadway. We’ve made it to the apartment window on the second floor. We’re rigging pully lines to the light pole at your eleven o’clock. We have you in sight, brother. Coming your way. Over.”