Dakota walked out of the space onto clearer ground, where he pulled Tank’s reward towel from his backpack, though it felt absurd to be high-pitched celebrating amongst the destruction.
To Tank, the search for chemicals was a game. It had to be fun and happy to keep Tank excited to go to work.
With McLeod’s pack dangling from his shoulder, Dakota made one last call. If McLeod was in the house, it would take Bravo’s expertise to successfully extract him.
Hopefully, the guy was safely walking through the village, focusing his camera lens on the brutality that Mother Nature could inflict.
The phone made Dakota question that possibility.
Dakota joined Bravo to let them know what he’d discovered about McLeod. He stuck around to replace Mace on the hotelrescue, as Mace and Diesel jogged up the street to sniff-search the rubble at McLeod’s rooming house.
To his elation, Dakota was there to help widen a hole and drag five desperate students out to the fresh air.
It must have been hell to be trapped for days that way.
Now that Dakota had his evidence, he could set his mission aside and put 100% of his efforts into helping the teams pull people into the light.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rylee
Tuesday
.
“Dakota, are you with Bravo?” Rylee asked over the phone. She was in military mode. All the emotions that wanted to spark were set aside. She’d deal with them later. Right now, she was riding on intuition and the sense of danger that rippled the air.
“Affirmative.”
“Is Ares available for me to go on speaker phone and give some information?”
“Yeah, give me … Yes … Yo, Ares,” she heard Dakota shout.
“Ares here.”
“Dakota here.”
“Rylee here. I need to let you know a couple of logistical details that might have a bearing on your mission. First, the Egyptian medical team is at the Mediterranean port. They are approximating their arrival to be tomorrow morning. Second, the last tremor triggered a rockslide to our west, blocking the train tracks. They have a work crew clearing it. But most of the equipment they would need is already in service. The supplies that WorldCares was bringing in to support the village are on the train on the other side of the slide. That includes our heavy equipment. Ares, Hailey was coordinating with my team to bring in anything that you requested. I’m not sure if you were depending on that equipment to get your people out. I have no ETA. Push comes to shove, we might be able to arrange for an overland expedition to pick up specific items, but it would be a difficult expedition.”
“Thank you,” Ares said.
“Uhm.” Rylee scraped her teeth over her lips to stop their buzzing, nerves, not MS.
“Go on, Rylee,” Dakota said.
“When we arrived, I told you all about the Syrian group that is in dire straits when their compound collapsed on the other side of the border. I offered them support from that supply.”
“Listening,” Ares said.
“I told them to come back on Tuesday afternoon. I’m expecting them soon. On my team, George is aware. He’s sending one of the crew that needs a scheduled rest back to the tent, and I’m going to the tower to watch for their approach. I’m the only one from WorldCares who speaks enough Arabic to effectively communicate. But I have nothing to offer them, even less than I had when we got here. Our supplies are very low.”
“You’re concerned,” Ares said.
“I am. They were armed with semi-automatic rifles. I’m not suggesting anything other than that they are trying to survive. And survival often means doing what’s necessary. As you know, we are not armed. My understanding is that you are not armed either. I thought you should be aware so that contingency plans could go into place. For us, all we can do is press on with our rescues.”
“You’re heading to the tower now?” Ares said.
“I am.”
