The thirty-minute drive felt like it took five hours, but in reality, it only took twenty-two minutes.
The same number of minutes between Madi’s birth and Jamie’s.
This wasn’t the first time stress and fear played weird games with my head. And I wasn’t alone; operators often had non-relevant intrusive thoughts pop into their heads during missions.
As we rounded the corner, black smoke billowed in the air but no flames were visible.
“Fuck.”
Nathan turned a corner and the burning building came into view.
Flames and smoke billowed out of the second-floor windows. Fewer flames escaped the ground-floor windows, but the thick smoke told us it was only a matter of time before the entire building turned to ash.
My hand was on the door handle before Nathan hit the brakes.
My feet were on the ground before the truck stopped moving.
“Robinson!”
I unslung my rifle and leaned down to drop in on the ground, then ripped off my vest as I sprinted toward the building.
The extra weight would only slow me down, and I didn’t want to be wearing hundreds of tiny explosives on my chest while running through a burning building.
“Wait for us!”
I couldn’t.
Ten feet from the door, movement to the left caught my eye.
“You’re too late,” she cackled as I approached.
“Where is she?”
Pamela’s maniacal laughter sent a chill down my spine. “You’ll never reach her in time.
The hell I won’t.
Jay and Nathan had closed the gap. “Get answers out of her.” I didn’t bother waiting for a reply before running to the door. I could see fire through the glass door but it wasn’t dangerously close, so I kicked the door in.
Hot air and smoke blasted my face, forcing me to raise an arm to protect my eyes as I moved further into the building.
“We’ll be right behind you.”
Before they could, a loud crash sounded behind me.
FUCK! “Find another way in,” I yelled, filling my lungs with hot smoke.
I was on my own. My heart raced as I moved as quickly as I could through the building.
“Madi!”
I coughed as more smoke-filled air burned my throat and filled my lungs.
I lifted my shirt over my nose and mouth, and tried again.
“Madi!”
If she answered, the roaring fire above drowned out the sound.
