And he’d thought the day couldn’t get any worse.
One breath to pray, the next to inflate his lungs. Then he jumped, arms tucked against his body as he dropped feetfirst into the water.
Three
The force of the waterand the intense cold assaulted Gideon like a fist, stripping him of breath as he fought to orient himself in the tumult. When his head broke the surface, he saw fifty feet to his left that while he was underwater, the van had struck the bridge support, which temporarily held it in place. A blessing, but the current would have its way soon. It always did. He struck out, swimming hard against the rush. This was why he chose to train in the ocean when he had the opportunity. Even better when he could practice with his Navy cousin, Johnny, who pushed him like no one else.
A placid swimming pool was nothing like a ferocious expanse of living water.
First a deer rescue, now three women and a cop trapped in a police van. Two dives in one day exceeded his usual conditioning. Though he kept himself in the best physical shape he could manage, he had to labor hard to fight the violence around him and the painful freeze. Something bashed his bad shoulder as he propelled himself, a branch or piece of debris. At least he’d seen no sign of the trucksreturning before he dove, but there were other monumental challenges to the rescue.
The glass of the vehicle was reinforced, so he wasn’t going to be breaking any windows to extract survivors. The passengers, who happened to be prisoners, were undoubtedly locked in place, save for the officer, who he wasn’t even sure had survived the crash.
How was he going to free them all before the vehicle sank?
Return with honor, the SERE motto. At the moment, that meant using everything in his power to bring back as many as he could from the wreck. He tried hard not to fixate on the fact that one of those lives was Aaron’s little sister.
Stubborn, mercurial, maddening Mackenzie who shouldn’t even be in a police van in the first place.
He clawed his way over until his palm slapped the prison van’s dented metal. The frigid water numbed his limbs, and he hardly felt the impact. He figured he had about three minutes tops before the flow overcame the van. He used up thirty precious seconds fighting his way to the driver’s side, which was tilted to the sky.
The window was rolled down as the cop struggled to push the door open. He’d survived.
Gideon swam up.
The cop spluttered, eyes wide, one hand disappearing from view as he reflexively reached for his weapon, no doubt wondering if Gideon might be in league with the guys who had just driven him off the road.
Gideon stopped, laboriously treading water, and showed the man his palms. “I’m here to help, sir,” he shoutedover the roar. “Staff Sergeant Gideon Landry, US Air Force.”
After a tense moment, the cop nodded. “Sergeant Martin Rodriquez,” he hollered back. They worked together to wrestle the door open, icy water thundering around and in.
“Souls aboard?” Gideon shouted. He wasn’t positive how many prisoners were loaded in addition to Mackenzie. There might have been others he wasn’t aware of.
The cop hesitated, water splashing his face, still not completely trusting, but Gideon didn’t have to say anything further. Rodriquez knew whoever he was transporting would soon be dead.
“Four,” he said.
Cop plus three.
Rodriquez was already moving, stripping off his body armor. “I’ll unlock. You’ll help me get ’em out?”
Gideon nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The cop tucked his weapon into his waistband, unbuckled his heavy utility belt, and dropped it. The van was leveling down as the rear filled with water. Gideon levered himself inside.
With shaking hands, Rodriquez unlocked the security door between the driving compartment and the prisoner area. Together they wrestled it open and swam into the interior. The water had already crept within a foot of the ceiling.
At first he only spotted two women, Mackenzie and another with braids. Their heads were barely above the water as it swirled around their necks. Mackenzie’s eyes flew wide at the sight of him.
“Help her.” She jutted her chin to where he finally noticed the third woman farther to the back, the water just beginning to inundate her nostrils. Silver hair puffed around her head. Her expression was wild with panic. Rodriquez immediately swam to the lady, dove under, and suddenly one of the woman’s hands was free. She screamed and thrashed, striking the officer in the face.
Gideon crossed the distance in one second and pinned her in place with a bear hug. “Stay still,” he thundered. “And you’ll get out alive.”
His tone cut through her panic. She stilled enough that in another second the cop had gotten her completely free and propelled her toward the exit.
“Keys,” Gideon called to him.
He could read the cop’s expression. Allowing a civilian to free the prisoners was against all his training.
