The man didn't look convinced but nodded before a bullet ricocheted off the door frame next to his head. The man spun around and returned fire. Ben ran up to the door and fired.
"Where’s the office?" Ben yelled at her, never taking his eyes off the hallway.
Hannah crouched near her cot with her hands over her head. She could feel her panic rising. She would die down here. They were trapped.
"Hannah," he shouted at her. Hannah snapped herself out of it, and army crawled on her belly to the two men who kept firing at the soldiers at the end of the hall. Hannah tapped Ben on the shoulder to get his attention and pointed towards Alejandro's men. "Four doors down," she yelled. She was thankful he didn't ask how she knew that.Hannah hoped she would never have to share that tale.
The two soldiers nodded, and Ben pulled something out of his pocket and threw it towards Alejandro’s men. Hannahwas going to askwhat it was, but Ben threw himself on top of Hannah onto the ground, and his teammate fell next to them. A few seconds later an explosion erupted, the building shook raining debris on them. Once the noise faded Ben sat up and looked at Hannah. “You okay?”
Hannah cataloged her body and wiggled her fingers and toes. “I think so.”
Ben nodded and helped her up. He looked down the tunnel and saw the coast was clear he urged his teammate to leave.Heencouraged Hannah to leave as well but she declined.Ready to be done with his place herself Hannah grabbed Ben’s hand and led him to Alejandro's office. She made sure not to look at the end of the hall to see the damage they had done. Hannah cursed when she tried the door, it was locked.
"Move," was all Ben said before he kicked in the door with one well-placed kick. Once inside he quickly fired up the computer, but all attempts to get passed the computer password failed.
“Shit,” he muttered and slammed his fists on the desk. Hannah pushed him out of the way and typed on the keyboard and hit enter. The screen lit up and opened the home page. Hannah turned to Ben and smiled triumphantly at him. Ben glared at her and humphed before pushing her out of the way and typed in several keys and inserted a flash drive. "One to Base."He said pushing a button on his chest
Hannah glared at Ben. And here he thought she had been arrogant back in the day. He was the poster child for it now. Would it kill the man to say thank you? Apparently.
"Base to one," came the quick reply.
"Download ready," within seconds Ben had the files downloading. Hannah stepped to Ben’s side and watched in fascination at all the data Alejandro kept on his one computer until she heardmen shoutingagain.
"I need a weapon," she pleaded. She hated being defenseless and was tired of it. She didn’t want to be the victim any more.
Ben seemed to debate giving her a weaponfor a moment, probablywonderingif she would use it onhim. As appealing as the thought was, she needed Ben to get her out of there. He finallygave her a six-inch blade he pulled outof his boot. "Don'tmake me regretgiving this to you.”
Hannah shook her head and held the knife protectively to her heart. They both turned whenthe computerbeepedand said 100%download complete.
"Ready to go?" he asked her.
She didn’tneedto be asked twice. "I’m right behind you," she said repeating his words from earlier.
"Stay close on my six," hesaid before turningaround, at that exact moment the building shook with great force.
Hannah yelp in fright, shehad no ideawhata six was, but she would stayclosebehind him and get the hell out of there. With the building shaking, she doubted they would make it out of there alive. They made their way to the trapdoor where she had been brought in many weeks ago. Ben pulled her out of the hole as if she weighed nothing. It wasn’t far from the truth. She had been toned when she had been captured and had lost a lot of weight thanks to starvation. She was little more than skin and bones now. A stiff wind might knock her over.
“Doing okay?" he asked her.
Hannah didn't care if she had two broken legs and had to drag half her cot behind her, she would have said anything to get out of there. "I’m good." She kept waiting for somethingto go wrong or another explosion as they made it to the front of the warehouseand another team of soldiers was waiting for them next to a truck.
"RPG!" a large man shouted, and everyone dove for cover. Ben threw Hannah under him and braced for the explosion. A second later the distinctive whistle rent the air before a loud explosion erupted and shook the building, raining glass shards everywhere. Ben wrapped himself tighter around Hannah and shielded her from the worst of the debris. Before the dust settled, gun fire rang out.
"Stay down," Ben ordered Hannah before sitting up and returning fire. A group of militants had them pinned in the warehouse. Another group of military soldiers were taking heavy fire in front of the warehouse. The hostages laying down on the bed of the truck at the front of the warehouse while the team held their ground. They were all sitting ducks. Alejandro’s men came at them in waves. Hannah had been here for a while now but had no idea the magnitude of his army. They were all going to die before she was free.
"Midas, watch out behind you," Someone yelled out to their left. Ben whipped around to see a man running at him with a large knife aimed at his back.
"No," Hannah cried out and grabbed Ben's side arm and shot the man before he could take another step. Ben looked down in shock at Hannah lying on her stomach with his pistol in her hand staring at the body on the ground. The man who gave the warning came up behind Ben and shook his shoulder.
"Damn boy, you do have the best luck. I swore you were a goner," He teased.
Ben ignored him and extracted his pistol from Hannah's death grip and returned it to his holster.” Hannah didn’t listen to their exchange. She was focused on the dead body in front her. Their lifeless eyes staring at her. She couldn’t believe she had taken a life. She had seen so much death over the time of her captivity, but it never got any easier to it see.
Strong hands gripped under her arms and pulled her up. They turned her head to face them. "You okay?" Ben asked her. His eyes appeared searching. For what she didn’t know.
Hannah looked Ben in the eye without flinching at his penetrating gaze and nodded. Her body felt numb. As if she were having an out of body experience and she were watching things from afar.
"Good," he clipped. "Let's move." He grabbed Hannah and all but dragged her to the truck.
