Chapter 18 - The Cavalry
“¡Ahí están! ¡Disparen!”
Bullets shredded the bark of the trees around us. I threw myself over Lily, shielding her with my body as we tumbled down a steep, muddy embankment, sliding completely out of control into a shallow ravine.
We crashed at the bottom, bruised and battered. The water in the ravine was freezing, rising to my ankles. I looked up. Three tactical flashlights were moving rapidly down the slope toward us.
We were trapped.
I pushed Lily behind a large boulder in the water, raised the stolen pistol, and aimed at the descending lights. I had maybe ten rounds. I was going to take as many of them with me as I could.
The first sicario stepped into view, raising his weapon.
I squeezed the trigger.
But before my gun fired, a deafening roar echoed from above the tree line.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK.
The unmistakable sound of heavy helicopter rotors chopped through the storm. Suddenly, the entire ravine was bathed in a blinding, artificial daylight. Two FBI Blackhawk helicopters hovered just above the canopy, casting massive spotlights down on the cartel hitmen.
"This is the FBI Hostage Rescue Team! Drop your weapons immediately!" a voice boomed through a megaphone, loud enough to shake the earth.
The cartel men realized they were outgunned. They turned to run, but the tree line was already swarming with heavily armored federal tactical units. Red laser sights dotted the chests of the sicarios. Within seconds, it was over. They surrendered, dropping their weapons into the mud.
I dropped the pistol, my entire body shaking with a mix of adrenaline and profound relief.
A figure slid down the muddy embankment, limping heavily. It was Detective Sarah Collins. Her arm was wrapped in a bloody makeshift tourniquet, and her face was covered in soot, but she was alive.
She ran to the boulder and threw her uninjured arm around me and Lily.
"I've got you," she gasped, pulling us out of the freezing water. "I've got you. It's over."
As the FBI medics rushed down into the ravine to treat us, I looked up at the helicopters hovering in the rain. We had survived the night. But as I held my shivering daughter, a cold realization settled into my bones.
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The cartel had lost a hit squad tonight. But they had infinite money and infinite men. They would never stop hunting the man who froze their accounts.
I couldn't just run anymore. I had to end this.
