WELL, there had been no Turleens to my right, but one swooped up from who knew where and I landed on its back. Leaped again, to my left this time, to get back onto my path. But had to move into a somersault to avoid some more bullets.
Saw two Turleens heading for me, side-by-side again. So, did my best to land with my feet spread apart so that I had a foot on each one. It worked but I took no time to marvel. Bullets were peppering the air and most of the Turleens had had to stop being a living bridge to avoid getting hit.
Wondered at this for a moment, only because Muddy had seemed so unconcerned. Saw a bullet hit a Turleen and ricochet into one of our side’s planes. Realized the Turleens were breaking off to avoid inadvertently causing friendly fire more than to avoid getting hit themselves.
I was close enough to my target to feel the wind from the main rotor blades. Wasn’t going to be able to stay upright like this much longer. My Turleens realized it, too, and swooped underneath the chopper. Saw my opportunity and took it—jumped up and grabbed onto the landing gear.
Time to use the gymnastics skills I didn’t possess.
Was on one of the wheels and the leg that attached it to the chopper. This wasn’t a great place to be in that I didn’t have Joe and Randy’s android-enhanced limbs, and so couldn’t rip out the undercarriage and crawl in that way.
Could, however, reach the Hellfire missiles that were right next to me. Well, the term “right next to me” was overstating it a bit. I could see them and the right jump would mean I could grab onto a missile.
Had no idea how securely the missiles were clamped in before they were launched, but had to figure they were pretty secure since no one wanted a missile falling off just because the aircraft had hit turbulence.
Had lucked into jumping onto the side with all four missiles still in place. However, there was no doubt in my mind that the gunner was going to let all of them fly at Caliente Base as soon as possible.
This was confirmed by a missile from the other side firing. Watched its trajectory. Wasn’t aimed at the Base. Squinted and could make out bodies on the ground. Moving bodies. Meaning they were firing on either civilians or people coming to help. Time to stop worrying about the weakness of my plan.
Flung my legs up so that they wrapped around the wheel. Moved my body so that I was now sitting on the wheel, which sounds easy, but wasn’t. Thankfully, no one was around to hear my grunting. Holding onto the leg as tightly as possible, maneuvered myself so that my feet were on top of the wheel. Did this all at hyperspeed but it took longer than I liked because of how precarious my position was.
Finally managed to get where I wanted to be. Chose to not think about this at all and leaned out for the pylon holding the missiles. It was closer in this position than it had appeared when I was hanging off the wheel, so had that going for me.
Didn’t spend time marveling and instead climbed up the pylon to get onto the wing. Had to hold on because the wind resistance was incredible, with gusts coming from all directions.
My music changed to Pink’s “Blow Me (One Last Kiss).” Considered what Algar might be trying to tell me. Was in a good enough position so, left hand clamped onto the wing, reached into my purse. And came out with what certainly looked like a bomb that attached to metal.
Chose to say “thank you” in my head and slammed the sticky bomb onto the side of the chopper. The timer was set for fifteen seconds. Hit the green button and saw the counter go down to fourteen. Time to go.
Let myself slide off the back of the wing so I’d fall straight down and not risk getting sliced by any of the blades, main or tail.
However, this meant I was plummeting straight down. Tried to turn around in the air but couldn’t manage it. Had a great view of the rest of the aerial fighting. Our side appeared to be winning, with choppers on the ground or blown up. Winced in anticipation of slamming into the ground or, if I was really lucky, another Turleen.
Did hit, but not the ground or a Space Turtle. I hit a pair of strong arms.
“Oof!” Jeff said as he hugged me.
Looked up. “The chopper’s above us and it’s going to blow really, really soon.”
Jeff didn’t question—instead he ran us out of range. Just in time, as the chopper exploded and debris once again fell out of the sky.
“What are you doing here? Not that I’m not thrilled to see you and relive some of our nostalgic moments and all that.” We were far enough away, so took off my goggles and gloves and dropped them back into my purse.
“I’m here because, as usual, I didn’t want to watch my wife die. I know it’s a terrible failing, but I’ve learned to live with it.”
He didn’t put me down but flipped me so that he was holding me. Wrapped my legs around his waist. “Seems like old times. And they let you out of the meeting, let alone the complex?”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “Just who do you think could have stopped me?”
“Good point.” Hugged him tightly as I turned off my music, just to be polite to my heroic husband and all. “It’s great to see you. I’d totally make out right now because, as always, you saving me from going splat is a total turn-on, but we have an attack we need to ensure is over.”
“That’s what the armed forces are for.” And with that, Jeff kissed me, hard. Kissed him right back, because who was I to argue with the Leader of the Free World?
To his credit, Jeff ended our kiss sooner as opposed to later, but not so soon that I wasn’t ready to go for it right here. He looked more than a little smug about this, which was amusing in that I was pretty much always ready to go for it with him. But it was nice to know that he never took that for granted.
“Who else is here? I saw a bunch of bodies that one of the missiles was aimed for. And was anyone hit or hurt?”
“Chuck, Lorraine, Claudia, Christopher, and Serene came over with me, along with far too many Secret Service agents and about a dozen Field agents. No one was hurt, but only because we’d assigned Field teams to the Secret Service.”
“I thought Christopher and Serene were handling media stuff.”
“They decided helping everyone save the First Lady’s life and the lives of everyone at Caliente Base took precedence.”
“No need to sound so snippy, I wasn’t complaining that they were here.” Looked around. “Where is everyone?”
“Christopher is confirming that Caliente Base is cleared out. I sent Chuck and Serene off to ensure that law enforcement keeps people away from here, and they’re also wrangling the Secret Service. Lorraine and Claudia are handling the ones who refused to leave the area. In other words, the main details for you and me.”
“They’re doing their best.”
Jeff sighed. “I know. I think we need to assign A-Cs to those positions, though. Because no human Secret Service agent can do what the greenest Field agent can.”
“I could. Tim and James could, too. Don’t sell them short. Maybe we should train them like we train our human agents instead of trying to circumvent them all the time.”