Assault on Alpha Base

Chapter 23

“Don’t move, Major. You’ve got an IV in you.”

McGriffin opened his eyes. The ceiling jiggled crazily, like someone was bouncing the room up and down. JP-4 and antiseptic mixed in a bizarre potpourri of smells. The whooshing and movement brought him back to reality: he was inside a helicopter. He tried to move his hands but couldn’t. They were bound to his sides.

His shoulder didn’t hurt. It struck him that nothing hurt. Trying to move his arm again, he realized that he couldn’t feel it. He opened his mouth — it felt cottony.

The nurse put a finger to his lips and smiled, shaking her head. “You’re burned pretty badly, sir. We’ve got you doped up and will be air evacking you to Salt Lake City as soon as we reach Wendover.”

“Man … Manny?” He was surprised at the sound of his voice. The words croaked out.

The nurse sternly admonished him. “No talking, Major.”

“Howdy, sir.” Chief Zolley pushed his face over McGriffin’s. Zolley threw a look at the nurse. “I’ll fill him in, Lieutenant. He’s probably dying to know what’s going on.”

The nurse grimaced at his choice of words but moved back, allowing Chief Zolley to hunch forward.

“Manny, I mean Captain Yarnez, is right behind you. You’re both going to be spending some time in the Shriner’s burn unit. It took a while, but once the fires showed up on satellite, we were able to pull you out by airlifting nearly half the base to the mountains.” He leaned closer. “You got them, Major. The DOE team recovered every stolen nuke. They weren’t even scratched in those containers. You really did a real Sierra Hotel job.”

McGriffin tried to wet his lips. “Alfa — Alfa …”

“Alpha Base? It’s surrounded with the rest of the security police force, plus some Marines flown in from Pendleton on Transatmospheric Vehicles. They rounded up the terrorists, including four in a Bronco, trying to escape off base. No civilian air traffic is allowed anywhere near Wendover.” He laughed. “There’s some crazy first lieutenant, a big black security policeman, who was inside Alpha Base during the raid — he nearly took out the whole NEST and Broken Arrow teams when they didn’t produce their ID’s fast enough. He’s acting like he’s possessed.” Zolley shook his head. “Between him and those two drunk fighter pilots — after the smoke cleared, we couldn’t drag those two F-16 jocks out of the O’Club bar.”

Moving his weight from one foot to the other, Zolley continued, “We were holed up in the command post for nearly two hours, trying to dig out from the explosions. Whoever planned that assault didn’t have to do anything fancy: they just took out our centralized communications points and hit us when we were asleep.”

McGriffin mouthed “Vikki …”

He grew somber. “They’ve got the girl under constant surveillance. She said something about Do’brai backing them before she passed out. Rumor is the administration isn’t going to let them get away with it if it’s true. Something about a ‘swift, decisive response.’

“Anyway, you missed the excitement at command post, but I’m sure the hell glad you weren’t there. We would have never stopped them if it wasn’t for you.”

As the nurse approached, Chief Zolley clammed up.

“Sergeant, Major McGriffin needs his rest.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He stood and directed his comments to McGriffin. “I’m only along as an official observer from command post. Colonel DeVries wants an up-to-the-minute report on everything that happens.” He grinned broadly. “He was ready to court-martial you when he discovered you left your post, but from all I’ve been hearing, you’ll get an audience with the commander-in-chief after you’re healed.”

“Sergeant!”

Chief Zolley placed a hand on McGriffin’s chest. “Good luck, sir.” Zolley winked, then turned and nodded to the nurse before stepping to the rear.

The young lieutenant stuck a needle into the IV sac. “This will help you get back to sleep, Major. Just relax.”

McGriffin blinked. Just relax, he thought dreamily. It wasn’t like his problems were over. Lieutenant Fellows, Manny … It felt great to be part of a team. It was the only thing in the world that could compare with flying, getting to work with guys like that. Like someone once said, “No matter how dark things get, that sun is always going to rise in the morning.”

And then he thought of Vikki.

He steeled himself.

Maybe that sun wasn’t going to rise after all, at least not for her. Funny how he thought he knew her. He wondered how much more he didn’t know about her.

After this raid, security at Alpha Base could only tighten, making it impossible for something like this to ever happen again. So in a way, maybe Vikki got what she wanted after all.

As he drifted off to sleep, he felt placid. It wasn’t like he’d ever get bored in the Air Force, even pulling a desk job.

Who’d have ever thought he’d see more excitement than flying?