Typhoon Fury

66

Tagaan blinked his eyes as he regained consciousness. For a few seconds, he didn’t know where he was. Then he saw that he was close to the truck with the Typhoon supply inside. He must have been thrown far from the warehouse in the explosion.

Now he remembered that he had been right by the entrance with Locsin, trying to deflect the suspicion that Cabrillo had cast upon him. Knowing that Locsin would interrogate him further when the situation was under control, Tagaan had been backing out of the building as the first Kuyog exploded. His shirt was full of tiny holes where bits of the building had pierced his skin, but none of them seemed to have done real damage.

He pushed himself up and felt a sharp cramp in his calf, the first time he’d felt any significant pain since he began taking the drug. He looked down to see what could have caused it and went cold when he saw that his left foot was gone below the ankle.

Although it throbbed, the pain was manageable, but he had to get out of the cavern. His future here was over. If Locsin didn’t kill him, the police would no doubt be raiding the place as soon as Hidalgo had passed.

He looked up to see the first hint of daybreak through the hole in the cave roof. They were still in the eye of the storm. If he could get out now, he could get to a safe hideaway and tend to his leg. With the huge supply of Typhoon in the truck, maybe his foot would even grow back. He’d heard of salamanders regrowing lost limbs, so it might be possible.

He didn’t worry about putting on a tourniquet. The blood was no longer gushing from his leg and would soon stop flowing completely.

He crawled over to the truck and pulled himself up. He opened the rear door just to make sure the Typhoon was still inside. He counted the barrels and saw that all nine were there. He quickly opened the closest one and saw the cardboard piece holding the pressed flower. He took it and closed the door, then hopped to the driver’s seat.

The keys were in the ignition. He started the truck and patted the remote detonator in his pocket.

Sure that he had everything he needed, he shifted the automatic transmission into drive and accelerated toward the entrance tunnel.

Juan shook his head as he sat up. Linc was doing the same.

“You all right?” Juan asked him. He worked his jaw to try to get the ringing in his ears to stop.

Linc winced. “I’ll need about four hundred ice packs when we get back to the Oregon, but I’ll live.”

Then two noises added to the sounds of the burning warehouse. One was the exchange of gunfire echoing through the cavern, which made it difficult to tell where it was coming from. The other was the sound of a truck speeding away.

They turned to see the truck that had been parked near the front of the still-intact factory tearing across the compound. Tagaan was driving, and he wasn’t waiting for anyone else.

“That’s the one with the Typhoon inside,” Linc said.

Three nearby Humvees were in flames, but one looked undamaged. Juan pointed to it and said, “We can’t let him get away with the drug. Tail him, and stay in touch. We’ll intercept you after we get back to the helicopter.”

Linc nodded and sprinted to the Humvee.

Juan stood. “Eddie, what’s your status?”

“Juan, this is Beth” came the reply, amid intermittent three-shot reports of assault rifles in the background. “Eddie and Raven are busy right now shooting people.”

“How many?”

“A lot. I don’t think they’re real happy about you blowing up the place. Are you all right?”

“Tell Eddie we’re fine. Where are you?”

“I don’t know exactly. I think we’re on the other side of this complex from you.”

“I’m on my way.”

“I don’t think we’re going anywhere. Just follow the gunshots.”

Juan picked up his M4 and ran along the side of the burning warehouse as Linc got the Humvee started. He gunned it just as Tagaan disappeared into the tunnel.

In the rearview mirror, Tagaan could see a Humvee giving chase. That might be one of his men, but he couldn’t take the chance.

When he got to the entrance, he didn’t even slow down. The guards didn’t move as he sped toward them and he realized it was because each had a hole in his head.

He rammed the gates and they went flying into the jungle as the hood of the truck crunched from the impact. It had been modified to travel muddy roads, with a more powerful engine and bigger tires, so Tagaan knew it could take the punishment.

Once he was clear of the entrance and speeding down the road, he fished the detonator from his pocket and pushed the button.

Linc had his foot mashed to the floor as the Humvee rocketed into the tunnel. Then the light at the end of the tunnel vanished.

A split second later, the roar of an explosion rattled the Humvee, and Linc stood on the brakes. He came to a stop, and a roiling cloud of dust soon enveloped him.

He activated his comm link. “More bad news, Chairman.”

“Don’t tell me that explosion was you.”

“Almost. Tagaan blew the front entrance. We’re stuck in here.”

“Not necessarily,” the Chairman said. “But, first, Eddie, Raven, and Beth are pinned down. We can give them an advantage with the night vision goggles for at least a few minutes before dawn comes. Remember the diesel generator?”

Linc did indeed. He threw the Humvee in reverse. “I’ll help contribute to the mayhem.”

He backed out of the tunnel. When he was in the clear, he had a good view of the huge generator and the diesel tanker feeding it fuel.

He picked up his M4 and loaded another grenade into the launcher. He rammed it closed and fired at the tanker.

When the grenade hit the truck, it went up with a satisfying boom of thunder. A second later, the generator next to it blew up as well, and all the electric lights in the cavern went out.

“Good job, Linc,” Juan said over the radio. “I’ll meet you where Eddie and the others are.”

He stopped at the center stalagmite pillar and called Gomez.

“This is the Chairman,” Juan said. “We need immediate extraction.”

“Gotcha. Where?”

“Inside the cavern. We’re locked in.”

“Sorry, Chairman, did you say ‘inside the cavern’?” Gomez asked with disbelief.

“There’s a hole in the roof. Plenty big for you. We’ll be on the side of the cave that isn’t burning.”

“Sure! Landing inside a cave? I do it all the time. This should be interesting. See you soon.”

The gunshots were more sporadic now, so killing the electricity must have slowed down the attackers. The only remaining light was from the warehouse and truck fires. Juan was about to join the fray when he spotted a beaten-up plastic tube lying on the ground.

The Picasso.

He was bending to pick it up when he was tackled from behind. The night vision goggles were knocked from his head, the assault rifle went flying. Juan rolled to avoid being pinned to the ground. He leapt up into a fighting stance and was confronted with a bloodied and bruised man. It had to be Dolap. It looked like he’d been caught on the fringes of the warehouse explosion.

Dolap, backlit by the fire, didn’t bother looking for the assault rifle. He drew a wicked-looking knife the size of a bayonet and launched himself at Juan.

Juan fell back, as if off balance, and put his prosthetic leg up in a defensive posture as Dolap landed on him, reaching out with the knife until the blade was only inches from Juan’s neck. Juan gripped Dolap’s wrist and pushed with his foot against Dolap’s chest, but he couldn’t budge the powerfully built man. The knife edged closer.

Juan reached to his combat leg and found the hidden trigger that controlled the single-shot slug in his heel.

Just as he felt the blade digging into his skin, he activated the secret gun.

The shotgun shell blasted from his artificial foot and into Dolap’s chest. It must have pierced his heart, although it took a moment for the brain to register. Dolap went limp and toppled to the ground.

Juan stood, picked up the Picasso tube, and slung it over his shoulder. His goggles were toast, from hitting the ground, so he began to search for the assault rifle in the deep shadows.

Movement from the warehouse caught his eye, and he saw a figure climbing out of the ashes of the demolished building like a phoenix rising. Locsin’s skin was charred, and his clothes hung in tatters, but he seemed to shrug off the severe wounds and raised a radio to his face.

Instantly, Juan heard the sounds of shouting and footfalls coming his way from Eddie’s direction, far more men than he could take on by himself.

He couldn’t wait to find his weapon, and he couldn’t afford to get stuck inside a building he didn’t know. But Juan remembered the ladder on the outside of the factory building. If he could get up there, Gomez could land on it and pick him up before the charges they set went off and blew up the building underneath him.

Juan drew his pistol and ran.