Chapter 13 - THE PURSUIT AT THE MOTOR POOL
"Find her!" Kane roared, spinning around toward his junior officers. "Get the perimeter patrol on the radio! Do not let that woman leave this installation!"
Kane didn't wait for his aides. He sprinted toward his command humvee, his pristine uniform quickly gathering the very dust he had spent the morning avoiding. Ellis climbed into the passenger seat without asking, grabbing an encrypted hand-held radio from the center console.
"She won't take the main road," Ellis said calmly as the heavy diesel engine roared to life. "She keeps an old civilian Land Cruiser parked near the secondary maintenance yard behind Bunker Seven. If she hasn't started the ignition yet, we have three minutes."
Kane shoved the transmission into drive, the heavy tires tearing into the gravel as the vehicle surged forward. His mind raced with a chaotic mixture of desperation and shame. Just fifteen minutes earlier, he had sneered at her calloused hands, her grease-stained t-shirt, and her lack of uniform adornment. He had called her a low-level armorer, fit only for mopping floors and swabbing barrels. Now, the lives of a senior government official and four operators hung entirely on her willingness to pull a trigger.
They skidded around the massive concrete blast walls of Bunker Seven, tires smoking against the tarmac.
At the far edge of the lot, next to a rusted chain-link fence, stood an ancient, desert-tan Land Cruiser with spare jerrycans mounted on the back. Claire was there. She had already loaded her olive-drab canvas gear bag into the rear cargo bed and was reaching for the driver's door handle.
Kane slammed the humvee into park and practically threw himself out of the cabin. "Major Vance! Wait!"
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Claire paused. She didn't flinch, nor did she reach for a weapon. She turned her head slowly, her hazel eyes locking onto Kane with the same glacial calm she had displayed at the firing line.
"My enlistment ended two years ago, Admiral," Claire said, her voice barely carrying over the hum of the idling engine. "I don't answer to rank titles anymore."
