Chapter 130
Once Alcatraz came into view out the window, everything got very real. Cadon had seen the Rock in movies and photographs, but here it was below him now, and the impenetrable nature of a fortress built on a giant rock sticking out of the ocean suddenly became overwhelming.
“We can do this,” he told himself, hoping no one else could hear him. He was saying it in his mind, but with the IAC, there was always the possibility that he’d accidentally broadcast it.
Jo had been here a few times before, to visit Aurora. Zane had been there to see his parents. Sometimes they let people visit, which Cadon didn’t quite understand. He wished someone who had actually been there was with them now. At least they might have some clear understanding of the layout other than what they’d see on maps and blueprints.
“You ready?” Jamie asked him as the helicopter started to descend.
Cadon’s heart was in his chest, but he nodded that he was. Hoping to channel the spirit of his father, he gave the order. “All right--everybody, prepare to launch!”
The helicopters only planned to be on the ground for a few seconds, but it was clear from the moment they landed that the Vampires had seen them coming. Immediately, the two aircraft started taking heavy fire.
The choppers had guns built into them as well, and the pilots had no problem firing back, but they also understood that they were vulnerable to losing an engine or not having enough fuel to get back to the mainland. The pilot of the other bird said in Cadon’s head, “Tell your people they’ve got one minute to get their stuff and get the hell out of here!”
Cadon knew that wouldn’t be enough time for his crew to get everything they had loaded into the helicopter out of it, but he passed on the message, leaping out of the airplane with his gun firing as soon as the door was open. The rest of the team from his chopper was doing the same.
Heather threw a shield in front of the helicopters. Once the pilots could see that the bullets were no longer hitting their choppers, they calmed down a bit. One of them told Cadon and Heather, “You better be able to keep that over us as we fly out of here, too.”
“Don’t you worry your sweet ass about that,” Heather replied. “I can keep it on you all the way to mainland Californie if you want.”
Cadon might’ve laughed at her pronunciation if he wasn’t too busy firing at the Vampires that were pouring out of the prison. They were going down easily enough, but there were so many of them, a lot more than he’d thought there would be. A message came in from Elliott as the frontline sprinted toward the entrance. “Aurora says the guards are turning on them! We need to get the Healers in there ASAP.”
“What?” Cadon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Turning on them?”
“Yeah! Killing the prisoners!”
“But… that’s not supposed to happen!” Cadon had never taken it into consideration that the Vampires might turn on the prisoners rather than simply going after the attacking forces.
“Well, it is happening. They’ve got Hunter Assassins in there, too, so no one is safe. They’re moving down the row of cells, firing into every single one of them. I’m going in!”
“Right. Go ahead,” Cadon said, watching Elliott from a distance as he took careful aim at the Vampires coming out of the building. Not only were they coming out the main door, but they were also coming out windows and down the slopes from other buildings and seemingly appearing out of the cliffside. There were openings all over the place, more buildings than he’d realized, and the entire facility was so run down and falling apart, Cadon wasn’t even sure how it was functioning as a prison. From the outside, it looked like a sieve. How did you keep prisoners locked in a strainer?
Elliott was getting shot left and right, but he just kept going, firing at the enemy as he pushed his way inside of the building. Cadon knew they were going to need to get more people in there. Elliott couldn’t do it by himself.
The choppers took off. Cadon spared a second to see what he had going on behind him. All of their large weapons were unloaded. Brandon had the bazooka and was firing at one of the buildings they were fairly certain had no prisoners in it. He had to assume that the Guardian was in contact with someone who could verify that before he pulled the trigger. At least, Cadon hoped he did.
Once the helicopters were out of range of the bloodsuckers, Heather was able to help them with the attack. “You need to get in there with Elliott!” Cadon told her.
“Why?” Heather asked.
“Because they’re killing prisoners. You can put a bubble around yourself and get in there.”
“I can put a bubble around all of us and get us in there, dumbass!” she replied.
Cadon wished he would’ve thought of that before her. “All right. Just the frontline, though. The others are going to stay behind and defend the weapons.”
“With the weapons?” she asked as she was already moving to do what he’d asked.
“Yeah.” It did sound stupid when she put it like that, but it had all made sense when they’d planned it, and she’d been in the meeting. If she thought that it was dumb, He couldn’t worry about the plan at the moment. He just had to make it work.
Heather tossed her shield around everyone in the frontline, which included three Healers--Jamie, Cale, and Martin, as well as Cadon, Brandon, and Dax. There were fifteen of them in all surrounded by blue light as they moved toward the fortress.
The Vampires grew frustrated, trying to shoot through the impenetrable globe of energy, but none of their bullets could break through.
It would’ve been possible for them to shoot out, and Cadon thought that some of them were doing that as they went, but he was focused on getting inside. He needed these Healers to get to the prisoners that had already been shot. The idea that they could successfully break into Alcatraz to save these people only to get them all assassinated was unthinkable.
And yet, as they entered the building and ran down the hall toward the cells, that was exactly what appeared to be happening.
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