Chapter 444
[ 548 words ]
Chapter 444:
The pain in his legs was a living thing now, a fire that screamed at him to stay still. But the tapping above was a promise, and he latched onto it. He forced the agony into a corner of his mind, letting the rhythm of the signal pull him forward. His body had nothing left, but the marine in him knew this wasn’t about strength—it was about finding the last spark when there should be nothing left. Gritting his teeth, he stretched, his fingers straining. He managed to grasp the edges of both pieces.
He began to bang them together. The sound was sharp, metallic, and loud. He forced his numb, clumsy hands to follow the rhythm burned into the memory of every soldier and sailor. Three short. Three long. Three short. SOS.
Above them, Cole Bishop, the head of Sterling’s private security detail, held up a hand. “Hold it!” he commanded his team. “Everyone, quiet!”
The sounds of digging and shouting stopped. In the sudden silence, a life-detecting sensor in one of the men’s hands beeped erratically over a concentrated area.
And then they all heard it. Faint, but clear. The unmistakable metallic clanging from deep within the rubble.
“It’s the boss,” Cole breathed, a mixture of shock and relief on his face. “He’s alive. Here! Dig here!”
Below, Sterling’s strength was failing. The clanging grew weaker, his movements slower. His vision was starting to tunnel, the edges turning gray.
Just as his arms were about to drop, a section of the ceiling above was wrenched away. A blinding beam of light stabbed into the darkness, followed by a familiar voice.
“Boss! Hold on!”
It was Cole. Hope, raw and powerful, surged through Sterling, giving him a final burst of strength.
𝖥i𝘯𝗱 𝘯𝗼𝗏𝖾𝗹 𝗣𝘋𝖥𝗌 oո 𝗀a𝘭ո𝗼𝘷e𝗹s.c𝗼m
The rescue team worked with frantic efficiency. Cole was the first one through the opening. He took in the scene in a single, horrified glance: Sterling, pinned and bleeding, and the unconscious woman lying beside him.
“Get her first,” Sterling ordered, his voice a raw command. “She’s fading.”
Cole’s eyes flickered from Caroline’s still form to the catastrophic injury on Sterling’s legs. He made a split-second decision. “Get the hydraulic cutters on the boss’s legs! Now!” he barked at his men.
A low, furious growl rumbled in Sterling’s chest. “I said get her. That’s an order!”
Cole’s face was a mask of professional anguish. “I’m sorry, sir. My primary objective is your security. The military rescue teams are right behind us. They’ll take care of the… lady.”
As if on cue, they heard the distant shouts and saw the approaching beams of another, larger rescue party.
Cole’s expression hardened. He knew whose unit that would be. He couldn’t afford a confrontation here.
“No time! Get him out now! We’re leaving!”
He grabbed his comm unit and keyed the emergency channel. “Rescue Command, this is Asset Protection Team Delta. We have a civilian female, unconscious, critical condition, located at grid reference—” A burst of static swallowed the transmission. He repeated the message twice more, but the overloaded tactical net was a mess of overlapping distress calls and interference from the damaged infrastructure. He could only hope the relay had gone through.
Then he turned back to his men. Ignoring Sterling’s roars of protest, his men worked swiftly. They cut him free, loaded him onto a tactical stretcher, and began to move.
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