A Second Chance

Part 80 - Extraction

Five minutes passed faster than expected.

"The time has come," Rami said.

He'd worked a section of the partition loose from the bottom, enough to push through, and the space on the other side was dark but open. Some kind of maintenance corridor running along the back of the building, unlit, which was exactly what we needed.

"You five go first," I said. "Remember, you gotta be as quiet as possible."

Soo went first without being asked, which was expected. One by one they got through, and Charlotte went last before me, moving quickly and without complaint. I followed and Rami came through behind me and pushed the section back into place as best he could.

The corridor was narrow and smelled like old concrete and something mechanical further down. No lights, no sound from inside the building.

Rami moved to the front without a word and we followed him, single file, moving slowly enough to stay quiet. The corridor ran longer than I expected, curving slightly before hitting a door at the far end that had a faint crack of light underneath it.

Rami listened at the door for about ten seconds. Then he opened it slowly.

There was a storage yard in open air. One floodlight was mounted on the far wall pointing the wrong direction, leaving most of the yard shadowed. A fence was there on the left side with a vehicle gate that was currently closed but not locked from what I could see.

Two guards near the main building entrance on the right, facing away from us.

I looked at Rami. He looked at the guards. He held up two fingers and pointed at himself and then at me.

We moved at the same time. Rami subdued the left guard cleanly and quietly. I put mine in a lightning-infused chokehold, taking a bit longer, but just as efficient. Both of them were down in under ten seconds and nobody inside heard anything.

"The gate should be it," Rami said.

I got it open and we pushed through onto the road outside, and about thirty meters down there was a truck parked outside what looked like a supply building. It was definitely much better than the truck we were using beforehand. 

"Please me that's unlocked," Deon said.

Rami opened the door. 

"It is," he replied. "Now get in,"

Everyone piled in. 

Rami had it running in about twenty seconds through the same method he'd used in Sana'a, and we were moving before anyone from the facility had any idea we were gone.

I looked through the back window as the building disappeared behind us.

"That was smooth," Charlotte said, still catching her breath.

"Hey, don't jinx it!" I warned.

"I'm not jinxing anything! I'm making an observation!"

"An observation that could be jinxed!"

"That's not how jinxing works!" She stared at me. "Is it?"

"Maybeeeee,"

"Wha-" She opened her mouth and then closed it, completely confused. 

Rami kept driving south without a word. I just hope nothing like that happens again, or it would suck heavily. 

...

The road to Aden held.

Three hours of flat, dark desert with nothing coming at us from either direction, which after everything felt almost suspicious. I kept watching the side roads every time we passed one, waiting for the same thing that had happened outside Sana'a, but nothing came. Just the road and the dark and the engine.