"Get Down!," Finne was screaming at Sarah.
"Get all the way into the back and keep your head down!"
Finne had taken
command again and Sarah was listening. Less than a minute earlier, the
two had just been "read into" one of the deepest secrets of the US
government, along with, a chronology of their lives in acute detail since each
became a watch-keeper juror by means of political and ritualistic
selection. Finne was worried Sarah’s
head would explode with the revelations she received - revelations that
confirmed many of Finne’s assessments of his word for many years. Now he truly
feared for Sarah’s life as the repetitive fire of automatic weapons was
directed at them down the narrow tunnel they were speeding through.
The CIA bunker was breached by a well-armed, and obviously
well-informed, assault team by means of the escape tunnel Jack learned of
during Sarah and his covert arrival.
Three SUVs had crashed through a retractable wall exposing the tunnel
from which they penetrated the secure enclave.
As the gunfire erupted, Jack pulled Sarah towards the erupting assault,
running low along the concrete wall that spanned the longest side of the room. His gut choice of direction was likely the
oonly reason he and Sarah were alive. At
the moment Finne pulled Sarah in flight, a full counter-assault team and barrage
of gunfire erupted from the opposite corner.
The immediate distraction of the opposing forces had given Finne a
narrow window of time to flee beyond the assaulting forces and to the rear
vehicle in their assault motorcade. The
SUV was armored, Finne had determined when the first bullet hit the windshield at
face-level.
Finne had the gas pedal pressed to the floor and the heavy V8
engine roared with acceleration – in reverse.
The tunnel that had been breached was barely wide enough for a single
vehicle and one he and Sarah had escaped in had not cleared the tunnel and was
therefore only able to retreat in reverse.
The truck rode very roughly with a set of consistent thump-thump-thump
coming from all four tires. At regular
intervals Finne bounded over tire-shredding security bumps that were directed
in the opposite direction. Finne deduced
that the tires on the SUV he was racing backwards at speeds exceeding the DC
beltway traffic had all been punctured but kept treading due to the heavy
armoring of the vehicle.
A light ahead (behind) them in the tunnel began to expand as they
continued their high speed escape, scraping up against the narrow tunnel walls occasionally
as Finne returned his attention to the scene from which they were running.
“We’re almost out from the bunker.
Hold on, ‘cause we’re gonna make a hard turn on the way out.” Jack
instructed Sarah.
As Sarah grabbed hold of the seatback in front of her, the truck
swung violently in a clockwise direction.
They had exited the tunnel, and Finne had spun the SUV 180 degrees at
full speed, recovering the maneuver precisely as he had been trained in his evasive
driving instruction at FLETC. The SUV
hauled forward accelerating at its maximum into a darkened roadway canopied by a
well-aged and expansive tree line. Finne
soon realized where he was – on the other side of the Potomac River. The escape tunnel extended from the depths of
the CIA, under the river, and exited discreetly along the service road of the
Washington, DC reservoir with immediate access to McCarthur Blvd and the
suburbs of Georgetown.
Thinking back to the bloodshed they had just escaped, Finne was
not sure whether his ally, Jack, nor DCI Carroll were still alive. Within the grasp of his left hand, Finne
continued to grip the 8.5x11 inch envelope Jack had given him during the
debrief. His grip had contorted the
letter-sized container into a partially crumpled, sweat-stained mess. Finne realized he and Sarah continued to be
in imminent danger, but they also were likely the only hope to save the
President of the United States from a planned assassination. Finne considered his location and options to
hide. They needed to duck low from sight
asap. Of course, he thought.
