Drake Sisters 07 - Hidden Currents

It was up to Ilya now. He was an expert marksman, his reputation unrivaled, and he would need every bit of his abilities as a psychic as wel as a marksman in the high winds. He would also have to use those abilities to keep the helicopter stable and depend on Hannah’s precision with the wind in order to keep them al safe and provide the cover for the three men going in to rescue El e.
    The moment they were settled, the helicopter lifted into the storm. Jackson could see Hannah on deck, her arms outstretched to the sky, her sisters positioned behind her, feeding her energy as she orchestrated the storm. She directed the wind ahead of the helicopter so that Ilya could keep it stabilized as they shot through the air toward the island. The pilot skimmed the surface of the sea, the waves slapping greedily at them, dousing them with salt spray.
    Where the waves had been four or five feet, the wind the sisters were generating pushed the waves into towering threats, powerful wal s of crushing strength, white-caps that Jackson could barely make out in the pitch black of the night. The helicopter only gave off a soft green glow as it made its way toward the island, bucking and rocking, tossed from one storm cel to the next with only Ilya’s wil to stabilize them. As they approached the island, they went total blackout, cutting al light so they could go in with silent stealth.
    The pilot, Abel Wil iams, a man Jackson had fought three days and nights through thick enemy lines to get to when his helicopter had been shot down, looked grim and fierce as he struggled to keep the helicopter in the air. He’d come without hesitation, and never said a word when they told him he’d be flying in the black of night in the middle of a turbulent storm with choppy waves slapping at the bottom of the helicopter and occasional y washing inside through the open door.
    The coordinates of the two targets Matt and his team had sent for them to take out before they could put Jackson, Aleksandr and Jonas in the field were coming up fast. The helicopter’s safety was paramount before anything else. The first target was a complex tower built for obvious communication, but that would have gone down with the generator. More important, whoever sat in the bird’s-nest view could virtual y see the entire island and, with the right weapons, defend it from sea, sky or land attacks. The tower and anyone in it, had to go.
    Abel came in hot, darting out of the sky, rockets blazing orange-red streaks against a purple-black sky. He took the little helicopter in fast, fired and maneuvered away, skipping below the cliff line to prevent retaliation should the rockets miss. If the blast and ensuing rain of fire were anything to go by, he’d been dead on target. He was already heading toward their second destination.
    The lighthouse was next. Gratsos had a particularly large and wel -manned lighthouse. Aside from the powerful lamp that warned off boats and ships from the jagged rocks below, the building housed several guards with high-caliber weapons and enough firepower to fend off a ship ful of pirates. The guns boomed as they approached, shattering the night with a rumble like the clap of thunder. The wind howled and moaned and slammed at the lighthouse, ripping at the windows and roof as if trying to tear it open.
    Ilya and Jackson both put weapons to their shoulders, hands steady, looking for the mark they needed to keep the shooters silent until Abel lined up his craft in the wicked wind. Almost simultaneously they squeezed triggers and Jonas calmly reported, “Two kil s.â€
    Abel fired several rockets, taking the lighthouse from several levels as he nosed the bird up and then down. They hit within moments of one another, lighting up the night, flames shooting into the air and lighting the grounds with a towering inferno. Wreckage rained into the sea below, coating the roiling water with blackened, charred debris, some floating on the surface and others sinking like stone.
    The helicopter darted across the sky to hover directly over the grounds nearest the front door of the vil a. Ilya took out a guard on the roof as Jonas dropped a rope through the door of the swaying helicopter. A bul et thunked near Jonas’s head and he drew a weapon, but Ilya’s rifle fired a second time and the shooter went down.
    â€œClear,†Jonas snapped tersely. “Go.â€
    Jackson went first, fast-roping down,