by Brian Cotton
***
Kaspar heard Harvey’s words. He gripped his MP-5 and prepared to raid the building. Steinner led the way as he stood and motioned for the others to follow him. They moved forward with swiftness. To his right, out of the corner of his shaded eyes, Kaspar saw another Agent go down from a precise sniper shot. When they reached one of the back doors of the complex, Buck pulled out a small explosive and stuck it to the handle. He moved out quick and the small, near silent explosion blew off the door handle. A light kick to the door from Steinner opened it.
The team entered the back door and there were no Agents around. They split up in their two teams. Dexter and Krys went left with Buck; Kaspar and Steinner moved right. With his MP-5 shouldered, Kaspar followed close behind Steinner. It was still before dawn so the shift was smaller than it normally would be. It almost came as a shock to Kaspar that they had not been ambushed, yet.
They kept moving until they got to the end of the hallway where they took a left and entered through the last door on the right. Three Agents were caught by surprise when the two rebels entered the lab. The Agents tried to get their shit together and went for their weapons. A wave of cool, calculated bursts from the silenced weapons put them down before they could. Kaspar moved past the bodies and went for the computers. Steinner moved fast towards the machines which produced the new drug. With a firm grip on the flash drive from his vest, Kaspar inserted it into the USB drive. After that, he turned his attention to the door.
Steinner moved fast when the pressure was on. He was already halfway done when there was a communication over their ears. Harvey was talking to Buck, trying to calm the boy’s nerves over the radio. It made Kaspar want to vomit. The kid needed to grow a pair and get the job done, just like everyone else.
The door opened. An Agent walked in and was just as shocked as the others. He grabbed for his pistol, but Kaspar blew him away with a three round burst to the chest, then another burst to the face. What was left of the head made a loud thud on the white tile floor. Steinner stood from the black boxes with the C4 assembled properly. He set the timer for ten minutes then joined Kaspar by the door. Kaspar walked over to the computer and snatched the flash drive from it. Together, the two rebels moved out from the lab.
Their pace was brisk as they tried to keep their noise down. From the conversations over the radio with father and son, it appeared that Buck was doing just fine. All of a sudden, there was silence and heavy breathing through the headphones. Then, the sound became so loud that it caused Kaspar’s ears to ring. Gunfire. Steinner yelled for them to move fast. Kaspar didn’t need the command, he was already well past his partner. He ran through the circular lobby that Clarke warned about. He didn’t take the time to sweep from left to right with his gun. Krys was in trouble.
“We’re getting ambushed here!” Dexter cried through the radio.
“How the hell did that happen?” Harvey demanded.
“I don’t know! I…”
As they ran, Kaspar unscrewed the silencer from his MP-5. Not much use for it now and he would need all the accuracy he could get. They moved fast to the sounds of the loud bursts of automatic fire.
Just hold on, Krys, Kaspar thought.
Kaspar, in the lead, turned the corner of the hallway. As soon as his body was exposed, a rapid burst of automatic rounds were sent his way. He saw the Agent just before he pulled the trigger and immediately moved back. Several of the rounds hit the corner, causing pieces of the concrete wall to go flying in the air. Kaspar held up his balled fist for Steinner to stop. Steinner obeyed, and then turned his back.
“How’s Buck doing?” Steinner demanded into his mouthpiece.
“Not good!” Dexter replied.
Kaspar moved his head slightly over the corner. When he heard the shots, he moved back as more concrete chunks blew past him. Beside him, Steinner was standing in a poised position to shot anything that approached. Kaspar then heard the footsteps of the Agent around the corner moving in closer.
Kaspar moved his MP-5 against the wall and pointed the barrel at the corner. Before the Agent got there, the loud sound of a high caliber bullet breaking through a glass window filled Kaspar’s ear. A swift moment later, he heard a body fall to the ground. The Agent who had him pinned down was taken out by a highly accurate sniper’s bullet.
“Whoever is stuck at the corner,” Harvey said. “You’re good to go.”
“Thanks, boss.” Kaspar replied.
“I’ll cover your asses from here. Just keep moving to the others’ position.”
Another bullet tore through the glass window and struck another Agent in the head. Kaspar and Steinner moved into the hallway now with their weapons drawn. They continued until they were right next to the lab that the others were in. When they reached the opened door, Kaspar pressed his back against the left side of the doorway, Steinner on the right. Kaspar poked his head slowly through the doorway. The Agents weren’t watching the door.
Instead, they surrounded the three rebels inside.
.13
The three rebels were bunched up together behind one of the black boxes which mixed together the drug. The Agents began to converge in on them and continued to fire their automatics into the dark metal box. Krys moved her silenced MP-5 to the side of it, poked her head up slightly, and then fired the submachine gun at one of the Agents. The bullets tore through his armor.
Kaspar made a signal to Steinner. The two moved into the room. They began to fire away with their MP-5s. The Agents inside were caught off guard. They turned their attention to back of the room as they began to drop like flies. Dexter, from behind the box, yelled a command for them to move out and attack. They did so and, after a brief moment of gun fire, all the Agents fell to ground. Nobody from the team was hurt.
“What’s your status, Buck?” Kaspar demanded.
“I’m…almost done.”
“Get a move on it!”
Buck ran back to work on his C4. Steinner moved in and pushed the kid to the side. He ordered Buck to stand guard at the door. In the commotion, no one saw the Agent sneak in from that door on the far side of the lab. He put a single bullet through Steinner’s head. Buck stood motionless as his comrade’s lifeless body crashed to the floor. Blood began to leak from the bullet wound. Everyone, except for him, turned and fired a barrage of bullets into the Agent.
“Goddamnit, Buck!” Dexter yelled. “Finish that bomb!”
The kid was still shaken, both mentally and physically. His hands shook as he struggled to get the bomb ready. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he got it done and set the timer for seven minutes. He stood and gave the thumbs up.
“Harv, this is Dex,” the rebel said as he touched his throat. “Steinner’s down, but we got the bombs done. We’re moving out, now.”
“Shit!” Harvey cried. “Okay, but you’ve got some forces moving in from the outside. Shift change. We were supposed to out of here by now! I’ll provide cover fire from up here, but you guys better book it.”
“Roger.”
The team moved down the hallway in near single file. As they moved to the lobby, they began to see Agents drop from Harvey’s shots from up on the hill. Once outside, there was mass confusion for the Agents as they continued to fall. Kaspar saw an Agent move in from the left. He turned and fired into him. As the Agents continued to fall, the rebels made it to the hill. Dexter and Kaspar stayed behind at the bottom, in the trench, to give Krys and Buck cover fire. Once they got the signal, they moved up as well.
With everyone up top, Harvey left the sniper rifle behind and ran with the others to the vehicles. Several moments later, they heard the explosions come from inside the complex. They all scrambled their way to escape. Dexter hopped in the driver’s seat of the first vehicle and quickly started the engine. In the second vehicle Buck, who had been sitting in the front seat, refused to do so this time. He instead moved to the back with Kaspar and Krys. He figured it was saf
er in the back, even with everyone pissed off at him, than up front with his father.
Harvey turned the key in the ignition and slammed on the gas. The bumpy ride began and grew more intense as the assault vehicle picked up speed. Harvey looked around with the great vision that the man upstairs had blessed him with. He saw no one in pursuit. Even still, he didn’t allow his attention to waver.
In the back, nobody spoke. Kaspar moved over to Krys and began to rub at her shoulders. She had already taken her mask off and tears were running down her cheeks. While he continued to rub on her, he felt an instant fit of guilt deep within. He didn’t really know Steinner that well, other than the man was a good soldier, but he was just thankful that if anyone was going to die, that it wasn’t Krys. He couldn’t, for obvious reasons, make that assertion out loud.
For his part, Buck didn’t make a sound, didn’t even take his mask off. He just sat there, shaken. He started to rub his hands together and then slammed his balled fist to the side of the vehicle. Kaspar moved in to try and console him, even though what he really wanted to do was knock the kid’s lights out, but Buck pushed him off.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Kaspar said.
“Fuck you it wasn’t.” Buck replied.
“Listen, we got ambushed. We were caught off guard. It would be a hell of a thing for anyone to put that bomb together under that pressure.”
“I’m fast…this is below me. I screwed it up again and now a man’s dead. Don’t try to make me feel better.”
“Okay.”
“Listen, everyone!” Harvey cried from the front. “We’ll talk about this later, right now, we’ve got to pick ourselves back up. Buck…we’ll talk later, too.”
Buck folded his arms across his chest and slouched in his seated position. He wanted to jump out of the vehicle, right here, and just end it. He would never be free from his father’s grasp. And, if he quit, then what would happen? Steinner was dead now and it was all his fault. He knew it, tried to accept it, and would eventually take ownership of it. He didn’t need someone like Kaspar trying to tell him that it wasn’t his fault. In the end, it didn’t even matter, Steinner was gone and nothing could bring him back.
He just wondered when it would be his turn.
.14
X sat at the table and studied his cards. The hands on the table right now had a variety of messages strewn across. Deciphered, they read something along the lines of: Shipment ready for pickup any heat on our end?
This is where the little game that they created got challenging, much like playing actual Texas Hold Em poker. He stared at his cards and rubbed at the stubble on his chin. He started to play a card, but held back. Instead, he folded.
“Don’t have shit.” he cried as he slammed his cards on the table.
“Pussy!” Sugar said with a laugh. He threw down a card. It changed the message on the table to: Shipment ready, no heat.
Reed, seated at the head once again, wasn’t so sure about that assertion. To his surprise, no other members of the crew had been interviewed, yet. They were careful to search the warehouse where they met every day for any kind of surveillance, but didn’t find anything obvious. They were all sure, though, that the room was bugged. Everyone was under the hope that their little card game was enough to disguise their communications.
The leader stuck his arms underneath the table and, quickly, pulled a card from under his sleeve. He pulled his arms back up and threw down the Ace of Hearts. Everyone’s eyes grew wide when they saw it and the room went silent for a moment. That card was played when there was heat on them, and Reed believed that Sullivan guy was still hot on their trail.
“You fuckin’ cheated, dog.” Pepper cried out.
“What are you talking about?” Reed demanded.
“You stuck your damn hands under the table and pulled that card out!”
“Please.”
“I think I saw it, too.” X said.
For a moment, the look in X’s eyes scared Reed to death. He had that look that said “I will fucking kill you” which must have harkened back to his days as a gangster. It actually caused Reed to shake for a moment before remembering that this was all just an act for the USR. You couldn’t tell from X, though, as his face never changed even when a smirk started to grow on his leader’s. He was an excellent actor to be sure.
“All right, all right, we’ll play another one.” Reed said.
“What about my damn chips?” X demanded.
Now, Reed was starting to get frustrated. X was taking it too far, but maybe that was a good thing. As soon as he saw that Ace, his demeanor completely changed. He was playing off his part really well, but it was starting to get under Reed’s skin.