Ogrodnik Interior

by Gary Raymond Coffin

  Rayce was watching closely out the window, and when they were nearing Biovonix, he opened the side door. The last preparation was for Elliot to hook their harnesses together, Rayce in front.

  The squared clearing of the Biovonix bunker came into view 2000 feet below them, and Rayce yelled at the pilot to tell him they were jumping.

  The pilot responded once more by giving the thumbs up.

  Rayce’s harness pulled Elliot out of the chopper with him as he jumped into a short stretch of free fall before deploying the parafoil. The harness snapped tight and groaned under the initial 3 g load but held fast, and in seconds, they were in a wide spiral descending toward the Biovonix building.

  Rayce turned on his NVGs and signaled Elliot to do the same. The dark of night turned pale green in Elliot’s viewer, brighter in areas of light and pale green where there was no light before.

  Elliot estimated they were at about 400 feet when Rayce pointed to the bunker roof. He saw only pale green at first, but as they neared the rooftop, he was able to identify four prone shapes on the roof. Three were on the west side of the building near the roof edge, and the other was on the adjacent south edge. He took the chute out on a wide circle to the northeast side of the bunker and aligned the chute to start the glide in at about 200 feet overhead of the west facing mercenaries. It was a one shot deal. If Rayce didn’t take out all four in the first pass, they would glide past the building and be sitting ducks for whoever was still left on the roof.

  Rayce removed his NVGs, unsnapped his rifle, took the safety off and ensured the rifle was in semi auto mode. The AS Val was a marvel of understated elegance in an assault rifle. Light and sturdy, it was designed to be stripped down to the bare essentials to conserve weight. Rayce’s model sported a 20 round magazine underneath and a short, thick barrel that employed built-in sound suppression. This particular model was specifically configured for snipers.

  Based on the rooftop deployment of the men he had just observed, Rayce intuitively understood the optimum sequence to take out the targets. Sammy’s distraction would focus the rooftop soldiers on the wooded area nearest the building’s southwest corner. He’d take out the targets starting with the man farthest from the corner on the west side. Since all eyes would be focused on the southwest wooded area, there was no reason any of the other soldiers would be looking back behind them. He would progress through them always taking the one farthest from the southwest corner until they were all dispatched.

  Rayce waited for the slight wobble in their flight path to settle and aligned the crosshairs on the head of the third target along the west wall. He had mentally rehearsed the strategy and estimated that after the first shot, it would take him two seconds to target each subsequent soldier. It was the fourth figure that would represent the most challenge. The fourth soldier would have six seconds to realize what was happening and to do something about it. Rayce didn’t think that the fourth man would realize the first two had been taken, but it was almost a certainty that the lone shooter along the south wall would see the soldier closest to him on the west wall go down. Rayce’s strategy was predicated on firing at prone, unmoving targets. If the fourth man reacted by rolling off to one side, Rayce would have little chance of getting a clean hit. If that happened, all bets were off.

  Rayce had already calculated the elevation and distance he’d need to ensure optimal shooting time and angle. Because of the additional weight of having two jumpers on one chute, his glide ratio would only be about 1.5 to 1. That, coupled with his descent rate of about 20 feet per second, told him that to get four shots off, he’d have to take his first shot when he was 180 feet up and 200 feet away from the southwest corner. Factoring in the six seconds he estimated it would take him to target and shoot all four, he’d be almost overhead of the last soldier when he shot him.

  Elliot was looking directly over Rayce’s shoulder as he aimed and shot. The suppressed pffft sound of the silenced AS Val was louder than Elliot thought it would be, and he worried that the other soldiers would hear it. He watched through the NVGs for any signs of awareness from the rooftop shooters and saw none, but he did see the targeted soldier farthest from the corner visibly slump. The force exerted from the discharge of the sub-sonic round, although not huge, started the parafoil in a lazy sway. From what Elliot could determine, Rayce was not panicking. He held the rifle steady and waited for the lazy sway of the chute to line up the next target. Another pffft sound, another slumped soldier on the rooftop, but the second detonation exacerbated the chute wobble. Rayce still maintained composure and waited for the chute's wobble to align his sights on the next one, but his two-second estimate was blown. The chute was now no more than 30 feet above the rooftop and only 40 feet behind the shooters. They were moving fast, and he had still not fired at the third soldier. Rayce managed to squeeze off the third shot just before they passed overhead. Elliot looked back as they passed to see the third shooter fall over. The last soldier, the lone man on the south wall, had seen them and was now up on his feet and bringing his weapon to bear. The chute, with Rayce and Elliot dangling from it, was no more than 20 feet overhead and gliding away in the opposite direction. Elliot wrenched his left-hand control hard; the foil banked sharply to the left swinging its human cargo way out to the side, so they were almost parallel to the ground and swinging round to face the lone gunman less than 30 feet directly in front of them. Rayce had already switched the AS Val to auto mode, and as their arcing trajectory brought them face to face with their adversary, Rayce pulled the trigger and emptied his clip as it fanned across the struggling merc.

  Their momentum brought them back to the roof into a controlled crash that sent the two, still harnessed together, sprawling across the graveled rooftop.

  Rayce’s immediate response was to lie still and listen for activity. He quietly loaded a new magazine into the rifle and once satisfied there was no one else coming to help, signaled Elliot to start disentangling themselves.

  “I don’t remember it happening quite like that in your plans,” said Elliot.

  “My plan was to take out the soldiers on the roof before landing on it. I’d say mission accomplished,” Rayce deadpanned.

  “I think our best bet for getting intel will be on the guys in the NOC. They will be the more senior and will know more than the others. It’s also where Yilmaz is most likely to be. Gather up the chute, and stuff it in this duffel along with the NVGs,” Rayce ordered as he took off his harnesses.

  By the time Elliot was finished filling the duffel bag, Rayce was standing by the roof door with a small device in his hand.

  “Are you going to take all day with that, partner?” The question was rhetorical.

  “Wear one of their ear sets,” he said handing over a device that hooked over top of one ear with a short mike extending down to the upper jaw.

  “I expect when we open this door, someone is going to ask why. If you hear that question, push the on/off button on the side a few times,” he said pointing to a button on the side of the unit.

  Rayce opened the door, and they both entered and started down the stairs. As expected a voice came over the earpiece.

  “Is someone coming in off the roof?”

  Elliot tapped the on/off a number of times to send a staticcy message back.

  “You’re breaking up; please repeat.”

  Elliot repeated his static response.

  “Dietrich, is your earpiece working?”

  “We’re both fine down here.”

  “Are any of the ear pieces on the roof functional? Please respond.”

  Elliot responded with a prolonged series of on/off that generated an irritating string of sharp staticcy responses.

  “Okay. Forget it. Sounds like a technical issue. Keep your eyes on the west side. We’re still getting motion alarms in the woods.”

  He responded with a single on/off.

  “They just told us that there is no one on the second floor, and there are two i
n the basement,” said Rayce.

  “Why are there mercs deployed in the basement?”

  “My bet is that the garage door is wide open just waiting for someone to walk in. They have two mercs down there in case we get past their rooftop snipers. As soon as someone walks into the garage, they’ll open fire.”

  Now on the second-floor landing, Elliot opened the wiring closet door off to the side. It was as advertised. He saw a stack of four network switches with numerous blue network cables connected to the front. Evan's instructions had been clear and accurate. He pulled the DOS device from his pocket and plugged it into an open port on the top switch. There was no fanfare. A red light blinked on. Elliot looked at Rayce and shrugged his shoulders; they moved on.

  “The internal cameras should be down by now. They’re blind to us,” Rayce whispered. “Give me one minute, and then send the elevator down to the basement. Give me another minute to get rid of whoever is down there, and I’ll meet you in the main floor corridor.”

  Rayce disappeared down the stairwell, and Elliot checked his watch.

  Rayce snuck a peek through the window on the basement stairwell door and saw two guards off to his left. They were using a pair of cement pillars to partially shield themselves from the open garage access door on the far side of the lot. They looked bored. He ducked down and waited. The elevator ding sounded right on time, and he waited until he heard the doors slide open before stepping out into the garage. It was no contest. Rayce had his AS Val already pointing at the guard’s backs before they realized what was happening. Rayce did not try to be precise; he directed two short bursts at the soldiers, and they went down without retaliation. He did not dally in the basement; his task was accomplished, so he went back up the stairwell he came down on.

  “No issues?” queried Elliot as they approached each other on the first floor.

  “None. The two mercs were watching the garage entry door. As expected, they fell hook, line, and sinker for the elevator door.”

  “This is a stun grenade,” said Rayce quietly as he pulled a compact device from his fanny pack and handed it to Elliot.

  “It’ll detonate three seconds after you pull this pin and release the handle. I want you to pull the pin and toss the grenade in through that door,” he explained as they stood down the hall from a door that they knew led into the NOC.

  “Close the door, and stand back. As soon as the grenade detonates, I’ll come in through the other door and take them out. If anyone comes out of your door, shoot him.”

  “Won’t the grenade blow the walls out?”

  “It’s a stun grenade, a flash-bang. There is no shrapnel. The explosion is designed to create a lot of noise and an intense flash. Whoever is in the room will be momentarily incapacitated from sensory overload. If there are four of them in there, I should have plenty of time to take out three and leave one for questioning. Ready?”

  Elliot gave him the nod, and Rayce trotted down the hall and around the corner to stand by the other NOC door.

  ***********************

  Rayce heard Elliot’s door open followed by some shouting. He could make out the word “grenade” through the door and then a blast that shook the building. He didn’t wait. As soon as he heard the explosion, he stepped in through the door with gun leveled. There were two soldiers on the floor to his right where they had dived for cover. A short burst stitched across the two of them. He fanned the gun across the rest of the room and then stepped in farther to peer into an alcove in the back of the room. There were no other mercs in the room.

  Elliot entered the room and swatted a layer of smoke from in front of his view. He saw Rayce, weapon now lowered, moving toward two bodies on the other side of the room.

  Chapter 85

  As he approached the fallen mercs, Elliot heard a phlegmy cough from a merc who was lying on the floor with his head propped up against the wall.

  “This one is still alive,” said Rayce. “There were only two here. I don’t see Yilmaz or the other two heavies you described from the office. Maybe this guy can tell us where they are,” said Rayce putting down his rifle as he pulled out his knife and advanced toward the wounded merc.

  The soldier saw what was coming and turned his head to face Rayce. “That knife won’t do you any good, comrade,” he croaked. “I won’t last the hour.” He nodded down toward the two large entry wounds on his torso.

  Rayce took a long look at the man and sheathed his knife. He silently concurred with the soldier's prognosis; he also knew resolve in a man’s eyes when he saw it. He knelt down beside the dying man and looked at him for a few moments before speaking.

  “I’m giving you a chance to come clean, soldier. The men you‘re working for are nothing more than thugs and murderers. Tell us where to find Yilmaz.”

  The soldier coughed, and bloody spittle dripped from his mouth. “Why should I?”

  His voice went soft as he searched for a connection with the fading merc. “We’re the same, you and I. We fight on different sides, but we’re the same. We’re soldiers. Take away our weapons, and all that’s left is our word and our honor. You have a chance to balance your score sheet before you go. Tell us what we need to know so we can stop these assholes.”

  The soldier's head sagged, and Rayce thought that he was gone, but a brief coughing bout brought him back. “There’s a letter in my wallet. It’s a note to my daughter. Make sure she gets it, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  “You have my word,” Rayce said quietly.

  The dying man had no time to evaluate Rayce’s sincerity but at some level had already made up his mind that he was trustworthy.

  “The men you seek will be flying out of the private Shellco terminal at Dorval as soon as they are allowed, sometime around 6:00 a.m. this morning. “

  Elliot checked his watch. It was 2:25 a.m. They had three and a half hours.

  “Who will be on the plane?” probed Rayce.

  “Banik, Yilmaz, and two other mercs with him… and whoever makes it out of this bunker tonight.”

  “Where are they going?”

  “They’ll be headed for the Ukraine. I’m not sure where exactly.”

  “There is no extradition treaty in place with the Ukraine,” interjected Elliot.

  “Where are the rest of you? I don’t see Yilmaz, the guy with the big neck or the guy with the moustache.”

  “They left a few hours ago. Something about tying up some loose ends. They should have been back by now.”

  Elliot immediately wondered if Les RD Boys and the police chief were the loose ends.

  “What about the big man, Ogrodnik? Do you know how to find him?“ Elliot blurted.

  “No. He works for Banik. Only Banik knows how to contact him.”

  “Is there anything you can tell us about him? Any clue as to where he might be?” pleaded Elliot.

  The soldier's eyes drooped noticeably, but he was still able to shake his head no.

  “What about his name? Is Ogrodnik his last name? Give us something. He has my partner!“ Elliot’s voice rose an octave now bordering on panic.

  The soldier's head leaned back so he could see Elliot through the drooping stare. “Ogrodnik? Ogrodnik’s not his name,” he rasped.

  “It’s what he does,” he managed to squeak out before another coughing fit took him.

  Elliot waited anxiously until the cough had been satisfied. “What do you mean, what he does?”

  “It’s what he does. Ogrodnik means The Gardener in Polish.”

  Elliot heard a number of colors in his mental Rubik’s Cube slot into place. He thought back to the staged suicide at Kulas’s house and the matchbook by the ashtray. He had opened the matchbook looking for a number or name that may have been scrawled on the inside cover, but there was none. But the matchbook was from Hochelaga Landscaping. It seemed so obvious now. What would someone like Kulas want with a landscaping firm? What little lawn he had was more weed than grass and
hadn’t seen a lawn mower in weeks. And the dirt on the passenger side floor of the white van where Ogrodnik sat. Not just dirt but dried potting soil, something you wouldn’t expect to see around Kulas’s house, but something you’d definitely expect to find on the shoe of a landscaper.

  “Rayce, I think I know where he is. I know where to find Ogrodnik.”

  He quickly explained as Rayce listened. “I have to get Rivka.”

  “Do what you have to do. I’ll go through their phones to see if I can find a clue to where Yilmaz might be. When I’m finished, I’ll help you. Otherwise, we meet at the airport. Take a gun with you.”

  “I’ll take one of the trucks downstairs. You can have the other,” said Elliot as he left.

  Rayce turned his attention back to the soldier. The soldier's eyes were now closed, his life almost gone. He reached underneath the dying man and took his wallet. The folded paper was found within.

  The soldier opened his eyes to look at Rayce, now unable to even speak.

  Rayce read the question in his eyes. “You have my word, soldier. I’ll make sure your daughter gets the note. I’ll tell her you died in battle, with dignity. You fought for what you believed in and that she should be proud. That’s all she needs to know.”

  The soldier’s eyes closed again, and Rayce knew they would not re-open.

  He set about going through the fallen soldier's pockets and checking their phones for messages from Yilmaz. There was nothing of value on the bodies in the NOC, so he made his way up to the roof to check the dead mercs.

  The sound of an incoming vehicle caught his attention as he watched from the roof. Is that Elliot returning already he wondered? The black SUV roared up the road toward the bunker. The truck did not hesitate as it took the sharp left turn and headed for the open underground parking lot. Rayce saw the shiny reflection of Yilmaz’s bald head as the glow from a streetlight passed through the cab.