Precipice: V Plague Book 9

by Dirk Patton

  This was dangerous as hell. If I missed the first shot, the sniper would be putting a round through my skull while I was focused on hitting his spotter. But there wasn’t any other way. If I waited until I was sure the sniper was down before taking the second shot the man would have plenty of warning and time to drop behind the parapet and start shouting the alarm.

  I was back on the sniper, half a second from pulling the trigger when Titus suddenly spoke in my ear, completely destroying my concentration.

  “What the hell you waiting for?”

  “For fuck’s sake, Titus. Shut up!” I hissed into the radio and settled my cheek back onto the stock, peering through the scope.

  I froze for a heartbeat when I saw the other sniper with his rifle pointed directly at me, noting his thumb shift as he took his rifle off safe. Oh fuck me! Throwing myself to the side, I kept rolling when the rifle I’d just been holding exploded from the impact of his bullet. I stayed below the parapet, crawling on my belly, cursing all the way to the roof hatch.

  They had me located. Time for another distraction. As I slithered through the opening and dropped to the floor I worked the setting on the trigger and pressed the button again. I heard the explosion almost two seconds later, then a second after that a follow on blast that was so large it shattered windows and shook dust out of the ceiling tiles to drift down onto my head.

  The second location I’d visited to plant a big chunk of C-4 was a propane and liquefied natural gas distribution plant on the edge of town. I’d stuck the explosive to the side of a huge propane tank in the middle of a large lot that was full of tanks brimming with highly flammable gasses. There was another even larger and louder explosion as I pounded down the stairs, knowing I needed to get out of the building before the Russians converged on my location and trapped me.

  Reaching the first floor I had my rifle up and ready as I burst out into the night. Two soldiers had just arrived, running up the low steps that led to the front door. They were less than twenty feet away when I emerged, carrying their rifles high across their chests as they ran.

  Without breaking stride, I pumped a burst into one of them, then slammed my shoulder into the second one as he tried to move to the side and swing the muzzle of his weapon in my direction. He sprawled onto his back and I fired three rounds into his head as I ran past. There weren’t any more enemies immediately visible and I headed for an overgrown hedge, pulling the trigger out of my pocket and pressing the button after selecting the third location.

  There was a barely audible pop from far in the distance, then a few seconds later a brilliant flash on the horizon followed by another thunderous shockwave rolling across the small town. I had visited the small airport on the opposite side of town from the tank farm and wired up a fueling point and a couple of helicopters that were on the ground while the aircrews took a break from the search.

  Making it to the thick bush, I pushed inside and hid just as a squad of a dozen Russians rounded the corner and ran to the front of the building I had just exited. They paused when they spotted the two I’d killed, the squad leader motioning for half the men to proceed inside with him, leaving the other half on watch at the front door. They were amped up and on full alert, their rifles up and scanning the surrounding area.

  To the northeast and west the horizon glowed a brilliant, deep orange from the fires at the propane tanks and the airport. Smaller, secondary explosions were adding to both conflagrations and it looked, sounded and smelled like a war zone. I was only sorry I’d run out of C-4. I would have been happy to level the entire fucking town with the Russians in it.

  Checking the sight lines from the building with the remaining sniper, I chose a path that I believed would shield me from his view and his rifle. I hoped. It was time to go get my wife.

  50

  Katie, Rachel and Irina all screamed at Grushkin as he continued to pummel Martinez. He ignored them, lost in a fury born of frustration with the events of the past day and the pain of his damaged hand. The two American women struggled in the grip of the soldiers that were holding them back, both of them trying to fight free, but the handicap of one hand cuffed over their heads made it impossible.

  Finally, he stepped away from her, panting. Martinez hung suspended by the handcuff, unconscious once again. Blood poured from her broken nose and numerous lacerations on her face and scalp from the beating she had received. Looking down at the ground, Grushkin spotted his pistol and scooped it up in his good hand.

  The three women stopped shouting and screaming when his arm came up, the muzzle of the weapon only a couple of feet from Martinez’ forehead. His finger began to tighten on the trigger, then the night lit up as as loud explosion sounded from only a few blocks away. A moment later there was a secondary blast and a ball of fire climbed into the sky.

  “What was that?” Grushkin whirled and shouted at Major Buzinsky.

  While he was distracted, a medic dashed forward and retrieved the two severed fingers from the rain soaked ground. He rinsed them with sterile saline before sandwiching them between chemical ice packs in a small cooler. Tentatively he approached the Colonel as he waited on his aide to report.

  “Comrade Colonel, your hand,” he said softly.

  Grushkin looked down at his injury, grunted and held it out for the medic to treat. As the man began cleaning the open wounds where the digits had been bitten off, another explosion ripped the night. This one was farther away, but a second later an earth shattering blast lit the entire horizon and the windows in all the buildings around the park were blown out.

  “Are the Americans here?” Grushkin screamed at Buzinsky as he watched a massive, glowing mushroom cloud form on the edge of town and begin boiling skyward.

  “No reports of contact with the enemy, sir. I’m still trying to…” the man paused, pressing the radio headset tighter against his ear.

  He listened for a moment before spinning and pointing at a building on the edge of the park.

  “Enemy on the roof,” he shouted, then bellowed orders into the radio to get troops on their way to the location. The soldiers holding Katie and Rachel released them and ran for the indicated building.

  “He’s coming,” Martinez was groggy, having regained consciousness and spoke as best she could through her broken mouth. “He’s coming, and he’s going to bend you over and fuck you like a…”

  She never finished the sentence. Grushkin lifted his arm and fired a shot that took off most of the top of her head. Her body jerked once, then went limp, hanging by the arm from the handcuff. The other three women stared in shock at their dead friend, unable for a moment to comprehend what they had just witnessed.

  Grushkin was turning back to Buzinsky when another blast added to the chaos of the night. This one was to the west, and another fiery pillar began ascending.

  “Report, Major!” Grushkin roared, breathing heavy and glaring at the younger man.

  Buzinsky listened intently for several minutes, studiously ignoring the pistol that was still gripped in Grushkin’s hand. He barked several orders and turned to fully face the Colonel when reports began coming in from around the small city.

  “Sir,” the Major called, radio still pressed to his ear. “The first bomb was a building where the men had gathered to eat. It is believed that over four hundred are dead, and two hundred injured from the blast. The second location was a liquefied gas plant, and the third was the airport our aviation assets were staging out of. We lost four helicopters and their flight crews and appears all of the ground support staff as well.”

  “Order all remaining men to converge on our location,” Grushkin barked. “Have them form a protective ring around the park.”

  “Yes, Comrade General,” the Major said and immediately began relaying orders over the radio.

  51

  I entered the park moments ahead of the arrival of a squad of soldiers, sticking to the edge of a row of head height bushes that screened a pair of tennis courts from the street. Reaching the
end of them I paused, startled when two Russians suddenly appeared right in front of me. They were trotting, heading somewhere in a hurry, and were close enough to touch.

  Both of them faltered when they saw me, trying to stop and bring their weapons around. We were too close for rifles so I didn’t even try. Whipping the Kukri out I slashed, opening the throat of the one on the right. There was an immediate fountain of blood that soaked me before he fell away to die. The second one shouted something in Russian and began backpedaling as he swung his rifle towards me.

  Charging, I battled the muzzle away as he fired and buried all twelve inches of the Kukri in his guts, slicing up and out. I felt the blade grind on bone and slashed his throat open before shoving the corpse onto the ground and stepping over it. Pausing for a moment, I made the mistake of being in the open and nearly paid the ultimate price.

  I felt the shockwave of the bullet as it flew past my head an instant before I heard the report of the sniper’s rifle. I recognized the danger immediately and lunged forward into a crouch as I dashed for the cover of a low building that looked like it was for storage of mowers and maintenance equipment for the park. I heard another shot, but the bullet didn’t come close enough for me to feel or hear its passage.

  Reaching the building I slammed against the wall, checking in both directions. For the moment it was clear. I was hidden from the sniper and took a moment to picture the map of the park in my head. On the other side of this building and fifty yards out into the open field should be the tree that the Hind’s winch cable was attached to. As I was thinking this I heard a single pistol shot, but didn’t think anything of it. There were still infected around that the Russian troops had been putting down on a fairly regular basis.

  “That son of a bitch just shot her!” Titus shouted into the radio.

  “What?” I asked, my stomach clenching into a tight ball as a wave of heat flushed across my face.

  “That fuckin’ commie bastard just shot the woman he was beatin’ on. Right in the head. She’s dead,” he said, the emotion apparent in his voice.

  Martinez! For a brief moment the world around me ceased to exist as I tried to process her death. Katie was right about her. She had become more than a friend. She really was the little sister I’d never had. And that motherfucker had just killed her.

  The world roared back in on me and I wanted to scream. Wanted to rage at the sky like a lunatic. But I had a better way to exorcise my demons. Loading a fresh magazine into my rifle I moved to the far corner of the building, pressing deep into a thickly growing bush that reached all the way above the roof. Making sure I was well concealed, I poked my head around.

  I had a view into the park, just able to see the edge of the tree where the girls were secured. Shielded from the sniper, I worked my way through the foliage until I could see farther around the corner. I now had a good view of the tree, finally getting a look at the thick trunk and the helicopter beyond.

  I spotted Katie first, then saw Martinez hanging limply from the wire. Seeing her body drove home the pain, and one of the few remaining pieces of my heart that held any joy for life turned black. Shutting down all my emotions with the exception of the desire for vengeance, I took a deep breath and began analyzing the scene.

  Beyond Martinez was Rachel and finally Irina. Colonel Grushkin stood in front of Martinez’ corpse, between Rachel and Katie. It looked like there were thin lines in his hand, one each leading to Katie and Rachel. I carefully raised my rifle and peered through the scope, adjusting the magnification for a better look, then said a few words my mother would most certainly not have approved of.

  They each now had both arms raised over their heads, wrists cuffed together and the short chain hooked over the winch cable. A hand grenade had been strapped to their throats, a line leading from each pin to Grushkin’s hand. All he had to do was tug and the pins would come out and they were dead. I clenched my jaw so hard it’s a wonder I didn’t break my teeth.

  If I thought for one second there was a chance they would go free in exchange for my surrender, I’d put my weapons down and walk into the open. But that ship had sailed. Colonel Grushkin would happily make me stand and watch as he pulled the pins and blew the heads off of the woman I loved. The two women I loved, I corrected myself.

  I couldn’t even shoot the fucker. If he fell, the last thing that would happen would be the lines tightening until the pins popped free. For one of the very few times in my life I was at a complete loss for what to do. The only certainty was that as soon as I was captured or killed, Katie and Rachel would die.

  A noise to my left caught my attention. Lifting the rifle and pressing a large branch out of my way, I peered through the night vision scope and watched as Russian soldiers began forming up to create a perimeter around the park. Turning, I scanned behind me and saw the same thing. They were all lining up on the roads that formed the boundary, spread about twenty yards apart.

  Just marvelous. Katie and Rachel wired to explode. A sniper on a roof that overlooked the park and now ground troops creating a tight cordon around us. We were really and truly fucked.

  52

  “I am speaking to Major John Chase.”

  I turned back and looked, seeing Grushkin speaking into a large megaphone. The tall, thin Major held the microphone up to his mouth as a soldier whom I presumed was a medic bandaged one of the Colonel’s hands. The other hand still tightly gripped the lines that lead to the grenade pins.

  “Surrender now and these two women will not be harmed. I will put them on a helicopter that will take them anywhere they wish to go. If you do not surrender, I will begin carving off body parts.”

  The scope was settled on his head and I so badly wanted to pull the trigger. To send a bullet screaming out to shatter his skull. But if his corpse fell the wrong way and pulled those pins, Katie and Rachel were dead. There were no two ways about it. Five seconds after the pins came out…

  I was stuck. I couldn’t attack, or the girls would die. I couldn’t retreat and fight my way clear of the perimeter, or Grushkin would begin abusing them, and they would eventually die. Did I believe that he’d actually let them go? Put them on a helicopter, wish them well and give them a ride? Not a fucking chance.

  He wanted to punish me for the aggravation I’d caused him, not to mention all the Russians I’d killed as well as the injuries I’d inflicted on him personally. But he couldn’t do much to me. I knew that. President Barinov wanted that pleasure, and wouldn’t be terribly understanding if I was delivered in bad shape. That would put a damper on the festivities he had planned.

  “Which one should I start with?” Grushkin asked over the megaphone.

  He said something to the Major, probably his aide, who handed the microphone to the medic. Drawing a very long, wicked looking blade he nodded at the Colonel.

  “Perhaps let’s start at the left with the redhead,” Grushkin’s amplified voice sounded almost delighted that he was about to inflict some pain.

  The Major turned and stepped in front of Katie. I could see her eyes grow large as he reached out, grasped the neckline of her shirt and ripped the front open. He tore the fabric away from her body, exposing her bare breasts. There was fear in her eyes, but she spat in his face. He smiled, wiping it off and grabbing her right breast in his large hand. That’s when I pulled the trigger.

  The Major’s head snapped to the side and he tumbled to the ground, the nearly machete sized blade falling out of his hand and coming to rest in the mud between Rachel and Irina.

  “I’m coming in,” I shouted before Grushkin could respond and do anything to Katie.

  Everyone’s head snapped in my direction, Rachel and Katie both screaming for me to run. I ignored them, stepping into the open with my rifle held in one hand over my head. At that moment I was half expecting a bullet from the sniper, but it never came. Slowly, I began walking out into the park, keeping my hands and rifle high in the air.

  Grushkin was intently watching me, the medic ha
ving raised his rifle and trained it on me. Apparently the Colonel felt he didn’t need any more help. He thought the grenades strapped to the girls’ throats were enough to keep me in check. He was mostly right.

  Katie and Rachel were still screaming at me, but the shouts were dissolving into tears as I continued to walk towards their captor. I saw Martinez, hanging limply from the wire, blood soaked hair hanging down and concealing her face. My heart broke when I saw her body. And a fresh ball of anger ignited in my guts.

  I came to a halt ten feet from Grushkin and the medic, verifying that the large Hind parked behind them screened us from the sniper. The Colonel was standing close to Rachel, the line connecting him to Katie stretched out longer than hers. Over his shoulder I saw Irina looking at me, fury on her face as she wrung her hands. The medic was a few feet to his right, AKMS muzzle steady on my chest. Flicking my eyes at the weapon I mentally sighed when I confirmed its selector had been set to full auto and his finger was on the trigger.

  “You said you’d let them go,” I said, expecting him to laugh in my face.

  “And I will,” he grinned. “But you have caused me and my men great loss and sorrow. They need to be compensated. As soon as all of my men have taken as much comfort from them as can be taken, I will let them go.”

  “Motherfucker…” I took a step forward, rifle already starting to move.

  I wasn’t thinking about shooting him, I was going to beat him to death. But the medic took a step back and fired a short burst into the ground at my feet. Jerking the rifle back up he once again put it on the center of my chest. I was wearing body armor, but didn’t think for a second it would protect me at this range.