Witness Protection: Moving Target

by Jet MacLeod

  She knew that she wasn’t going to take Angie out the front door. She would come back out the way she came in or on the roof. She knew that Sanchez and Cole wouldn’t like that idea, but they already had the cavalry on stand-by. SWAT had to be stationed somewhere near and ready to attack, but far enough away that Rudakov didn’t know about it.

  “The roof is clear.”

  “Keep it that way, Sarge.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Are you thinking roofing extraction? Do I need to call in a Huey?”

  “Last resort, but just want to keep my options open.”

  “I’ll make the call. I’m sure that the SWAT commander wouldn’t mind us borrowing it for a trip. I’ll have them five minutes out and waiting.”

  “Roger that, Sarge. In the western most stairwell heading down to the second floor. How am I looking?”

  “Clear,” Sanchez answered quickly. “They are still in that office. They haven’t moved. There are ten bodies on that floor not in the office. There are two just outside the stairwell at the moment. Do be careful Lieutenant.”

  She grunted in response. She leaned up against the wall right beside the door leading to the second floor proper. She let out a breath and grabbed the pull handle to open the door. She mentally counted in head, but she waited.

  “How close to the door? Can you tell? Can I ambush?” she asked on the throat comm.

  “The first one is near the door pacing slowly like he is guarding the door. The other guy seems to be across the hall. I can’t tell if he is guarding a room or what. There doesn’t seem to be another room on that side according to the blue prints.”

  “Understood.”

  She counted again, mentally, to three and pulled open the door. She grabbed the first guy pulling him back into the stairwell. He gave her a little fight and she held him by a choke hold until guy number two busted through the door. She used guy one as a vest as guy two shot at her. She was glad for the stairwell’s height as it masked the gunshot’s sound. She dropped guy one to the floor, passed out, and in the same movement she pulled her silenced pistol and shot guy two. She watched as he fell into the wall away from the door and slid to the floor.

  She leaned against the wall and let out a breath. She was surprised when more men didn’t come busting through the door, but she was thankful for it. She didn’t want this to turn into a blood bath. She didn’t want a lot of casualties. She just wanted to get Angie and get out. But, she was resolved to kill anyone that got in her way.

  She looked out the small reinforced window in the stair well door into the hallway beyond, again. She didn’t see anyone. She sighed. She grabbed the door’s handle, willed her breathing and her heart beat to slow down as the adrenaline was pouring through her veins, and counted to three, once again, before she opened it and stepped out into the hall way.

  She immediately crossed the hall and hid in a shadow. She looked down the corridor. It was sparse and barren, just like the floor above. She wondered if she would find an office that would be unlocked on this floor, too. She didn’t know if she would be able to just walk casually down the corridor and to the office that held Angie, Rudakov and Ivan.

  “Two more down,” she said into the throat comm.

  “Can you see down the hallway?” Sanchez asked her.

  “It is just a corridor. There are few offices. There should be eight more guys for me to deal with according to your view, but I can’t see anyone else. Can you give me an update?”

  “I still have eyes on Angie, Rudakov and Ivan. They haven’t moved. Rudakov and Ivan seem to be having an argument about something. I can’t tell what exactly but it seems that Rudakov isn’t too happy with him. He really isn’t paying attention to Angie anymore. As for the rest of the guards on that floor, I can’t really help you. I can’t get into the floor deep enough to tell you where they are. I can only tell you that they are there. And, that there are fifteen more guards on the first floor. The fourth and fifth floors seem to have five or less. The bulk of the guards seem to be on the second and first floors. They are waiting for you to come and get her.”

  “I know that.”

  “No, I mean they are really waiting for you to come get her. They are posted like sentries at all the main access points. Rudakov has closed ranks. They are expecting it. They are waiting on you. They moved most of the guards that Ivan posted downwards before you left that first office. Lewey, I don’t know what to tell you. They are surely on orders to kill on sight. They are eventually going to miss those guys you’ve taken out will be missed. We need to get a move on.”

  “Agreed,” Cole stated.

  “Cole?”

  “Yes, Montgomery?”

  “I am enacting plan Charlie Foxtrot. Lethal force is being applied and authorized. Let SWAT know that they can begin moving in ten minutes. Give me ten minutes to get to Angie. I am going to go comm dark until I get her. I want you to take them all out. I’m going to need a way out. Keep my options open. And prepare to go dark. I’ve got my scopes and optics. Prepare for dark on my call,” she told him.

  “Awaiting your order, ma’am,” he replied.

  She puffed up and let a breath out. She changed out her scope from heat signature to inferred, night vision. She also grabbed her NVGs and put them on. She didn’t turn them on, but kept them on her forehead. She pulled the rifle up to her face and scanned the corridor from her position. The hall way was still clear.

  “On my mark…” she repeated as she came off the wall and started down the hall.

  She took two steps down the corridor. She was constantly scanning the hall as she walked down it. She knew that Sanchez and Cole were awaiting her orders. She knew that as soon as she gave the order all Hell was going to break loose. Most of the guards would start flowing outside believing that she was going for a more frontal assault. Only a few would remain in the building and they would remain close to Angie, Rudakov and Ivan.

  “On my mark…” she repeated again, still working her way down the hallway and towards Angie.

  Two guys came out of an office and crossed across the hallway. She sank into the shadows. She was grateful for the poor lighting, but she knew it would only be a matter of time before they saw her movement. She sighed. They would have to be put down. She couldn’t risk it. It was her call. She had to get to Angie. Angie was all that mattered. Their lives were forfeit in her mind as soon as they signed on with Ivan. It was a cynical way of seeing things, but she really didn’t have choice in anymore. She needed to protect Angie and get her out safely.

  She was still upset that Ivan and Rudakov had chosen to use Angie to lure her out. She knew that her life before this assignment would come back to haunt her. She was right to be worried. Angie was paying the price for Del’s life choices and it wasn’t fair to Angie. Angie now knew that Del’s life before they met was full of hardship, crazy choices, and political savvy that rivaled Angie’s own choices as a lawyer. But, now, Angie had a firsthand account of what Del’s life had really been like. It was going to be an eye-opening experience for them both.

  She took another deep breath. She had to ratchet down her amplified emotions and heart rate. She felt the secondary adrenaline dump. She knew that she was about to fight her way into that office and get Angie. She let out her breath. She took another deep breath and let it out.

  The two guards crossed the hall in front of her again. She puffed her breath through pursed lips. She reached up with her left hand to the NVGs as she steadied the rifle with her right hand. She waited. The guards crossed again, but this time, one of them turned and started down the hall towards her. Her left hand brought the NVGs down.

  “Mark!” she whispered harshly in the throat comm.

  The hallway went dark. She let out another breath. She raised the rifle and prepared to take the shot. She waited until he was right in her sights. She slowly pulled the trigger as she exhaled.

  She watched as the guard dropped to the ground. She knew that the other guards had to know that she wa
s on that floor and which direction that two unaccounted for and that was a problem. She scanned the passageway. Just to the left of the door there she was coming from. She could only hope that Cole and Sanchez were giving them enough Hell until the SWAT team showed up for some of their own fun.

  “There is someone on this floor!”

  She pulled back against the wall. She glanced around the corridor. She saw five guards get together near a door. She could make out the door slightly behind them. It had to be the door that Angie was behind. She didn’t care that they were scared. She had to get through them.

  Just then, the door opened. Rudakov stood in the doorway. She raised her rifle and tried to get her crosshairs on him. It would be an easy shot and one that she would smile in taking. He had caused her enough pain for one lifetime. She wouldn’t feel bad by cutting his life short. Unfortunately, he didn’t stay in the doorway long enough for her to take the shot.

  “Damn it,” she whispered.

  “I think she’s over here,” she heard one of the guards say.

  She pulled back into the shadows and flattened herself against the wall. She watched through the NVGs as the guard passed right past her. She didn’t want to shoot him. She knew that it would give away her position. She needed stealth on her side. He went to the end of the hallway back to the stairwell. When he didn’t find the other two guards, he called out for them.

  “Sasha, Boris, where are you?” he called out in question.

  Del answered in her head that they were just behind the door. She didn’t know which one was still alive, but then she didn’t care. She slinked down the wall, hoping that she could get to the lone guard who took it upon himself to search in the dark. She wasn’t disappointed. He walked to the end of the hall past the stairwell. He didn’t know that he was being hunted, silently, and perfectly by her.

  She stalked him to the end of hallway. He turned around right into her. She hit him with the butt of the rifle, breaking his nose. Before he could call out for more guards to come him, she wrestled him to the ground. He actually had some fight in him. He was giving her a good run but she couldn’t be delayed any longer. In the tussle, she had drawn her knife when her rifle had been discarded and buried it in the guard. It wasn’t a clean fight, but they had been far enough away from the rest that they didn’t hear his gurgling last breaths.

  She sighed. She searched the floor and found her rifle. She went back for her knife once she had gathered her wits and rifle. She had to calm her breathing again. She was panting from the scuffle and she figured that the other guards could hear her breathing.

  “Anton? Where are you? Anton!!” she heard another guard say.

  Del studied the newest threat’s movements. He was lumbering down the hall. He seemed to be worried. She decided that her rifle was going to impede her further movements. Before the new guard got to her, she put it just inside the door to the stairwell. She would use it as a backup on their way out if she needed it, but she would get it either way on the way out.

  As she pulled the door open, she realized that the guard she choked out was waking up. She quickly punched him in the face effectively putting him back out. She held her knife in one hand and the freshly drawn hatchet in the other. She looked down at the man. He had become a liability that she couldn’t afford during their escape if she needed the stairwell. She plunged both the knife and tomahawk into his chest. It was quick and quiet.

  Once she extracted her blades, she pulled the man towards the stairs. She pushed him down onto the downward set away from the door so he wouldn’t be in the way. She pulled the other body over towards his and dumped it. She was leaving herself a clear path back up to the third floor.

  It would be easier to move in the dark without all the gear. She dropped it by the downed guards and her rifle. She tapped the holster on her right side. Then, she checked her belt for magazines. She still had nine rounds in the pistol. The three mags that were on her belt gave her another thirty rounds. She would save them. For now, hand to hand and close quarters combat with the knife and hatchet would get her closer to the office and closer to Angie without much fanfare.

  She opened the door and made her way back into the hallway. She sighed again. The other guard was still pacing on that end of the corridor. She had the knife in her right hand and the tomahawk in the left.

  Del breathed out, at a constant and even speed, as she stalked up on the guard. He saw her movement in the dark right before she was on him. She quickly blocked his gun with the tomahawk and buried the Kabar at the base of his neck where it met his shoulder. It was a bloody mess, but he dropped quickly and quietly. She pulled him over towards the wall and dumped his now lifeless body.

  She shook her head. She couldn’t remember another time in her life where she had such a distain for human life. She had trained for situations like this, but thankfully never really had to deal with them. It was what the SEALs, Rangers, and Delta Force were for. She was clean up and assassination. Her training for situations like this was merely a precautionary measure in order to help her get out of a hostile situation once the target had been eliminated. She wasn’t in the habit of trying to remove the target from the threat. She had been the threat.

  She removed the radio that she’d been carrying. She dropped it on the body beside her. She heard it crackle and whine, but she paid no attention to it. She needed to keep moving. She was silently counting in her head. Two down in the stairwell, two down in the hallway, and three by the door still on guard, but there was another hall. It was short and lead to a set of stairs which she assumed went down the main production floor of the warehouse. She figured that the other two goons had to be over there. She would have to take them out before she made an assault on the door. She needed to make sure that this floor was clear before she went in after Angie. She didn’t need to be worried about more men coming in behind her.

  She picked the radio up again and waited. She watched how the other three guards looked panicked in the dark. They were huddled up beside each other, each trying to figure out how to use the others in their defense. She laughed inwardly at the unprofessional demeanor.

  Where did Ivan get these guys? She thought to herself. She just sat back and watched, listening to their radio, and waited for another one to be brave enough to saunter down the hall at her.

  The radio squelched in her hand. She dropped it back onto the body like it was a way they could find her. There was suddenly a cacophony of voices coming over the lines. She smiled. She knew what there panicked voices meant. SWAT had arrived. Cole and Sanchez were methodically taking them out as well.

  She could tell by the broken Russian that Ivan was no longer in control of the situation. Rudakov ordered her death. He didn’t want her found. He wanted her killed. He opened the door one more time and yelled at the guards. The huddled closer to the door and waited. Rudakov then got back on the radio looking for the main guards on the upper floors. He called out for Sergey first. He got no reply. He then called for Boris and Sasha. Again, no reply. She could hear the strain in his voice as he called out for Anton and then a new name, Ilia.

  She looked down at the man, who was still bleeding out everywhere beside her. She tapped his chest in a dismissive manner and smirked. She picked up the radio and triggered the mic.

  “He can’t come to the phone right now, but if you’ll leave a message, I’m sure he’ll call you right back,” she said.

  She heard the Russian expletives come back over the radio. She laughed. She knew that they wouldn’t hurt Angie now. Rudakov was scared. He’d just realized that he’d bit off more than he could chew and that Del really was as sadistic as they told him. He’d picked the wrong mother fucker to play with and now he was going to pay dearly for that.

  “Montgomery, is that you?” he asked back across the radio.

  “You knew that I would come for her.”

  “I did.”

  “You know that I am going to kill you and Ivan both, right?” she asked hi
m.

  “I know that you are going to try,” he replied.

  “You obviously didn’t do your homework on me, Rudakov. Tsk, tsk, and you want to be a big Russian leader in the syndicate. You should have studied my jacket more. How much of that lovely black government highlighter did you see through? Most of jacket isn’t complete and you know why, but I guess you didn’t think about that, did you?” she taunted.

  “I’ll kill her.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “I will. I’ll kill her. She is of no use to me. I am sure that the cartel will pay handsomely once I tell them that I am the one that orchestrated her death,” he told her.

  “You won’t kill her and you want to know why?”

  “Sure, Del, tell me why?”

  “Because you still need her. She is your collateral. The building is surrounded. Countless guards are already dead. SWAT is outside waiting on you. There is no way out for you. If you kill me, you kill me. But, if you kill her, you seal your own fate. Do you want to die by hanging? I think that is how we still deal with treason, isn’t it?”

  “I won’t hang. I’ll survive this. I’ll kill you and when SWAT gets here, I’ll flash my badge. They’ll let me walk right out the door, with or without Angie,” he replied cockily.

  “That would normally be the case, if the State Department and the FBI didn’t already know that you turned. They’ve been ordered to shoot you on sight. Too bad, I was hoping to do that for myself. So, even if you managed to kill me, they will still kill you.”

  “Where are you, you bitch?”

  “Now, is that any way to talk to a lady?” she countered.

  “I’ll kill you.”

  “You’ll try. And, like others, you won’t succeed. Yulia was the closest and she failed, too.”

  She knew that the last phrase would set Ivan off. She needed him away from Angie and it worked. The dumb Russian practically ripped the door off coming out into the darkened hallway looking for her. He saw the three guards that were left and sent them down the hall right at Montgomery. He then called the other two to keep watch with him. It had been too easy. She knew that they would play right to her, but she never thought that they would deliver Ivan so easily.