WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12)

by Michael Anderle

  The two settled in until they heard the first crack that signified they could start their own attacks.

  “AiAiAiAiAieeeee!” Hamza yelled out and stroked the trigger of his AK-47. Maybe he would get lucky and get a head shot and be able to enjoy the memory of an American head exploding from his bullet. If not, no worries. He would shoot their bodies later.

  Right after they took care of the women.

  —

  “Well, fuck!” Terry heard someone bitch when the bullets started raining. He looked down at his watch. Why couldn’t they wait another forty-five seconds? Camel ass-licking zealot psychopaths were absolutely off his list for Christmas party invitations.

  “Forty-five seconds,” Robert called out from Terry’s left. “Don’t let them hit your ass or I’m going to shoot you as well. I want every one of you useless God-forsaken, mullet wearing, pansies walking out of here…Light ‘em up people!”

  —

  Melissa heard the crack of the first shots, the smell of fear was rife inside the cave. It was hot, it was stinky and now she heard someone behind her start crying. She wasn’t sure why she had told other people to keep going deeper in the cave when they had the ladies come down first.

  Now she was near the front.

  Melissa reached into her pocket and pulled the round out, she pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing. Fuck it. She dropped the clip on her Glock and put it back after placing the last round back in the clip. If she had to kill every one of those fuckers by hand, then she would try to do that.

  She wasn’t taking a coward’s way out.

  —-

  Lance was looking at his tablet, seeing the feed from beneath them, “ADAM, drop us to here after the pucks strike.” He marked his tablet. He felt the container descend some as he slid the small tablet into a pocket.

  “Ok, listen up.” He called out. He had the attention of the ten Guardians and Akio. “We are dropping behind them. You need to mop them up as fast as possible when I give the word. I will give you that command after we hit them with a couple of pucks to blow sand and dirt up in the air to confuse the hell out of them. Make damn sure you kill the right people.”

  Akio unclipped and walked to a four-foot tall metal box welded to the wall. He took the cotter pin off the latch and opened the door. He looked to Lance who put up one finger. Akio grabbed two one pound pucks and closed the door.

  Lance nodded to the two Guardians across from him, “Open the right door.”

  The guy on the left, Jim, unclipped and reached to unhook the door. His partner, unclipped and reached out to grab Jim’s arm and reached behind to catch the bar above the seats for those who needed to hold on to something when things got bumpy.

  Jim opened the door, leaning out just a little as Akio walked over and tossed the two pucks out. Jim closed it, and Lance called out, “Send them down, ADAM.”

  Three seconds later, everyone heard two loud ‘whooomps!’.

  “Take us down all the way, ADAM.”

  Lance looked around, he saw ten Guardians smiling in anticipation. Lance chuckled, Bethany Anne had a way of attracting some damned aggressive people to her team.

  And ... he was having a blast himself.

  —

  “What the fuck was that?” Two loud whoomps come from behind the ridge where their attackers, who had them pinned down, were firing.

  “That would be the help arriving for our little party, I think,” Terry called over to Robert.

  Robert nodded, “Shut it down guys, don’t fire unless you know damned sure you got an IMF in your sites, got it?”

  Robert counted his ‘yes sirs!’ and nodded. He had the right number.

  —

  Melissa felt, more than heard, two loud crumps before some dust dropped from the ceiling. SHIT! Now she was worried about a cave-in happening. She might not have to worry about torture killing her if being buried alive happened first.

  That damned Terry, when she got out of here, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

  Right after she kissed him.

  —

  Yasin ducked in reflex when the ground shook beneath him. A second hit and he was tossed from an area between two boulders to the sand below, scraping his knuckles and knees pretty badly.

  “What is going on?” Hamza called out, as they both heard men choking as the dust and dirt from the explosions covered those near them. Yasin and Hamza quickly grabbed their shirts and covered their noses and mouths.

  Yasin looked around, trying to figure out where the next attack might come from. He didn’t hear a plane and no other explosions happened.

  The two of them stood back to back, Hamza looking towards the Americans and Yasin looking behind them.

  Because Yasin was looking behind them, he was the only one who saw the man with the red eyes suddenly appear in front of him, stabbing Yasin through his chest.

  From behind, Hamza felt incredible pain, he looked down to see six inches of a sword sticking out of his chest. He coughed, blood coming out of his mouth and called out weakly.

  “Yasin?” The sword slowly pulled out of Hamza’s chest and he felt Yasin’s body slide down his own back as his eyes closed, forever.

  —

  Akio pulled the sword out of the two men in front of him. He heard another three to his left, but Guardians were coming up that side, and he figured they would take care of those men. He turned to his right. There was one coughing about fifteen feet up.

  He stepped on a rock and jumped, sliding through the air, coming down and slicing the closest arm off of the man. The gun, and his now useless hand, dropped in between two boulders. Akio sliced through the wounded man’s stomach, causing him to continue his shriek of pain.

  It helped create more confusion.

  He smiled, this is what his Queen would want, and he was very focused on accomplishing what she willed.

  Akio heard a voice in his ear, “Now Akio.”

  Akio paused and focused. The red in his eyes flashed and then he could feel the power leave him.

  —

  The shrieks of pain filled the early morning dawn. Sand and dirt had pelted Robert and his men.

  Then the fear hit. Not any fear, but a miasma of emotion that had Robert fighting the urge to run. He looked over to Terry, who was in the same battle himself. “What the hell, man?”

  Terry looked back at his friend, “Hell indeed! Tell everyone, not to fucking fire because sure as shit that will NOT go over well.”

  Robert screamed both directions that everyone put their weapons down to the side and fight the urge to run. He turned back to Terry, “Fucking give it straight to me, who the hell is over there?”

  Terry just shook his head. Some things, he learned, you had to keep to yourself.

  —

  Two people in the back of the cave shrieked and started pushing on those in front, yelling at them to get out of their way, they needed to get out of the cave. One of the wags had turned around and was pushing back, trying to go further back into the cave.

  Melissa crawled out of the cave and rolled to the side of the opening. She curled up into a fetal position and screamed.

  —

  “Release, Akio.”

  Akio’s eyes dimmed, leaving only a small amount of red in them. He had heard a few pistol cracks as he focused on pushing the fear over as far an area as he could. He felt drained but good.

  The dust was clearing, and he saw men walking through the dimness of the still dusty dawn light.

  They were all Guardians.

  He turned to his left and flicked his sword, providing mercy.

  The man’s screaming stopped.

  In a minute, there were no more moans or crying on the small hill.

  Akio turned as he heard another man come up the hill and approach him. Lance held out his hand, and Akio took it.

  “Damned fine job, Akio. Damned fine job.” He looked around and then called out, “Guardians, clean up! I’ll be back in a minute.” Lance nodd
ed his head for Akio to follow him. Akio cleaned his sword and put it away in his scabbard, carrying the scabbard in his left hand for easy access. Akio carefully watched for anyone who might offer the Queen’s father any violence.

  —

  “FUUUCCCCKK ME!” Robert called out right after the fear miraculously ceased. He heard more than one-man collapse to the ground around him.

  When he got his wits back, Robert listened but heard nothing from over the hill. He doubted there was anyone over there alive, except the good guys.

  “Robert!” Terry hissed to his friend, Robert turned and noticed Terry pointing. He turned back to see two men coming around the side of the hill. Neither had a weapon out, although one was…

  “Is that a fucking sword?” came from Robert’s left.

  “Can it, people!” Robert commanded and stood up. He nodded for Terry to join him as he stepped out from his firing position. He looked down at his rifle and decided to leave it. Terry joined him, unarmed as well, and the two started walking towards the two coming down the hill.

  “Give me a hint, buddy,” Robert whispered, “Tell me two syllables or fucking something!”

  Terry leaned in, “TQB.”

  Robert closed his eyes for a second and rolled his eyes behind his closed eyelids… Of course, it would be fucking TQB because the man upstairs had an outstanding sense of humor.

  “Didn’t you say the President called this in?” Robert asked, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

  “Yup.”

  “That all you got?” Robert asked.

  Terry fished his phone out of his pocket, stuck a finger over part of the screen and showed Robert, who read the text.

  HELP INCOMING - SIX MINUTES - PRESIDENT OF U.S. HAS REQUESTED ASSISTANCE.

  Fuck! Robert looked to his friend who nodded his head minutely. Ace-in-the-hole indeed.

  Seconds later, Robert held out his hand as the two new men joined he and Terry, “Sir, Robert Martelle, security.”

  The American-looking man held out his hand, “Retired General Lance Reynolds. Previously US Army. Damned fine job you did keeping your cool.”

  Robert shook the man’s hand and couldn’t stop his mind from thinking.

  Wasn’t TQB’s COO named Lance Reynolds?

  —

  Terry looked at the man behind the General and noticed his eyes constantly flicking around, taking in everything. He was dressed in Japanese style clothes. They looked like a cross between something a Samurai or a Ninja might wear mixed with today’s latest sandpit fashions. His right arm had a patch sporting a white, fanged skull on a red background.

  He rocked that outfit, Terry thought.

  He had blood splotches on him, so he was using the sword over there for more than just show. His eyes drifted back to the patch, trying to remember where he had seen it before.

  Oh…shit. Now he remembered. It was sported by those who protected the head of TQB. Terry decided to take his own advice and make sure he minded his P’s and Q’s.

  Terry heard some spluttering going on behind him, so he turned around and noticed Robert’s men helping people out of the pit. The government wag was walking in this direction, and he saw Melissa being helped up a ladder.

  Terry turned to the two men talking, “Excuse me, I’ve got to check on someone, and you guys have incoming.”

  Robert turned around to see the government guy heading in their direction. Terry patted Robert’s back in sympathy as he stepped back toward the pit. Sucked being the leader sometimes, right now he wasn’t needed.

  Damned shame, that.

  Terry wasn’t out of earshot when he heard the government guy start off, “What did you think when you dropped bombs right above our heads!…”

  Awww man, if Terry didn’t need to check on Melissa, he would have liked to hear the General’s response to this prick.

  Melissa, however, did have his attention and she was heading in his direction. She made it within ten feet before he asked, “You come out ok?”

  She nodded mutely, and his face clouded up with worry, he started looking for injuries. When he got to her, he wasn’t looking at her face. She grabbed his in both hands and turned it to look at her. She searched his eyes and then stood on her tip-toes and kissed him.

  She dropped back down, and told his shocked-looking face, “I’m still undecided on whether to slap you. So, don’t push it.”

  “What the hell did I do that deserved being slapped?” he asked, still working out the sum of her words, her tone, and her actions. The math just wasn’t calculating out for him.

  “You could have been shot!” she said as if that settled the conversation.

  He leaned in, “You could have suffocated!”

  She jerked back from him, “Don’t be logical, I was hidden, you were out here.”

  “No,” he pointed behind her, to a hide with rocks pulled around it, “I was hiding in there, harder to hit me. I wasn’t doing jumping jacks with a target on my ass for them to try and hit.”

  “Still, I couldn’t see you!” She glared at him to refute her comment.

  “Neither could they!” He pointed behind him. She looked and realized how close the enemy had been.

  She leaned towards him and hissed, “Do you have any idea how much you confuse me?”

  Terry leaned back, puzzled, “Confuse you? I’m a pretty simple guy, here. Give me a clue what is confusing with this package,” he pointed up and down his body, “why don’t you?”

  She took a step forward, crowding his personal space. Her finger stabbed him with every comment.

  Stab.

  “You are smart.”

  Stab.

  “You are good looking.”

  Stab.

  “You are military!”

  This time, her finger barely poked him, and her eyes teared up. Her head dropped to his chest, “And I like you.”

  Terry hesitated, then put his arms around her, “What’s wrong with that?”

  She shook her head against him, “I don’t like military men! They are dumb, they are ugly, they like to shoot people and blow up things and…and…and they are full of assholious!” she cried out and croaked out a laugh and a sob at the same time. “God, what am I going to do? I just dropped out my heart like that, and I have no idea if you even like me or not!”

  “Damn, for an intellectual, you can be pretty dense at times,” Terry told her. Before she could parse his words and decide that mad was the right response, he added, “How many men carry a present of chocolate chip cookies halfway around the world so he could surprise a woman he doesn’t care about?”

  Melissa pulled back and looked up at him, “You do care about me?”