Lauren pointed to the small group of houses in the distance. “According to the little boy and his sister, he stays in a house up there. They saw him run off when the shooting started, along with a few others.”
“And you are certain it is the same person?”
“I’d bet my life on it,” said Lauren. “Lily, the little girl, she confirmed it. She drew a likeness of him in the dirt like a sketch artist.”
Woo Tang looked away and regarded the group of homes through his NVD. “We are losing cover of darkness rapidly. The sun will be up soon. I will take you at your word, but this must be done now.” He pressed the push-to-talk button on his throat mic. “Yellow team, converge on me, pronto.” He turned his head to Lauren, engaging her firmly. “I assume there is no point in asking you to remain here.”
“Not this time,” she replied, shaking her head. “If it was anybody else, I’d consider it. But this man is different, Jae. I could see it in his eyes when I met him.”
“You could see what in his eyes?”
Lauren bit her lip. “Evil. I’ve seen it before, I know what it looks like. He has to be put down. If he gets away, this shit will never be over.”
“Fine. You can accompany us,” Woo Tang said, in clear protest with himself. “But we will need to locate you some body armor.”
Lauren looked herself over briefly, then nodded with tightened lips, recalling the heft of the plate carrier Grace had given her and how good it had felt to rid herself of it after hefting its mass halfway up a mountain during her short-lived getaway.
Woo Tang’s expression grew dark. He lowered his head, turning away. “There is more I feel I must ask you…to suppress my uncertainties.”
“Ask away,” Lauren said.
“Do you call to mind…the times we trained together? And all of which I have…imparted unto you?”
“Of course I do. Why?”
Woo Tang turned his head away momentarily as his squad closed in. “Because you are making the choice to directly oppose an iniquitous enemy.” He dropped his pack to the ground. “And bearing that in mind, those recollections may be compelled to bolster you today.”
Woo Tang addressed his team as they neared. “Gentlemen, we have a dwelling to clear and a potential HVT. Strip down your kits. Close-quarters weapons only, swift and silent.” He looked to Lauren. “That goes for you, as well…prepare yourself for the ride. Your body will experience rapid changes in blood pressure and heart rate, and blood flow to major muscle groups will be hindered, conceivably making simple movements problematic or impossible. Rely on muscle memory. You may encounter visual difficulties as well, and your focus may suffer as a result.” He paused, extracting a KA-BAR fighting knife from his pack. “Do not let fear overpower you. Channel it into aggression and stay in control.” He handed her the knife, still enclosed in a Kydex sheath. “And never lose track of this blade.”
Under the cover of waning darkness, Lauren followed Woo Tang and his team to the home she had indicated. Several men, all armed with rifles, were found to be standing guard outside. One stood with conviction on the concrete patio before the front door, casually smoking a cigarette; others were in random locations around and along the home’s boundaries.
Using only hand signals, Woo Tang instructed each member of his team to form a circle around the house and locate themselves behind cover. He locked open his NVDs and turned to Lauren, who was kneeling behind him, motioning for her to come closer. “Ambient light will overload our night vision soon, but be ready to use them when we go inside. Chances are, it will be much darker there.” He handed Lauren a Beretta pistol with a suppressor attached to the barrel. “Remember, swift and silent, emphasis on silent. No noise, Lauren Russell. Control the distance—and stay glued to my six.”
After Lauren nodded her understanding, Woo Tang turned away to face the home, pressing the PTT on his throat mic. “This is yellow one. Danger close—strength seven, my count,” he said, barely above a whisper. “Yellow two, yellow three, hold your positions and maintain perimeter. Yellow six will be overwatch. Four and five with me; one has point.” A pause. “Six, do you have eyes on the stogie?”
“Roger, yellow six has the stogie.”
“Stogie first, then others. On my go.” Woo Tang held a hand aloft with three fingers in the air. A second later, he lowered his ring finger, leaving two to remain. His fingers reduced again to one and finally zero, and a flurry of suppressed gunshots popped off from hidden locations around the house in chorus. Each shot struck a target true, and the collection of men outside collapsed one by one.
With his M4’s buttstock pulled to his cheek, Woo Tang placed two fingers to his earpiece as he began receiving whispered reports from the members of his team.
“Target down, yellow two clear.”
“Yellow three is clear, tango down.”
“This is yellow four…all clear.”
The remaining men in the squad rang in their reports in the same fashion. Then Woo Tang pressed the PTT on his throat mic once more, whispering the words, “Yellow one moving with Orchid, standby to standby.” He turned to Lauren once again. “Remember. Glued to my six.”
“I got it,” Lauren replied in a whisper, then press-checked the Beretta and swallowed over a lump in her throat. She was apprehensive, felt miles out of place, but she wasn’t afraid. She refused to be.
Several of Woo Tang’s men moved in closer to the house as instructed while others remained in their positions. One of the men signaled, and Woo Tang ran to the house in a high crawl with Lauren following in tight formation. He jumped into the door, kicking it in and shattering it into splinters.
Lauren snapped her goggles down, and the green-hued reality flooded her vision. She watched Woo Tang move in and buttonhook to the left, his M4 leading the way. Two men entered seconds later and quickly overtook her, crisscrossed, then moved through the house methodically in every direction, one gliding into the kitchen while the other covered him before they switched positions and swept the hallway.
Woo Tang turned and motioned for Lauren to stand by the door, while sounds of doors being kicked and rooms being cleared filled the home. “Watch the entrance. The house appears empty, but that could change at any moment.”
Lauren nodded and slowly backed away, then turned and scuttled to the door. Several minutes later, after several shouts of ‘clear’, Woo Tang gathered with his team in the living room.
“There’s no one here,” the taller of the two said.
The second nodded. “That’s confirmed…not even a trace. This place is empty—like a keg of Natty Boh in a frat house.” He turned to Lauren, resting his carbine against his shoulder. “Where did you acquire your intel?”
“That is inconsequential,” Woo Tang interrupted, preventing Lauren from proposing an answer. “We encountered armed resistance prior to the breach, which serves as indication.”
“Sure, indication. But indication of what?” the second questioned.
Woo Tang glowered. “It is likely our HVT withdrew upon sensing commotion outside.”
“This isn’t making any sense,” Lauren said, shaking her head in distaste. “He has to be here. I can feel it in my gut.”
The taller man in black ACUs chuckled. “I used to get those feelings too, back when I was scared of the boogeyman.”
“That will be enough,” said Woo Tang. “You two—outside. Link up with the others. Hold the perimeter pending exfil.”
The two men nodded their accord and followed each other out the front door.
Lauren sighed and wandered into the home, taking cautious steps. She turned on the IR illuminator on her PVS-7, thereby adding brightness to her view. Then she took a right turn and proceeded down the hallway.
Woo Tang called her from behind. “Lauren Russell, could there be another house we need to check?”
“We can check all of them if you want. But he’s here, Jae. I’m telling you, he’s here.” She continued into the first room on her right and sca
nned it fully before exiting and entering another. “Daniel said it was a big house. Bigger than it looks from the outside. But it only looks like a single-level ranch…four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room and a living room.”
“I am sorry this did not work out the way you preferred.”
“You mean leaving this psycho at large? Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you.”
Woo Tang cocked his head and watched Lauren scour the home, the IR illuminator of her NVD visible like a concentrated starlight through his own. “Is there something in particular you are searching for?”
“I’m looking for a door. A hatch or something. Don’t all houses like this one have a basement or a crawl space?”
Woo Tang pressed the push-to-talk switch on his throat mic. “Two, this is one.”
“Go for two.”
“Verify dwelling for exterior exits—possibly leading to a basement or crawl space.” He stepped closer to Lauren. “The team is on it.”
A moment later, Woo Tang received a reply.
“Yellow one, this is two. That’s affirm. We got a small metal door on the west face. Appears unlocked. Ascertaining now. Wait one.”
“What did he say?” asked Lauren.
“The team located a door in the foundation. They are checking it now.”
A sensation punched Lauren in the gut and a hot wave of anxiety brushed over her. “Jae, no! Tell them not to! You don’t know this guy…the door could be—”
Interrupting her midsentence, a crash, then the jarring resonance of an explosion rumbled from outside the house, shaking it all the way through to its core. Lauren ducked and cried out while Woo Tang reached for her, pulling her to the floor with him, using his arms to cover her as dust and debris shot from all directions. Defunct light fixtures came apart, and chunks of ceiling fell from their moorings, coating them both in shards of broken glass and a fine sheen of powdery gypsum dust.
Lauren grabbed for the shemagh around her neck and pulled it over her nose as she gasped and coughed out inadvertently inhaled breaths of dust.
After snapping his NVD in the up position, Woo Tang reached to Lauren’s helmet and repeated the motion with hers. “Are you okay?” he asked, his concern mounting in sequence with his displeasure.
Lauren nodded in between coughs. “I’m…fine. But dammit, Jae, what about your men?”
“I am about to find out.”
“Not without me, you’re not.”
The couple made their way to the rear of the home to discover four members of the team had been killed, their bodies mutilated and mauled in ways difficult to describe.
While Lauren stood guard, watching both the woods around them and the hole recently punctured in the foundation by the explosion, Woo Tang verified each of his men for vital signs. He pushed on his radio’s PTT again. “Yellow six?”
“Go for yellow six,” the voice bawled through Woo Tang’s earpiece.
“Advise status.”
Yellow six replied abrasively at a volume far beyond the routine covert threshold. “Fuck…I’m solid, one. What the hell happened? I saw fire—debris…smoke’s still rising…” He trailed off, panting. “I see…four men on the ground. All of them…down.”
“Report contacts.”
A pause and then, “Negative contacts—just you…and Orchid.”
“Copy that. Stay frosty. Break. Net, this is yellow one actual. I have casualties. Four K-I-A, I repeat…number four, all K-I-A.” A pause. “Tango remains at large. We will be continuing in.”
Woo Tang glanced at Lauren with narrowing eyes. Slowly and meticulously, he rose, removed his helmet, then regarded each of his fallen men. “Till Valhalla, brothers. I will see you all there, someday. Rest easy.” He stepped away and turned to Lauren, his expression incinerating with angst.
Lauren approached him carefully, her tone grave and succinct. “Jae…”
“Yes?”
“Who’s Orchid?”
The Korean-American frogman morosely smiled at her. “I was not aware my earpiece was so flagrant.”
Lauren returned his faint, overcast smile. “Our overwatch is flustered…I heard everything he said. But you said it earlier too.”
“I suppose I did.” He hesitated. “It is your code name. The one we…chose for you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There is a modest explanation. You are the Ghost Orchid because you are both rare and endangered. There are other rationales, but those are the two I consider most prevalent.”
Lauren rolled her lips between her teeth, nearly quivering at the sentiment. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Then say nothing; we can chat about it later all you like.” Woo Tang took in a deep breath and exhaled little by little while strengthening his posture. “At present, I must admit to you that I am feeling rather…infuriated. I am inclined to finish this.”
Her feeling of sorrow passed by in a flash as Lauren scanned the ground where the recently departed lay, finding herself quickly overcome by an abrupt urge for vengeance. “I’m right behind you.”
Woo Tang nodded. After refastening his helmet, he moved swiftly, slipping through the hole in the foundation with Lauren following on his heels.
Once inside, the two shined their flashlight beams in every direction, discovering that the crawl space wasn’t a crawl space by any means. It was spacious enough to be a basement or even a bunker of sorts. Directly before them stood a cinder-block wall with two doorways, one on each of its far sides.
“Well, that’s life for you,” Lauren said, breathing out a sigh. “What’s it going to be? Door number one, or door number two?”
Woo Tang shrugged, his suppressed M4 pulled tightly to him. “I am casting my vote for door number neither. What is stopping this mongrel from setting up pitfalls behind every object we touch?”
Lauren’s jaw set, and her fists tightened. “The fact he’s a coward,” she said. “He values his own life far too much to bring this whole house down on top of him. Hurting other people doesn’t inconvenience him one bit, but I think…he’s just as scared of dying as the next man.”
Keeping his torch aimed at the door before him, Woo Tang turned his head. “Do you think this is the case? Or know it is? Remember the difference. We are not immersed in a training exercise at Point Blank, Lauren Russell, and this is far from being a controlled environment. One wrong move can mean death for either…or both of us.”
“I appreciate your concern,” said Lauren. “And I love you for it. But ever since this whole…thing started for me, not one day has gone by when I haven’t told myself that.” She stepped away, and with her pistol at the ready, approached the door on the left, placing her flashlight between her teeth. She then reached for the handle. “On your go.”
He sent her a bleak smile. “Before we separate, I would like to pass something along to you. In my initial conversation with your father, he tried expressing to me how brave you were.” Woo Tang came within reach of the other door. “His explanation was in metaphor, making it difficult for me to accept it as true.” He paused. “I did not realize until this moment…how right he was about you.”
Removing the torch from her mouth, Lauren sent the beam down the narrow corridor while her heart pounded away. She looked high and low, but the hall was empty aside from another closed door at the far end. She doused her light and placed it in her back pocket, then brought her NVDs down over her eyes, illuminating the darkness in front of her.
Lauren inched her way through, careful not to make a sound with every step she took, and every breath she inhaled and blew out. She could hear her pulse beating in her ears, and she could feel it throbbing in her throat, and it seemed to worsen the closer she got to the door.
She took in a deep breath before grabbing the handle and shoving it open, and the door’s hinges creaked loudly as it swung inward.
With the muzzle of the Beretta leading the way, sweeping from one side to the next, Lauren stepped into
a large storage room with benches and empty wooden and wire shelving mounted to the walls. She turned right and then pivoted left on the bare concrete, her heart jumping upon setting eyes on the one she had come for.
He had his shirtless back turned to her, wore nothing to cover his body other than a pair of torn denim jeans, and stood motionless as a mannequin. It was the leader of the absolved, the man who had spoken so eccentrically during their encounter. The bald, diabolical, sonnet-parroting man who wore glasses lacking lenses.
Lauren tiptoed closer. Once his hairless head was aligned steadily in her sight picture, she opted to announce her presence, using a manner with which her foe could identify. “Thou’st spoken right. ’Tis true,” she said, her tone razor sharp, her eyes set to kill. “The wheel is come full circle. I am here.”
The leader’s neck muscles twitched. He turned his head somewhat to the side while keeping his back turned to her. “Cordelia…” he murmured, drawing out the name. “What an enchanting surprise. And here, I thought I had lost you for good…yet here you are, once again right beside me, in my realm.” He paused to scratch his nose. “I see you have brought along friends today.”
“The time for talking is over.”
“On the contrary…I believe it’s only begun. Tell me, why doth thee approach from behind in rabble-rousing fashion? With a gun pointed at me, no less?”
Lauren pulled the M9’s trigger, firing a round into the cinder-block wall inches from her target, sending a cloud of silica dust bursting into the air. “And it’s loaded, no less. That hole in the wall could’ve been your head.”
“Perhaps it should have been.” He paused. “Incidentally, I would like to point out, while you quoted your lines impeccably, it was not Cordelia who said them. Rather, it was Edmund.”
Lauren took a step closer. “I know whose lines they were. I used them only because I felt them appropriate.”
“Ah yes, I see. The wicked one is attempting to teach me a lesson of sorts.” The leader held his hands aloft and to his sides. “Tsk-tsk. Are you able to see that you have found me unarmed?”
“That changes nothing today.”
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