by Scott Cook
Clay chuckled, “Then that’s my target. It looks like there might be a generator near that tanker, too.”
I glanced over at him and he held up a small ditty bag.
“You brought the C4?” I asked unnecessarily.
“Roger that,” Clay confirmed. “Pay them back with their own coin. Seems fair.”
“Okay then… if you break right and go for the fuel, I’ll break left and circle around to that prefab building. I’ll bet dollars to navy beans your family is in there.”
He nodded and reached up to activate his comm earpiece. I did the same.
“Looks like about fifty men,” Clay noted after about ten minutes. “A few women too, and in uniform. Interesting.”
“We’ve got a plan to infiltrate,” I commented. “That’s easy enough in the dark… but suppose I do find Missy and the kids? How do we get them out of here and back east to our ride?”
Clay blew out his breath, “I don’t know. The fuel explosion will already throw the camp into chaos, that’s for sure. We’re gonna need to do the same to get everybody out.”
“We could grab that old truck,” I suggested.
“Or anything else,” He replied.
I groaned, “Looks like we’re wingin’ it again… okay, comm check.”
“Two,” He stated.
“One,” I replied.
We began to belly crawl away from each other. The camp was located in a large clearing that was maybe two hundred yards on a side. There were some trees and underbrush outside of this perimeter, but not many. Cover would be difficult. Especially since there was a good fifty feet or more of open ground between the nearest tree and the outline of the camp. There were four guards posted, casually strolling around the perimeter, but they didn’t look especially vigilant.
As I came parallel with the west end of the clearing, I stopped and studied the camp from my new vantage point. Not a lot of activity, as it was after nine in the evening. What movement there was seemed to be centered around the four campfires.
“Two, One… guards seem lax. Most people are around the fires.”
“Confirm… same from my vantage. Sitrep?”
“Southwest corner… waiting for op to cross the street and will approach from tree line.”
A long pause, “One, Two… concur. Will do same from my side. Estimate… ten minutes to work my way around and I’ll blow the fuel tank. Wait until then to assault building.”
I acknowledged and slowly got to my feet. The closest guard was at least a hundred feet away and had his back to me. I half-ran, half-twinkle-toed my way across the road. By balancing mostly on the balls of my feet, I could take long steady strides and keep the noise of my shoes hitting the gravel to a minimum. I stopped behind a small stand of short scrubby trees and crouched low, training my night vision eyepiece on the camp again.
Nothing had changed. No one had seemed to notice.
I began to slowly move to the north, creeping from tree to bush to tree as quickly and quietly as I could. When I was even with the back wall of the steel building, I unslung my rifle and lay prone. The guard I’d been watching was walking perpendicular to me, along the backside of a row of tents. In the greenish-gray glow of my night vision, I could see the cherry of a cigarette glowing in his mouth. I sighted in and waited.
The cigarette glow went out and he pitched the dead butt toward me. He stopped, yanked a pack from his pocket and stuck another pill in his kisser right underneath a world-class seventies porn stash.
His rifle hung at his side and he brought up a lighter. The flare of the flame was almost painfully intense through the lens of my monocular and I closed my left eye for a second. I’m glad I did, because a huge orange fireball blossomed into life on the other side of the building. Night was practically turned to day as a roar and a blast of wind blew through the compound.
“One, Two… in case you were wondering, that’s my signal!”
Everybody’s a wise ass…
As if a switch had been thrown, which I suppose it had in a very real sense, the hellish fireball destroyed any sense of order that had existed in the camp previously. People started shouting, women screamed and at least half a dozen automatic weapons began to crackle.
Including my buddy the smoker. He’d turned right toward me and started emptying his magazine in my direction.
Chapter 14
“Two, One… taking fire!”
I got no response, at least not at first. Clay must have his hands full, too.
After a moment, though, the guard who was shooting at me altered his aim. It turned out he was simply spraying the woods with rounds at random. Probably figured that something was afoot and just laying down suppressive fire to prevent a full-on assault. I had to hand it to him. That was good thinking.
Unfortunately for him, I had good concealment and had a bead on him. I could also see very clearly in the darkness. The fire ball was still burning, but it’d go out soon enough.
I sighted in on his center mass, inhaled and gently pulled the trigger. I had the weapon set on burst mode, and three rapid rounds tore into the man’s chest and he toppled over.
He was the only one that I could see who had even turned his attention west. Everyone else seemed to be running around aimlessly. A few seemed to be getting into some kind of order, though. They were chattering in rapid Spanish that I couldn’t understand over the crackling flames and occasional gunfire.
I got to my feet and sprinted across the open ground to where the guard had fallen. A quick check of his body confirmed that my shots had found their mark. I stripped him of ammo even though I figured I had enough. This operation would be over in five or ten minutes or it’d be bad news for Clay and me.
“Two, One, sitrep!” I practically shouted.
“One, Two… got a little problem over here!” Clay finally whispered back. “Pinned down in the woods. About a dozen guys mustered around the Deuce and the burning tank. Another dozen are trying to get to a small water tower to the north.”
“Can you infiltrate?”
“Negative. Fire’s too bright and too many tangos.”
“Okay… exit the area if you can. Circle around to the west side. I’m going in.”
“Roger. I’ll try.”
I moved north along the row of tents until I could peek around the corner. The steel building was only ten feet away, but there was no sign of a door. The building was maybe fifty feet wide by a hundred feet long, and I suspected the front door would face the center of the camp.
Figures.
The fireball had dissipated significantly now, having died down to a burning bonfire as it consumed the diesel fuel. I assumed it was diesel or it would probably have gone out by then. The lights in the camp had been extinguished. More likely than not the explosion had taken out the generator.
So darkness had once again taken over. However, with my magic eye, I could clearly see what was happening. There were men and women running to and fro, darting into the tents on either side of the open ground. Some of them were no more than fifteen or twenty feet from me.
I had only one option and took off running to go around the west end of the prefab building and make my way along the north side to try and get to the front door. I skidded to a stop and peeked around the corner. As I did, something small and fast slammed into my stomach.
I lurched backward, grabbing at the small figure that was already in a frantic struggle to get free.
“Let go!” A boy’s voice shouted.
English?
I bent to one knee and looked into his face with the monocular. I was shocked to recognize him.
“Declan!” I said softly.
“Who are you?” he asked, still struggling in my grip.
“Dude, its Scott!”
It was dark where we were. I pulled a small pen light from my pocket and shined it on my face. Declan’s eyes went huge and he grinned from ear to ear.
“I knew you would come!” He said excitedly. “Whe
re’s dad?”
I shushed him, “Be cool, Dec. Keep your voice down. Your dad is on the other side of the camp. He’s the one that set off the fireworks.”
Declan chuckled, “Mom and Aubrey and Shelby are inside this building. In the back.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to think of what to do next. I pulled my comm earpiece off and settled it onto his head. “Say hi to your dad.”
“Dad!” Declan said excitedly. “Dad, are you there?”
Clay was obviously saying something to Declan that amused the boy because he laughed. In the meantime, I had to figure out what to do with him. I couldn’t very well take him inside again. There really were only two options.
Directly ahead of me, about two hundred feet away, was the Deuce and a Half truck. It didn’t seem to have suffered from the fire. I had to think that the keys were in it, or that it would start without keys.
The other option was to send Declan into the woods where I’d come from. Neither choice was giving me what the young folks called the warm and fuzzies.
Declan handed me back the comm unit, “He wants to talk to you.”
I settled it over my ear and got the head band adjusted, “Go ahead, Two.”
“What do you think?” Clay inquired.
I told him about my two options. He groaned and said that he thought the woods was a better option. I wasn’t entirely sure because some men might go over there and try and intercept an assault. Clay thought that was less likely than somebody either checking the truck or that the truck was usable at the moment.
I reluctantly agreed and told him to standby. I then noticed that there were a series of shots coming from what sounded like the interior of the building. Several AR bursts followed by several rapid pistol volleys. Something was going on in there and I needed to move now.
“Dec,” I said, turning him to the west, “there are some woods about a hundred feet away. Run into them and hide. Our Jeep is parked back to the east. I’m going in and getting your mom and sisters and then we’ll come out and join you.”
“It’s dark,” He said, frowning.
“You’ll be okay.”
“It’s not that… it’s that I won’t be able to see the bad guys too good.”
Good point. I removed my night vision gear and adjusted it over his head. “Okay, now you can see in the dark.”
“Cool…” He breathed, gazing around.
“You can always close your left eye and use your regular vision, but this should give you an advantage,” I said. “If you think you can do it, go south once you’re in the woods to the road. You can cross it and then use those woods and bushes to go east. Our Jeep is like half a mile past the camp. You know which direction is east?”
He nodded and pointed in the right direction. I gave him a hug, we did a high five and he took off toward the woods.
“Two, One… Dec is away.”
“Awesome.”
“I’m going in.”
I jogged to the far corner of the building and peeked around it. Without my night vision, the scene was quite different. Yet there was still enough firelight left for me to see that there was indeed a door halfway down the short face of the structure and it was hanging open. I shouldered my weapon and began to slide along the wall, keeping myself close so as to utilize the best concealment I could.
I made it to the door and crouched low, leaning around the frame and leading with my weapon.
It was very dark inside. I instantly regretted the lack of night vision. But when three shots rang out, I got a quick visual thanks to the muzzle flashes.
I was glad I was low, though. Three bullets whined off the metal hallway only ten feet further in. The good news was that whoever was firing the pistol had pulled the trigger twice more on an empty chamber. I had a couple of seconds to move before they reloaded.
In the flashes, I’d seen that the hallway ran most of the length of the building. To either side were a series of doors, several of which were open. I also saw four bodies lying between me and the last door on the left, where the shooter had been.
I jumped up and ran, leaping over a corpse and diving sideways into what was somebody’s office before three more shots boomed out in the confined corridor.
“Two, One! I’m inside but somebody is with the prisoners, I think. Taking fire.”
Clay cursed aloud, “I’m nearly across the road again.”
“Good, Declan should be making his way to you. You two should meet on your side, I’d guess. I can’t fire back, though… don’t want to hit a friendly.”
“Understood… what’s your plan?”
“Plan? I’m not familiar with that term… gonna have to wing it. Standby.”
Just then, a long series of rounds exploded in the hallway. They came from the door. Somebody was firing rapid bursts from an automatic weapon down toward the prisoner area. I heard two men shouting in rapid Spanish from off to my right. I waited until I saw two shadowy figures step past my open door.
“Mida!” I shouted.
They stopped and turned and I sent two of my own bursts into them. They cried out and collapsed on top of each other, their AR’s clattering to the gravel floor.
I decided to take a chance, “Hey! Hey down at the end! Stop shooting, I’m a friendly! D’ya hear me, there?”
There was no reply. I stood and peeked around the doorframe. I couldn’t see much, just a darkened hallway with a pale splash of moonlight in front of an open door at the end on my side. I glanced back to the entrance but could see no more men coming.
“Help!” A woman’s voice I didn’t recognize screeched. “We’re being held prisoner in here!”
“Understood!” I called back. “Are you holding a weapon?”
“We’re armed,” This was another woman’s voice. This one I knew.
“Missy?” I shouted. “Are you and the girls okay?”
There was a long pause, “Scott?”
“Tah-dah!” I shouted back and laughed, “I’m coming down the hall. Tell whoever is holding the weapon that I have a serious lead allergy.”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I darted out into the hallway and slid to a stop at the open door. I spun in, using the doorframe to turn myself around to face back the way I’d come. Still no more soldiers.
The light level in here was low, but brighter than the hallway thanks to the moonlight outside and the reflected glow of the flames on the nearby tents. I took in the room before me. It was chaotic. There were three blonde women all huddled together on an army cot. A scraggly looking man and an equally scraggly looking woman who would be pretty when she got cleaned up were huddled near the women. A fat woman who looked Costa Rican lay sprawled on the dirt floor near an overturned cart.
There were two more women standing close to me and close together. They were both about the same size. One dressed all in black and holding a pistol. She had her long hair tied back and a stocking cap pulled low over her face. The other was Missy, who immediately launched herself into my arms.
“Missy!” I exclaimed. “Are you okay? Where are the girls?”
She began to sob, “Scott… Scott…”
“We’re here!” Shelby’s voice said from somewhere in the darkness. I watched as two small wraith like figures seemed to separate themselves from the shadows beneath two of the cots and came running into mine and Missy’s arms.
“You guys okay?” I asked.
Both girls said they were and started to chatter away. Missy and I hushed them for the moment. Missy was still shaking.
I held her tight as she sobbed into my chest, her relief having loosed a lot of dammed up tension, “It’s okay, babes… it’s gonna be okay… Declan is free. Clay is here too. Are you catching this, Two?”
I’d left my com line open. I expected an answer but got none. Clay probably couldn’t respond at that moment. I could hear distant gunfire off to the south. That was probably why.
Missy was shaking but she seemed to calm down a little. She looked u
p at me with teary eyes, “Do you think we can escape?”
I grinned, “We’re gonna give it a try. Who are your friends?”
Missy sniffed and indicated the five other people huddled in a corner, “An Australian couple and three sisters that were abducted. And I don’t think you need an introduction for this lady.”
Missy looked over to the other woman who stood silently. She looked more than a little surprised, though. She also looked more than a little familiar.
I scrunched my face up in consternation, my mind still in fight mode. The woman was about five foot four with a luscious figure. She had ample breasts, a small waist and nicely rounded hips. Her skin tight black clothing accentuated an athletic body. Her face was exotic and beautiful. She could be of Latin origin herself…
I don’t’ know why it took as long as it did to click into place. I suppose my only excuse was that my mind was on other things and it wasn’t ready to believe what was in front of my own eyes. At first I thought I was just imagining it, the light being so low.
“Li… sa…?” I managed to ask.
“Hey, sailor…. You come here often?” Lisa Gonzalez, my former lover and secretary joked softly.
“What the… Christ…?”
“Long story,” Lisa replied, cocking an ear to the open door.
I mentally slapped myself into order and turned to the others, “Okay… time for that later. You folks ready to hit the road?”
“Who are you?” The Australian man asked.
“I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you,” I said with a smile. “Obviously.”
“This a fuckin’ joke to you?” One of the blondes asked.
“That’s Julie,” Missy said. “She’s a bitch.”
Lisa chuckled and I guffawed, looseing some of my own pent up tension.
“Just lightening the mood, folks,” I said. “My name is Scott Jarvis. You ready to go?”
“I don’t know,” Another of the blondes said. “If we just sit tight…”
I heaved a sigh, “Oh for cryin’… I don’t have time for this shit! We’re leaving. You want to come and gain your freedom, cool. If not, then I guess we’ll fuckin’ see ya’. I’ve got shit to do.”