“Ah, sir. The colonel told us no one was to be granted entrance,” the braver of the two corporals said.
“Step aside, Corporal,” Mac growled.
“Can’t do that, sir,” the other one said.
Mac was growing angry. He was much larger than the men and the truth was, if he wanted to, he could pick them both up and toss them down the hall. But with cameras everywhere, he knew that was a really bad idea. That course of action would only bring more guards and their plans for a quiet extrication would be over. He heard a groan coming from the other side of the door and everything in him shuddered. That’s my man in there.
“I guess you didn’t hear me, Corporal. I have to see Colonel Archer. It’s a matter of life and death. Step. Aside. Now.”
The braver of the two men shook his head. “No, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”
“What’s going on here? Lieutenant Black?”
The drawl from behind Mac straightened his spine but it also forced a wave of relief to wash over him. He turned to look over his shoulder and found Adael walking up the hallway toward them. He looked pissed but his anger wasn’t directed at Mac, his glower was aimed right at the guard who was standing up to Mac and outright refusing him entry even when faced by a superior officer. He glanced over at Mac and acknowledged him with a quick nod.
“Hayut,” Mac acknowledged Adael.
“Lieutenant? What’s going on here?”
“I have to see Colonel Archer who is in the armory with the prisoner but I can’t seem to make these men understand that.”
“We’ve been told not to let anyone past the door, s-sir,” the braver corporal stammered.
Mac turned back to the corporal, glaring at him as Adael stepped up beside him. He waved a hand, trying to look as frustrated as possible.
“Apparently, these men don’t understand that refusing an order given by a superior officer is a court-martial offense.”
“S-sir… I-I… we…we…”
Adael reached out and clamped the braver one on the shoulder. “Move aside, now! The lieutenant has to see the colonel,” he said. The corporal glanced at his compatriot and then nodded slowly, shifting to open the space in front of the door.
“Yes, sir.”
Mac nodded at Adael. “Thank you, Hayut.”
Adael smiled at him. “Carry on.”
Mac reached out and twisted the doorknob, opening it and holding his breath as he stepped through. He had no idea whether a gun would be leveled at his chest when he entered but he had to do this. Nico was in trouble and he had no choice. He knew the TAC teams were prepping to enter the building, so it was now or never.
He walked into the room, turning and meeting Adael’s eyes just before he shut the door. Adael smiled at him and nodded, staying put. It was obvious that he was going to do things the hard way. Inside the room, Mac was on his own. The Israeli would take out the guards in the hallway and clear a path for him and Nico. Mac turned to walk into the armory. He heard a groan coming from deeper in the room but he was blocked from seeing Nico’s location by a wall. He cautiously walked down the short corridor and smothered a gasp as he turned the corner.
Nico was strapped to a hard-backed chair, wearing only the black fatigue pants they all wore. Even his socks and boots had been removed. His torso was caked with streaks of dried blood that had run from a cut on his cheekbone that gaped open just below his swollen left eye. A petite African-American woman was standing beside Drake Archer who’d turned in his direction, probably at the sound of the door opening. The woman held a shiny scalpel that was also bloody. It was then that Mac recognized several cuts low on the right side of Nico’s torso where she’d begun her work. The area over his belly was bleeding from the cuts but Mac couldn’t tell whether they were deep enough to have penetrated beyond the skin to the muscle layer.
Flashes of his own lips kissing the taut muscles of Nico’s abdomen as he worked his way down his treasure trail flashed in his memory. The man whose body he’d worshipped with soft kisses was being ravaged by this bitch and it took every iota of strength in Mac’s body not to launch himself at her and snap her neck. Instead, he stiffened.
“At ease, Lieutenant Black. Where have you been?” Archer growled.
Mac stepped forward, now only fifteen feet from the man standing over Nico. He straightened some more and saluted Archer.
“I’m sorry, sir. I was in my quarters. I was asleep and never heard a call to general quarters over the loudspeaker,” he replied, praying the lie passed muster until he was within range to pounce.
“That’s because there wasn’t one. We didn’t want to wake the whole complex because my guess is, we’ll need all available personnel later,” Archer said.
“I don’t understand, sir.”
“Because of this.” Drake Archer had his right hand on the butt of the gun at his hip as he growled, tilting his head at Nico. The woman appeared to be unarmed except for the scalpel, but Mac couldn’t do anything to help Nico until he was closer. He assessed the room in his peripheral vision, assuring himself that they were the only people present. It appeared that only the four of them were there. He let his eyes flick toward Nico and his heart sped up just a little. Nico was staring at him and the look in his eyes was more than relieved. His expression was marred by fear and pain but he actually managed to sit up in the chair, scooting back and out of the slouch he’d been in when Mac rounded the corner.
“You should have been at my side. We’ve been compromised,” Archer said, again, indicating Nico with a wave of his hand.
Mac turned and stared at Nico, frowning for Archer’s benefit. “I see that, sir,” he said, stepping closer. He was now within six feet of the man and the petite woman but wasn’t close enough to disarm them both. All it would take is the woman to slash Nico’s carotid and he’d bleed out before Mac could stop Archer from drawing down on him with the .45 his hand still rested on. He’d come here to rescue Nico, not get him killed. He was still trying to decide how he was going to manage to disarm the bitch, when there was a commotion outside. He heard a body slam against the wall followed by two gunshots.
Adael. Perfect timing.
“What was that?” Archer shouted, turning toward the sound.
Mac glanced at the woman who took her attention away from Nico just long enough for him to make his move. Mac dived at her, taking hold of the small hand that held the scalpel. She screamed as he snapped her wrist. The scalpel dropped from her hand just as Archer realized what was going on. Mac yanked her arm behind her back. She yowled in pain as Mac put his other arm across her throat, twisting her body to face toward Archer. The colonel drew his weapon and fired. The woman’s body jerked as the .45’s bullets slammed into her chest with loud reverberations in the small room.
Mac tossed her body aside and rushed Archer who was standing, looking at the woman’s bleeding chest in complete shock, trying to absorb what had happened. Before the man could regroup, Mac knocked Archer’s arm aside. At the last second, he was able to squeeze off a shot, but it hit the wall instead of the target he’d intended. Mac was grateful he was a crappy shot.
“God damnit!” Archer shouted as the gun flew out of his hand and went cluttering to the tile ground, spinning out of the way.
Before he could regroup, Mac rushed forward and swung a meaty fist, connecting with Archer’s jaw with a loud crack. Archer dropped to the ground, unconscious from the single swing. Mac was pretty sure he’d broken his jaw but he couldn’t take the time to ponder that now. He rushed over to Nico and squatted in front of him, taking both cheeks in his hands and tilting his face so that he could look into his eyes.
“I’m here, baby. I’m here.”
Nico offered a weak smile. “I knew you would be, Mac.” He squeezed his eyes tightly shut and then groaned.
Mac let go of his cheeks and checked out his body. The cuts on his torso weren’t deep, just enough to draw blood and hurt like hell but from what Mac could see, they hadn’t penetrated any mu
scle beneath. He stood quickly and went around to the back of the chair, noting the tight knots. A volley of automatic gunfire sounded outside along with another thud against the door.
“Son of a bitch.” Adael was fighting off more attackers.
We’ve been found out.
Mac looked back at Nico’s bindings. He knew it was going to take a long time to get through the ropes and the one thing they didn’t have was time. He scanned the room, seeing a canvas bag open on a nearby table so he ran to it and selected a knife, sliding it out of its sheath. He returned to Nico and had almost finished cutting Nico free when someone slammed into the room. Mac grabbed Drake Archer’s gun and leveled it at the wall, sighing with relief when Adael came around the corner. He looked like hell but he’d obtained an AR-15 from somewhere. Blood spread from a wound at one shoulder, shining against the black fabric of the fatigues. Mac lowered the gun.
“Dayan! You’re hurt!” Nico exclaimed, slowly limping over to him.
“I’m okay. We gotta go. I got this off one but there’s a lot more coming. I heard it on one of their radios.” Adael held up a radio which he’d probably taken off the mercenary he’d killed.
Mac ran over to Nico, looking down at him. “You okay?”
“I’m not ready to dance but yeah, I can walk. Let’s get the fuck out of here, Mac,” he said.
“Guns!” Adael said, running over to the wall and grabbing magazines for the AR-15 off a shelf. He stuffed them down into the deep pockets on the fatigues as Mac ran for the wall as well. He selected two more AR-15s and handed one to Nico then ran to another shelf and pulled boxes onto the floor, not giving a shit about the mess they made. He grabbed as many magazines as he could carry, picked up eight smoke grenades, and handed four to Nico.
“We’re gonna need these,” he said. Nico nodded. Mac turned to Adael who was busy stuffing something into his pockets behind him. “You ready?”
“Yep! Run! I’ll catch up!”
At first Mac was confused but then he saw what Adael had in his hands. He grabbed Nico’s shoulder and pulled him toward the exit. “Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Mac watched as Adael pulled the pin on two live grenades and tossed them into the room. Mac began to run with Nico at his side before charging after them.
Mac knew they’d be waiting in the hall as they exited but they had no choice. He’d hoped to pull Archer along with them but that crazy Israeli fucker had plans of his own. They reached the exit and Mac raised his rifle, throwing open the door and pulling Nico through with Adael on their heels. They flew into the hallway but weren’t immediately met with a hail of gunfire. When they turned to run, they’d barely gotten twenty feet from the armory when someone screamed.
“Where’s Colonel Archer?”
“Inside!” Adael yelled.
Mac was positive he heard the Israeli laugh as the armory exploded, knocking them off their feet. They rolled, engulfed in black dust and smoke as the building seemed to groan around them.
Guess I don’t need the fucking smoke grenades.
****
Two of Jarrett’s TAC teams calmly walked into the lobby of the Stryker-Dunn building at precisely 0430 with him in the lead. He was well aware that Thayne’s teams would be landing on the roof in about ninety seconds. He handed the search warrant to one of the two wide-eyed guards in the three-story lobby. As the guard opened the warrant, more teams flooded in behind the first two.
“You’d better let us in, son. The last thing you want to do is ignore a federal warrant.”
“I need to call Colonel Archer, sir,” the man replied, handing the note he’d quickly scanned to the other guard who was already picking up the phone.
“Not necessary. Just give us access and we’ll go to him.” Jarrett could only imagine what was going through the guy’s head. He was young and fresh-faced with a buzzed head. He looked like Jarrett probably had shortly after he’d reported for basic training. It was hard to believe that the kid had seen combat but he was pretty sure that everyone at Stryker-Dunn had done at least one tour of duty before signing on to become a mercenary and a killer.
The other man spoke rapidly into the phone but then hung up just as a massive explosion reverberated from somewhere above. Both men had their hands on their sidearms in a second, freezing in place as the TAC teams leveled their automatic weapons at them.
“Don’t do it!” Jarrett yelled.
The men both held their weapons out to the side and dropped them before throwing their hands in the air. Jarrett twisted back to his teams.
“Go! Go! Go!”
Jarrett and the TAC teams began moving, filing out of the lobby and splitting up to head for the two stairwells, running as fast as they could. The ones in front held shields while the rest followed, all dressed in body armor charging through the lobby. Jarrett selected the south stairwell, closest to where he thought he’d heard the blast.
“We’re on the roof!” Thayne’s voice shouted in Jarrett’s com. “We think we heard an explosion.”
“We heard it too!” Jarrett said. “Mac! Devecchio! Come in!”
“We’re here!” Mac’s voice said. “Coming down the south stairwell. Adael just blew up Drake Archer and the goddamned armory on the fifth floor. He’s laying down cover fire in the hallway.”
“What?” Thayne asked.
“Breaching the rooftop door!” another voice yelled. Jarrett heard Thayne’s teams taking to the stairs from the roof.
In Jarrett’s head, it sounded like chaos.
“You have Devecchio?” Jarrett yelled as he began to climb.
“Got him. Dayan is right behind me,” Mac yelled. His voice sounded like it was straining. There was a volley of gunfire in the com and then someone cried out.
“Shit! I’m hit!” Adael grunted.
“I’m coming back up!” Mac shouted. “Stay there, Adael.”
“No! Just get Devecchio out, Mac!” Adael said weakly. I’ll hold them off as long as I can…” There were several other grunts and then a sigh as Jarrett heard the Israeli gasp. “Got lots of ammo.” The sound of a body hitting the wall echoed in his com followed by more gasps.
“We’re coming down. Not meeting any resistance!” Thayne said. “Where the hell are these fuckers?”
“They have… no guns!” Adael chuckled, weakly. The sound of the wet laugh hissed into Jarrett’s com. “Surprised them by blowing… shit! Hey! Fuck you!” Another volley of gunfire interrupted whatever the Israeli was going to say. He cried out again and then his com went silent.
Jarrett began to see smoke as the TAC teams climbed. It was filling the stairwell.
“Smoke on the second floor!” he called out.
“We’re on four!” Mac’s steady, panting voice yelled into the com. No one between us.” A sudden volley of gunfire burst in Jarrett’s com. “Shit! Didn’t see him,” Mac said quietly. There was a grunt and then, “Good shooting, baby. Now save your strength.”
Baby? Who the hell was Mac talking to? There could only be one answer of course but it was still weird to think of Mac and Nico together like that. Jarrett had apparently been blind to the whole thing. As a gay man, he felt kind of like an idiot. The smoke thickened the farther Jarrett climbed. When they hit the landing on the third floor, he called out again.
“We’re on three! Mac, where are you and Devecchio?”
“One floor above. All clear. Don’t shoot us as we come down,” Mac replied.
“We’re here,” Jarrett said. He looked up and spotted Mac. The Green Beret had his arm around Devecchio who was shirtless and shoeless and had dried blood all over the left side of his face and the right side of his torso. He looked all cut up, and in the smoke that was growing thicker, he looked like hell but he was grinning. “Get him downstairs, Mac,” Jarrett said as they met on the stairwell.
“Jarrett! Come in!” Thayne said.
“We’re here. Mac and Nico are safe. They’re on the way out. Where are you?”
“Tenth floor. Glad to
hear everyone is okay. We’re getting smoke up here.”
“Evacuate, Thayne!”
Jarrett heard Thayne bark orders to his TAC teams before he came back onto the com. “Okay, we’re evacuating back to the roof. Where’s Adael?”
Jarrett looked up and cursed into the earwig. “Goin’ up for him. I think he’s been shot.”
“What about the rest of the Stryker-Dunn employees?” Thayne asked in his com.
“Getting out is gonna be their problem. I’m not sending any firefighters in here until it’s deemed safe,” Jarrett said.
“Technically, no one in the building is supposed to be armed but we’ve seen that’s bullshit,” Mac said. Jarrett watched him begin to move Nico down the stairs following the TAC teams he’d brought up with him. “Just get your teams out, Wolfe,” Mac said.
“Roger that,” Thayne replied. “Be careful, if you’re going back for Adael, Jarrett. And then get the hell out.”
Jarrett coughed on the smoke. “Yeah, okay, darlin’.” He turned to one of the TAC team guys. He was massive. “You’re coming with me. Adael Dayan is hurt. Can you carry him? I’ll lay down covering fire if we need it.”
“Yes, sir. I bench 315.” The man grinned widely and nodded behind his TAC team mask.
Jarrett smiled. “No doubt. What’s your name?”
“Parker, sir.”
“Come on, Parker. Let’s go.” He turned and started up with the goliath right by his side.
Chapter Nineteen
Jarrett and Parker ran up the stairwell they’d exited only minutes before. Jarrett was certain Adael would be lying injured or already dead somewhere right around the fifth floor. The last time they’d heard him in their coms, he’d sworn under his breath and then a volley of shots silenced him. Knowing that someone had managed to get hold of an automatic weapon even after the armory had been turned into a war zone meant that the person was highly-ranked in Archer’s organization. From what Mac and Nico had been able to convey, inside the building, the only people issued firearms were security personnel. Even Mac hadn’t had a personal weapon issued yet, though he was assigned as a bodyguard. Jarrett figured they’d taken one look at his monstrosity and figured he could fight off bullets.
Endings and Beginnings (Death and Destruction Book 8) Page 28