Origin Z

by Tony Hartzell

  The man on the ground was groaning from getting the wind knocked out of him. “Uuhhh, uuuhhhh!” He tried to fire, but a wild, flaying, back-and-forth spray was his best effort.

  Anderson was moving up and was able to dodge the spurts as he watched where the Taliban soldier’s arms were swinging. He avoided most of them. One of the random bursts went into his helmet and caught the side of his face, cutting his ear in half. He didn’t even hesitate. He put his hand up to his damaged ear and grabbed the piece that was hanging and ripped it off. The man was able to open his eyes now and saw this display. His magazine was empty, and he was lying on his back.

  Anderson looked at his ear and smiled teasingly, saying, “Awww! You missed.”

  With that, he flung the ear at the guy’s face, and when he brought his arm up to protect himself, Anderson moved up and stomped hard on his forearm and head. The soldier’s brains splashed onto the ground where they escaped out his ears.

  _______

  O’Reilly and Laudner watched as Raines escaped the group that had crept up on him. They had been holding their breath because there was nothing they could do about it. They switched their attention to Anderson just as he stomped the life out of the sniper on his side. They could actually see the brain matter squirt to cover the ground around what was left of the man’s head.

  The snipers were handled, so it was their turn now. They checked the drone view to see where the guards covering the hostages were now situated. The soldiers had heard the noise from both sides where their covering snipers had been stationed, so they were crouched along the edges of the pit. This made them prone for O’Reilly and Laudner, with their backs facing them. O’Reilly was a seasoned veteran of many close-quarter battles, though. He knew that it was never as easy as it seemed. He wanted to make sure to pull the firefight away from where the hostages might be sacrificed or catch a random shot.

  He signaled for Laudner to go right and around a nearby building. He would go to the left and draw their fire so Laudner could flank them. O’Reilly sprinted straight at the soldiers at full speed and then cut left to leap up to the ledge. He did this without them firing a single shot. Their mouths hung open, and he could hear the chatter behind him. Once the element of surprise was gone, they started shooting at the ledge in earnest. The AKs were tearing the wall and ledge to pieces. But they could not calibrate to O’Reilly’s speed. He kept moving and turned back toward the back of the compound where he and Laudner had been, jumping down from the ledge again and running behind a building.

  The soldiers gave chase without regard to keeping watch on the hostages. When they reached the corner of the building, they stopped and pressed themselves up against it, thinking they would rush around to overwhelm him. They didn’t know that he had not kept running—he was right at the edge waiting for one to peek around. When the Taliban soldier whipped his head around to spot him, a dart splattered the soldier’s eye back into his brain.

  Laudner saw the soldier with the splattered eye fall backward from above on the building they were pressed against. O’Reilly appeared at the edge of the roof a split second later, having leaped up after taking out the first guy. He moved up to position himself above the three who were left chattering about what to do next. Laudner gave a poke of his chin toward the soldier on his side and pointed to his chest. O’Reilly knew the plan from that motion.

  They both fired at the same time. The two outer soldiers got new holes added to their heads right on top. The middle soldier didn’t even have a chance to realize what had happened before his own head got ventilated in the same way.

  Just as the third soldier hit the ground, the four remaining Taliban came charging across the courtyard firing their AK 47s at them. Laudner got a glancing wound on his shoulder before they both ducked below the edge of the roof. Not seeing them didn’t discourage the soldiers from emptying their clips and reloading to start again.

  They both flipped to drone view to see how the enemy soldiers were forming up below when they saw a flash come from the side and punch one of the soldiers while at a dead run and then grab another by his arm and use the momentum to spin and fling him straight at the wall of the compound. The Taliban hit the wall hard and crumpled to the ground. He would not be getting up from that. The flash, also known as Anderson, kept going and rounded the corner of a building before the last two were able to turn and fire.

  When they turned and saw that the shadow that had taken out their comrades had disappeared, they chattered for five seconds and then turned and ran for the exit. When they got to the end of the building where Anderson had disappeared, he stepped out and clotheslined both at the same time. Their feet few up in the air, and they landed flat on their backs. Anderson did his best Bruce Lee impression as he jumped up with both boots and came down on both chests simultaneously. Crunching bones ensued as he screamed his kung fu battle cry. “Aaaaeeeee!”

  He shook for effect and then twisted to cause more bone-crunching sounds. O’Reilly and Laudner turned to look at each other and shook their heads.

  Laudner turned to him. “You are a sick bastard, Anderson!”

  He gave a serious face as he stepped off the men’s chests and flexed at them, smiling. “Hulk smash!”

  O’Reilly replied dryly, “Go check on Raines, Evander. He may need help.”

  Anderson smiled and reached up to touch his missing half ear. Then he trotted toward the ledge, jumped up, and rolled over the edge to drop down outside the compound.

  _______

  Laudner looked into the pit at the hostages. One of them was standing, knees shaking but with a smile. “Shit! I had lost hope. I think they were getting ready to behead us soon.”

  Laudner grabbed an aerosol canister from his belt pouch and stuck it in the ancient padlock’s keyhole. After spraying long enough to make the lock brittle, he twisted it with his gloved hand to break it. He threw up the grate and jumped in. He checked for a pulse on the two unconscious hostages and found that although they were emaciated, they were still alive. Laudner picked up the conscious hostage and pushed him up far enough for O’Reilly to grab his arm and pull him out. Once he was on the ground and sitting, O’Reilly gave Laudner a palm-down sign to wait. He pulled some hypodermics out of his belt pack and gave the hostage a cocktail of antibiotics, vitamins, and sedatives that would knock him out—not only for easier transport but so he would not see anything that couldn’t be explained. Once he was laid on his side, O’Reilly waved for Laudner to get him the other two.

  Laudner balanced the 150-pound man on his right palm and had to make several attempts to get him in position while he steadied him with his left. With a shot-put motion, he tossed the man up to O’Reilly. After the new hostage had gotten his shots, they moved the third up the same way.

  Just as Laudner jumped back up out of the pit, Anderson and Raines were approaching. Raines had the black splints that were built into their suits activated and had a heavy limp.

  “Thought we lost you, Raines.”

  He just shook his head and mumbled, “Fuckin’ shit hurt, man!”

  Anderson chuckled.

  O’Reilly looked at him. “OK, chuckles. Check the drone view and see if we have anything else to take care of before we go.”

  His smile disappeared, and he turned away as he activated his drone-view visor. After a few seconds, he started to walk toward a building without saying anything.

  O’Reilly spoke up. “Hey, where are you going?”

  Anderson turned to him. “There are people in that building over there.”

  “Are they soldiers?”

  Anderson put his hands on his hips. “Uh, why does that matter? They’re in an enemy camp.”

  Laudner spoke up then. “You ever heard of the Geneva Convention, dickhead?”

  Anderson took a step toward him, and Laudner turned white as a ghost. Anderson stepped back again and laughed. “Watch you
rself, Laud-nerd. I’ll crush you like a bug, Spartan or not!”

  They started strapping the hostages onto their backs with special straps meant to hold them like a backpack. Raines would not carry one due to his injury. He was actually limping less now and was able to keep up with the others at their reduced speed.

  They started almost at a full stride despite the extra weight on their backs and Raines’ injury. They reached the helicopter and were back in the air within twenty-five minutes. Dawn was still an hour away.

  Medics were taking care of the hostages as the team was high-fiving one another and proclaiming a blackout drunk in their near future. They touched down in Tall Afar and would be back in South Carolina again within thirty-eight hours.

  MARTY

  Marty saw the black panel van pass by the front of Building 51 on its way to the loading docks at the back of the building. The sly smile on his face turned to a friendly one when Teeny entered the room.

  “They’re here, Marty!”

  Marty’s smile broadened, and he hurried over to the door, where Teeny had immediately turned around and gone back out. They headed toward the examination rooms, where the Spartan team would go for their mission-return checkups.

  Marty grabbed his blood cart and dragged it behind him as he entered the waiting room, where the team would wait their turns to come in and get checked.

  They had been told that Raines was the only one who was seriously injured. Teeny pointed at him. “You first.”

  Raines gave a wry smile. “Yeah, it’s always me first.”

  He moved to the room with no limp at all now. They were back in their fatigues, so Marty couldn’t tell exactly what the serious injury might have been. When he closed the door behind him, he heard Teeny say, “OK, James. Strip down to your skivvies and show me where it hurts!”

  Raines actually chuckled at that comment.

  Teeny inspected the leg that had been shot and broken in the fall. The pink scar tissue was obvious against Raines’s dark skin, but the wounds were fully healed.

  “We have to get an x-ray of the bone as soon as possible. I want to see if it’s fully healed also. It’ll help us gauge how long it takes human bones to get back to full strength.”

  Marty moved up to take blood as Teeny started the routine checkup.

  Tin walked into the waiting room and smiled at O’Reilly. “Successful mission, men. Nice job. The hostages are in the hospital in DC, and their families have been notified.”

  Laudner smiled big, and O’Reilly gave a smug smile and reached his hand out to shake Tin’s offered hand. Anderson just turned for a moment and sniffed. He turned back to looking out the room’s wall of windows and twirling his dagger around his fingers.

  Tin turned to O’Reilly again and poked his chin at Anderson’s back.

  O’Reilly mouthed, “We have to talk.”

  Tin nodded at him and left it at that.

  Teeny came out of the door of the exam room, spotted Tin, and smiled. “Hey, Tin. Congratulating the heroes?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but don’t heap it onto them too much. They tend to get swollen heads!”

  Teeny chuckled and pushed Raines in the back. “You get down to x-ray.”

  Then she pointed at Anderson. “You’re next, Man Mountain.”

  He turned and didn’t say anything. They all watched his back as he strode into the exam room as if he owned the building. Teeny gave a last look at Tin before closing the door behind her.

  Tin looked back at O’Reilly and Laudner. “OK, spill.”

  Laudner started whispering loudly before O’Reilly had a chance. “The guy is a fucking maniac, Tin!”

  O’Reilly stared him down, and he got a sheepish look on his face. “OK. I’ll shut up now.”

  He let his eyes linger on Laudner for a second to make sure he understood that he needed to stay quiet and then turned to Tin. “There’s a high potential for that one being an issue. He’s changed over the last few weeks. His bullying has gotten worse.”

  Tin took a moment and looked out the window to gather his thoughts. “Was he a danger to anyone on the team?”

  O’Reilly shook his head. “Not really.”

  Laudner growled under his breath.

  “How did he act that makes you concerned?”

  O’Reilly looked thoughtful now. “Well, he was pretty brutal to the Taliban soldiers…” He trailed off as he said that because it didn’t sound right to him now. They had been there to “kill as needed” to save the hostages.

  Tin gave him a “you’re going to have to do better than that” look.

  “Well, he was going to kill the women and children in the compound.”

  Tin did have a concerned look about this, but O’Reilly looked thoughtful again. “But he didn’t continue or argue when I told him no.”

  Laudner looked at him with an incredulous look.

  O’Reilly held up his hand to stop him before he started. “I’ll keep a close eye on him.”

  Tin was nodding his head at the same time Laudner was shaking his.

  Anderson came out of the exam room laughing. Marty was behind him with a terrified look on his face. Teeny pushed him out and exclaimed to the room, “Evander’s ear is actually growing back!”

  He laughed again as he passed them on his way out of the waiting room.

  Teeny pointed at Laudner. “OK, Corporal. You’re next.”

  _______

  Marty left the lab after placing all of the blood samples in the refrigerator. He moved down the hallway, glancing behind him every once in a while to make sure he wasn’t followed. He slipped into Michael Tanner’s office to see him sitting behind his desk going through the recordings from the soldier’s helmet cams. Their movements and actions had been recorded and stored on SD cards as well as remotely stored via a satellite link.

  “So what do you think, Mikey?”

  Michael looked up. “This is fucking fabulous! Everything we wanted and more!”

  Marty laughed and clapped his hands. Michael stood up and met Marty at the side of his desk. They embraced and locked into a passionate kiss.

  Michael leaned back just far enough to comment to his lover, “We are going to be so happy. It is so close I can taste it now. Reed has already arranged to start manufacturing the drugs in Mexico.”

  As if that were a cue for him to enter, Reed walked into the door and caught them at that vulnerable moment. They pushed away from each other, and both got abashed looks on their faces.

  Reed chuckled. “Oh, stop it! What makes you think I don’t know everything about you two?”

  Marty gave him a sassy disgusted look, and Michael returned to his desk chair before Reed could take it. Reed liked doing that because he knew it irritated him. Reed smiled because making Michael rush back to his chair gave him just as much satisfaction.

  “So what’s the story, Tanner? Are we in business?”

  Michael smiled. “It’s amazing. They were unstoppable! Raines got shot in the leg and fell off a wall to break his leg. That was less than forty-eight hours ago, and his leg is healed as if it has had a cast for six weeks.

  “Anderson is a fucking beast! His prowess far exceeded the others. I think that previous steroid use may have had an effect on him that caused him to be even more enhanced.”

  Reed smiled an evil smile and gave them a glassy-eyed stare.

  RAINES

  Raines heard the now-familiar sound of the Black Hawk switching to whisper mode. This was their fourth mission, and it promised to be the most difficult so far. They were to infiltrate and eliminate the leadership of a drug cartel in their fortress in the middle of the Colombian jungle. The Camino Cartel was led by brothers Demarco and Miguel. They had been supplying cocaine to the United States since the early seventies. Of course, they would not have lasted this long unless they were stro
ngly connected and covertly sanctioned by the CIA. In fact, Raines wouldn’t be surprised if that spook Reed were involved personally. He was a very scary man. And Raines didn’t scare easily.

  Since they were currently on a mission to kill them, the cartel had obviously made a bad move. Men like the Caminos always thought they were more in control than they ever were. Raines could only guess that it had something to do with the recent skirmishes along the Mexican border in Texas. There had been dozens of deaths including civilians, Mexican federales, and US agents of an unidentified agency. That was all academic, though. Their job wasn’t to judge or second-guess. It was to carry out the sentence.

  There were very few outside the Camino Cartel who even knew where the compound was located. Some CIA informant had obviously given up the ghost in either a sizable payoff or a rendition.

  Hopefully, the intelligence they had been given by Reed would help get around some very significant obstacles. Raines wasn’t completely comfortable with the fact that there might be families at the compound, but he was a good soldier and following orders. It was their job to kill people who were a threat. These guys were very bad men. They had likely killed or were responsible for the deaths of many innocent people.

  Calling it a compound was a misnomer. It was definitely closer to being a fortress, and it was surrounded by a twenty-yard clearing that had two pairs of patrolling guards. It also had towers with motion-sensor lights at the four points of the compass. There was only a very slim chance to get by those without being detected.

  They were approaching the drop zone. With no place to land, they would have to leap out of the helicopter. They couldn’t even slide down ropes to the jungle floor because the whisper mode on the helicopter would suck the ropes up into the blades—one reason Black Hawks weren’t good for this kind of deployment in normal circumstances.