The sun was almost to the construction site. Sophie still checked other areas but in her mind the pipes were it. She expected the light to shine in, pierce through and see nothing.
Come on, come on, she continued to think to herself until… There it was. The sunlight reflecting off of something. A scope? The safety was off without thinking about it and in a split second she fired. The one crack could be heard miles around. Without the suppressor, she had a longer range, and with one shot per kill there was little chance of anyone knowing where it came from. The reflection was gone. She zoomed in on the spot and though she could see blood running out of the pipe, it was too far to tell. She shifted her body back from her position and moved to the hallway where she could stand and quickly get to the stairway.
Once in the stairway, she let gravity take over and forced her feet to keep up while descending the stairs. She was trying to reach the basement were nobody could see her leave.
A loud explosion vibrated the stairs and she gripped the handrail to steady herself. She looked up for a split second to see debris falling down. Once the large chunks passed, she glanced up to find the floor she had just been on was gone, likely from an air strike. So that is how you take care of a problem, she thought. Gathering her thoughts, she continued down the stairs into the basement levels of the building. Directly under the first floor doorway, she heard the door open above and stopped in place. Footsteps traveled above as she slid against the wall, doing her best to hide from the men coming into the building. The boots traveled up. For a second she was going to open the basement door and disappear. Her gut told her not to. Then she noticed the door above her had never closed. Was there a guard standing a few feet above?
The sound of a shoulder strap clanking around confirmed the suspicion. A minute later boots stood on the edge of the landing and a stream of urine traveled down. It wasn’t until that moment she realized she really had to pee. Her bladder hurt as she watched somebody else relieve themselves. The stream stopped and the guard moved away from the edge. The door closed and she was alone. Sophie turned around, opening the door as quietly as she could. Moving inside she was home free, traveling the spaces that the Chinese called dead zones. Their men refused to use them knowing they were likely booby trapped and the worst place to be in for an ambush.
Ten minutes later Sophie was free and clear.
Xing stood on the fifth floor of a former office building holding a pair of binoculars. His position overlooked The Wave apartment building. Most of the windows had been blown out and he could only imagine the former glory of this place. His men agreed that this was likely the next position for the snipers to use.
“Is the dummy in position?” Xing asked the soldier to his side.
Feng was the most confident man that Xing had encountered during his deployment. The confidence was from his ability to follow an order and answer questions honestly. It was that reason that Xing kept this man at his side as an aid as opposed to others that were of higher rank. Xing didn’t need the face saving bullshit that caused a situation like Seattle.
“Placed there two nights ago,” Feng said. “Heat sensors show that something is in the building. From this distance and the size of the building we can’t determine if it’s an animal or person.”
“It’s her.” Xing looked at the building to figure out what floor she would be on. Where would he be if he was in there? “We just have to wait for them to confirm it.”
The day passed and Xing received news of other logging sites that had been sabotaged and checkpoints hit. The news of a gas station surprised him since the resistance would need fuel as much as the Chinese.
“Have the drones been delivered?” he asked.
“ETA is unknown at this time.” Feng didn’t even have to read from his notes.
“Usual bureaucratic shit,” Xing said, putting the binoculars to his face. The sun was starting to shine over the construction site across the landscape. “Call for the MiG to be in the air. I want it armed with two rockets. Give them the coordinates of the tower, but hold fire until I give the command.”
Feng was on the radio, calling the carrier off shore. “In the air in one minute.”
Twenty minutes passed. Then twenty-five minutes. Then there was the flash. From his position he couldn’t hear the shot, but he saw the muzzle flash. Xing counted up the side of the building and put his fingers up to Feng; there were ten fingers showing. Feng radioed in the position to the pilot. The MiG was a speck in the distance as it banked around into position. A minute later the two rockets were fired into the tenth floor of the building. Whoever was in there was dead.
“Send in the team,” Xing ordered. Two Humvees pulled up to the entrance of the building and eleven men flooded out wearing black tactical uniforms and balaclavas over their faces. In seconds, the men disappeared entering the building. They would take the stairs up to the tenth floor and recover the body of the sniper.
Five minutes later the tenth floor was reported as clear.
“Tell them to check again,” Xing said. He had seen the shot and there was no way that somebody had survived that blast. There had to be a rifle, body parts, something left behind. “Get the decoy down from that position. I know what I saw.”
The crane operator lowered the pipes and set them onto the ground. Xing shoved his hand into the man sized pipe and pulled a body out with a rifle. The rifle was empty and the body was set up to appear as a sniper. A bullet hole was in the face, traveling through the torso of the corpse. The body had a rank smell from decomposing for days then being thrown up into the heat. There was no blood from the bullet hole since the blood had pooled and congealed inside the corpse.
“I knew it,” the decoy was shot, but where was the shooter? Xing looked at the tower and the men were still reporting that there wasn’t a body. In his mind, he had just wasted two days to find one shooter.
“Sir, we have reports of shots fired at the motor pool,” Feng reported. This was a favorite position for snipers to hit. Vehicles had to be moved in and out from the garage and it left the men exposed for short periods of time.
“Call the men out and send them to the motor pool.” Xing was frustrated. “Tell them to haul ass.”
“Are we going?” Feng asked.
“No.”
In The Wave apartment building, Xing stood on the tenth floor with the smell of the explosives in the air. The walls were charred and everything flammable was gone. Xing kicked things around. Even he didn’t see any remains; he could no longer call his men incompetent. Standing on the edge of the floor looking down, he looked across the landscape to the building he had been in. He turned around to picture where he had seen the muzzle flash. Looking down he saw the pipes and where they must have been hanging for the shot. A desk was turned sideways against the wall, covered in black carbon. Xing pulled the desk out with the sound of screeching metal and heard a ringing sound in his ear. There on the floor was the brass casing. He picked up the casing and read .308 on the end surrounding the primer.
“They were here.” Xing felt somewhat justified. “They are good.”
“Not as good as you,” Feng said, feeding his bosses ego.
Xing liked the young man until that moment. He took the comment as patronizing and sent the young man away with the swipe of his hand. A minute later he knew the young man was only trying to help his confidence, but that was not what he needed. Xing needed a body, dog tags, a rifle; something to show progress.
“Sir,” Feng said stepping back into the room. “Two more mechanics down.”
Xing gripped the casing in his fist and placed it in his pocket. Whoever this was, they were going to suffer for a long, long time if they were taken alive.
Chapter 47
The current battle strategy had been determined by two men, Dallas and Michael. At the moment they still didn’t consider the Koreans as an actual fighting force even though all of their information was confirmed to the best of their knowledge. That was the probl
em; there was no way to confirm so much of it. An all-out battle in L.A. how much of that could be true? This lady Kim figure that held off the Chinese military and stockpiled guns and ammo for such a day. The whole story sounded crazy, but here they were with guns and ammo, identification for the State of California and no car to carry them for four years.
Dallas and Michael made the final decisions and ran them by the Koreans. Kong knew he wasn’t in charge here. At one point he told them he was relieved to no longer make the choices for his group. Dallas understood the relief Kong must be feeling. Dallas had made choices and people had died. He had to live with the idea that those lives were his responsibility; he couldn’t change any of that. Kong was no longer in charge and the demeanor of the man had changed since he realized that.
The plan was mapped out and the two men kept everything between themselves. Even with a small group the possibility of a spy was real. The Rangers suspected the Canadians and the Koreans. The Canadians suspected the Koreans. The Koreans didn’t want to be there. They all had one goal in common: kill Chinese.
First thing in the morning, Dallas and Michael gathered everyone together and went over the plan that would be implemented after the meeting. They were going to move in for an offensive and start fighting a traditional war. They didn’t have the numbers for an all-out land battle, but they could control an area and make the fight difficult for the Chinese.
“Do the snipers know about this?” Kong asked. “Are they going to be backup?”
“We have designated times for communication. So no, they don’t know,” Dallas replied.
“What about their air support?” Budd asked. The man likely didn’t care, knowing it was always a threat.
“SNAFU,” Michael answered.
“Well shit man that’s every day,” Budd folded his arms happy with the answer. Every day was Situation Normal All Fucked Up.
The group broke down the camp and loaded up their gear. The Koreans tried to travel light and the supplies were loaded onto the ATVs.
The teams broke into two groups. The Canadians went their own way with their plans set on positions they would capture and contain. The Rangers along with the Koreans would move along an area, clearing the frontline that they would push forward in future days. The hope was with the experienced personnel and the mix of lightly trained prisoners that had escaped, all of which wanted to engage in some form of payback, the offensive would start to take control of the city instead of leaving a fortified position for the Chinese to work in. Wind-up watches were synchronized and the attacks started just as planned.
The two positions being attacked at the same time made the news sound like it was a larger force than they really were. Add in the sniper hitting the motor pool and it would appear to be an organized attack.
The Canadians overtook the guard post and barracks that were a block away. The Rangers took out guard positions and checkpoints, moving from one to the other. At every point a small group was left to hold the position. Radios were carried to call for backup if things went bad. In less than an hour a four block stretch was taken. It wasn’t much, but they started to move in, securing more land.
“Sir.” It was Feng again. The bringer of bad news. “There appears to be an offensive on the eastern side of the city.”
“Really?” Xing looked at the map on the wall. Now back at the Kells Irish Pub, he had been working on his next plan for the sniper. His men were still deployed at the motor pool, trying to secure the area. By now he knew the sniper was gone and remained surprised that two mechanics were actually taken. Must have been retaliation for the airstrike, he thought.
“How many we talking?”
“The checkpoint to the southeast and the barracks and guard positions to the northeast.” Feng read the report.
Xing looked at the map and saw the large stretch of land that was already grabbed. “They don’t have those kinds of numbers.”
“The Canadians?” Feng suggested.
“They wouldn’t dare,” Xing looked at the map. “How long until we can mobilize troops to the area?”
“We have the two units at the motor pool, plus the usual reinforcements.”
“Mobilize the armored units to the area. I want this cleaned up quickly.” Xing was so stressed his stomach hurt. He never became stressed under pressure; that was how he made it into the anti-terrorist task force.
Feng picked up the phone and mobilized the armored carriers and tanks to the region.
Chapter 48
Sporadic gunfire came from the Chinese side of the line all afternoon. This was to be expected. None of it was really a threat simply something to keep the invading force at bay. Dallas and Michael radioed each other to go ahead with the next step in their plan. The supply depot a few blocks away was too large to evacuate at a moment’s notice. Those supplies were still there and they needed to secure that location. They knew once they took it, time would be limited before some Chinese officer ordered an air strike.
“Alamo a go?” Michael radioed.
“Roger that,” Dallas replied. “It’s a go.” The two units would move in on two angles to the supply depot, circling the building. The former Lowe’s store had forklifts and concrete flooring that made organization of the materials easy to handle.
The former store had two guard post manned with sand bags surrounding their positions and belt fed machine guns. On the roof, sharpshooters were positioned. Dallas and Michael knew this because Sophie knew this.
When the group was ready to move ahead, the rumble of tracks on pavement caused everyone to stop in their place.
“That’s one hell of a response,” Budd said, knowing what would be coming from down the street.
The crack of a cannon had everyone on the ground as the side of a building exploded overhead. The tracks continued to shake the ground as a tank rolled over the hill and came into sight. The ZTZ-99 battle tank resembled the American M1 Abrams except for the horrible paint job. The camouflage style paint didn’t even match the local landscape. In an urban environment the tank stood out like a sore thumb. In a few seconds the tank was upon them and everyone retreated inside the nearest building. The hatch was closed and the tank sat in the middle of the road.
“They’re using the tank to move in troops.” Dallas peeked out of the window trying to consider the next step. From the opposite side of the street the Koreans had already started attacking the tank. The turret rotated towards the building, the barrel of the large gun breaking glass and window frames as it tore the front of the building apart. Dallas moved to the door and laid down cover fire on the troops, moving towards them down the street. Kelly moved out to the tank that was distracted by the Koreans. Kelly placed their last stick of C4 on the tread of the tank and ran back inside, but not before taking a round to the leg. Kelly dropped to the ground, thinking he tripped on something. It wasn’t until he was back on his feet he noticed his left leg was moving funny.
The tank started to move again. The barrel of the cannon rotated back out into the street, facing the front of the tank. The exhaust pumped out of the back and the tank started to back up.
“Punch it.” Dallas ducked back behind the door frame, but it wasn’t enough. The blast of the C4 sent glass and brick into the building. Budd was completely hidden under debris as the cloud began to settle. Dallas was thrown back and knocked unconscious until Kelly shook him awake.
“We have to get out of here.” Kelly said.
Dallas cleared the dust and dirt from his eyes and remembered where he was.
“Hold the street,” Dallas ordered. “Use the tank as cover.”
The tank’s turbine engines were still running and it tried to move until the tread completely fell off, leaving it useless except for the turret and the machine gun mounted on top.
Before Dallas could say anything about taking the tank, Kong was on top working the hatch open. The turret started to move again, likely trying to throw him from the roof. Once the hatch popped up the ba
rrel of a pistol pointed through the crack and two shots were fired. Kong slammed the hatch back down, gripping the pistol in place. Shots were fired from down the street. The men who were supposed to meet up with the tank were now trying to rescue the disabled vehicle.
Kong pulled a grenade from his vest and pulled the pin. Lifting the hatch a few inches he tossed the grenade inside, but not before receiving a bullet to the stomach. Kong fell from the turret and the soft thud of the grenade could be heard from outside. Two more of the Koreans climbed on top and opened the hatch. One crawled inside and shots could be heard. Then the Korean’s head popped up and waved the second person in. Dallas felt amazed at watching them work. This was not the first time that they had taken a tank. That part of their story must have been true.
“I’ll be damned,” Dallas mumbled to himself.
The machine gun was turned around, facing the oncoming Chinese. A second later loud burst of rounds filled the air. A third Korean crawled inside the front hatch, away from the gunfire. A minute later the turret was moving and the cannon was rotating around towards the Chinese. It was at this moment the dozens of men pinned against the walls of the street started to retreat.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Budd said, watching the Koreans claim the street with the tank.
“Are we still slant eyes?” Kelly asked, feeling proud of his people.
“No. You are no longer slant eyes,” Budd said. “Chinks maybe. You’ll have to do a lot to get rid of that one.”
Kelly looked over at the grinning redneck.
“You know I’m just fucking with you.”
The Rangers moved out into the street and heard the roar of the canon as the tank fired a round towards the retreating Chinese. At the moment they had the advantage. Dallas knew they had to keep the momentum up. He climbed onto the turret and looked at the street, directing the gunner to concentrate on the retreating men and for the cannon to take out the front of two buildings closing the street.
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