“Did you see the shooter?” Katia asked.
Although the question was intended for Berluti or Harley, both of the men cowering under the table in their underwear shook their heads.
“Fuck no,” Harley said, “What the hell kind of gun was that?”
“A fifty caliber,” Berluti said, “Sounded like a Beret or maybe a McMillan.” She had wiped off her scope and had moved back a few steps into the dark apartment. She was scanning the rooftops on the opposite side of the street.
Katia said, “Are you sure you counted all eight targets?”
“Yes, I’m positive,” Harley said, scrambling across the floor to hide below the farthest window, “I could see all the way into the apartment, I even saw their psycho black dog and some huge Doberman.”
“T-two, be advised,” Katia said into her mic, “We may have additional targets. They’ve got sniper support.”
“Fuck,” Katia said as she moved along the floor to the window farthest from Harley. As she hid below the sill she closed her eyes, and wiped the blood off her face. She was struggling to push away her frustration and trying to focus on a solution. She couldn’t afford any more tactical errors, and she could only test her father’s patience so far. The logical play was for them to engage the sniper while team two breached the back of the apartment, but she hesitated. The massive shot had made a mess of Brother Sacarius’ asset, and it seemed every move she made was immediately trumped by this lethal family.
Katia pictured them having a good laugh…the kid holding his stomach and pointing…the accountants and the grandmother smiling and waving at her…the big man threatening to send his wagging dogs after her.
She slammed her fist into the wall under the window sill. You won’t be so happy when I eviscerate your precious little girl, she thought, and opened her eyes to see Harley staring at her.
“You hear those sirens, right?’ Harley asked.
Katia did, and said, “On my nod you green light the breach and both of you two light up that roofline. I’ll cover fire the front windows. We need to give team two a full ten seconds of diversion.”
Berluti nodded.
“Are you crazy?” Harley said, “That sniper is not just hurling bad language at us.”
“Just get ready,” Katia yelled. She thumbed her mic and said, “T-two breach on Harley’s go.”
“Ready on his go, ma’am,” the man replied over the radio.
Katia hit redial on her phone and Agent Comina picked up on the first ring. She didn’t say hello.
“Agent?” Katia said as she moved back into the dark apartment and raised her rifle, “Are you there? Let’s talk.”
“I’m here,” the agent responded. Katia could hear a commotion in the background of the call.
“So we’ve both lost a support person. Touche. We’ll call it even and start over,” Katia said as she watched Harley kneel and bring up his rifle. She raised three fingers to him and said, “Do I need to remind you we have Kelcy Hogan?” She counted down to two fingers as she clicked off the safety of her rifle and said, “Now here’s how this is going to work…”
Katia dropped to one finger and pointed it at Harley. He whispered into his radio, giving the go ahead to team two. Katia heard a dog yap quietly on the call, and then a booming Scottish voice interrupted her, “No Katia, you lying bitch, here’s how this is going to bloody work.”
The call disconnected, and a chunk of wall next to Harley blew out and showered him with bits of brick and insulation. Just like with the last shot, they didn’t hear its boom until an instant after the bullet struck.
Another shot broke through the wall a foot from Katia. An electrical sizzling sound came from inside the wall as sparks shot out and black smoke rolled up from the hole.
Berluti found the rooftop shooters with her scope, but rolled away just as a third shot obliterated the window sill in front of her. She sprung to her feet near Harley, wiping away the glass and wood splinters that stuck to the gore already on her face as she yanked him to his feet.
“Time to go, ma’am,” she said across the room to Katia, “I believe this location has lost its tactical advantage. Three well-placed fifty cal rounds in as many seconds…that shooter’s damn good.”
“You fucking think?” Harley yelled. He ran low behind the asset as they passed the terrified men cowering under the kitchen table.
On the back deck of Andi’s apartment Seamus flinched from the booming shots coming from the roof but then his docked ears turned towards the back of the courtyard. He leaned out from behind a wooden bench to see dark shapes moving at the back of the garden.
He let out a low growl and from below the deck came a responding short huff from a black and white border collie.
Snyder had also heard the boots quietly crunching on the snow from his position under the deck stairs. He poked his nose out and watched three men appear from behind a large stone fountain wall at the rear of the garden. Snyder’s snout disappeared into the shadows under the stairs and was replaced by the muzzle of a rifle.
At the back of the garden team two weaved around burlap covered bushes. They spread out and stopped behind a row of large raised planter boxes. The team leader’s custom Lobb tactical brogans barely made a sound in the dirty snow as he nodded for his team to load their grenade launchers.
Lobb nodded again, but as they rose up to fire the muzzle under the deck stairs flashed a dozen times. The tops of the wooden planters in front of them chipped and bits of wood sprayed over them.
The men dove for cover as three more shooters appeared on the deck of the apartment and opened up with assault rifles.
The overlapping reports boomed loudly in the walled courtyard and the planters erupted around them. Lobb hand signed the team to pull back. As the men belly-crawled away a small bundle flew from the back deck. It turned end over end and landed in the snow a few feet from the planters.
Lobb saw it too late to warn his team. A green light on the little black detonation box taped to the tubes of ANFO flashed red. The ground shook as a concussion wave thundered outwards, carrying a spray of dirt and snow with it. The blast shattered the fronts of the wooden planter boxes, along with most of the windows in the narrow courtyard.
Lobb shoved his stumbling men towards the back of the garden. They dropped their rifles and staggered behind the stone fountain wall as the shooters on the deck opened up again.
Ollie stepped out from his cover under the stairs and walked to the center of the patio as his rifle spat out the rest of its clip. He carved big chunks from the fountain wall behind the last fleeing man as he darted through the garden’s back gate.
The big border guard thumbed the rifle’s clip release, and in one smooth motion slammed another magazine home as the spent one chattered on the icy pavers at his feet. Snyder appeared at his side with his hackles raised. As they both stared at the rear gate of the garden Snyder let out a low growl and softly bumped Ollie’s leg.
“One sec, pal,” Ollie whispered as he flashed a finger for Snyder to wait. He looked up at the deck where Hamish and Ben were standing with the FBI agent.
Snyder looked up, too, and yapped to Spot and the big black Doberman who were ready to bolt down the stairs and help him run down the fleeing attackers.
“No,” Ben said to Spot, “Let them go.”
Spot barked to Snyder and then softly head-butted Seamus, telling them to stand down.
Hamish called down to Ollie, “Mate, we have to high-tail it before the cops arrive. Well, you know, I mean the proper cops.”
Christa and Blu appeared at the top of the building with their rifles. They leaned over the edge of the cornice and waved down to the deck.
“Christa got one with Harry’s cannon,” Blu said, “But the others appeared to have bugged out.”
Christa nodded and said, “Whoever lives in that apartment is going to have some brick and plaster work to do.”
“Not to mention bad guy clean-up, aisle two,” Blu said wit
h a smile.
“Aye,” Hamish said as the sirens were getting louder in the background, “Get down here you two, and get Sholto from the front. We have a casualty and need to leave.”
“Oh no,” Christa said as she and Blu disappeared from the ledge.
“Turn the power back on,” Hamish said to Ollie, “and get the truck.” The big border agent nodded and ran back under the deck. A disappointed Snyder huffed at the rear gate before turning to follow Ollie.
Inside the apartment Dan and Nikki held Andi’s hands as Mimi and Aila held each other and looked down at the young woman. Her normally pink face had turned very pale, and she was shaking.
Andi smiled, and looked from Dan to Nikki. She managed to light up her pretty face one last time as she said, “Go. You need to go and get her. I love you Nik, don’t forget your promi…”
Chapter 60
“No, leave me tied up for now,” Kelcy whispered, “but give me another drink.” Smudge moved the cup to Kelcy’s lips again until she coughed and shook her head. She closed her eyes and took a few long breaths before nodding and taking another sip.
“Okay, that’s enough. Thanks girl,” Kelcy said.
Smudge put the cup down on the bed’s slide out tray. She looked at the red finger marks on Kelcy’s face and then pressed her muzzle to her opposite cheek.
“I’m fine sweetie,” Kelcy said, “I’m starting to see only one of everything.” She tried to raise her arm but had forgotten about the zip-ties holding her to the bed frame. “Smudge, scratch my nose,” she said, “and what’s the situation here?”
Smudge sat down and reached out a paw. She moved her rough pads back and forth over Kelcy’s nose a few times, and then started to sign. It was a slower conversation than it would have been with Ben, but Kelcy picked it up well enough.
After a few minutes of nodding at Spot’s signing she said, “The Cooper boys? Really? Fuck me, that’s gross.”
Smudge signed again, and Kelcy felt the handle of the scalpel under the sheet next to her hand. “Yep, I got it,” she said, “You did really good, girl. How are you feeling?”
Spot signed and Kelcy laughed. She said, “Sure, I’ll ask the nurse to get you a few more tranquilizer darts.”
Smudge heard something in the hallway and she stood up on the bed. She turned to face the door as she listened.
With Smudge no longer blocking her view Kelcy finally noticed the big Chinese man sitting up on the bed across the room. He was looking right at her.
Smudge dismissed the noise, turned back to Kelcy, and noticed the teenager staring at Tian with wide eyes.
Smudge signed, and nodded at him.
“You sure?” Kelcy said, “If I remember correctly you did kick his ass.”
Smudge nodded, and wagged.
“Hello Kelcy, I’m Tian,” the muscular man said. He leaned over so she could see him better around Smudge as he added, “And your memory is a little fuzzy, probably the drugs. Smudge hardly kicked my ass.”
In the laboratory a few doors down from the treatment room Semion was standing behind Johann and looking over his shoulder at a huge monitor. Next to the monitor was a dozen work tables, and each held a humming automated DNA sequencer. They looked like small glass-door refrigerators. Inside each was a robotic arm that moved quickly over trays of small vials.
There were three dozen more tables with the same sequencers behind them, and at the end of each row was a stack of colored boxes that looked like big CD cases. Meg moved among the rows, scanning bar codes from the sample trays and loading their cases into the sequencers. As soon as she closed the glass door the arm moved inside the unit and hovered over the first sample in the tray.
“Okay, so what am I looking at?” Semion said with his big arms folded over his chest.
Johann pushed his glasses onto his nose with the palm of his hand, and pointed at a maze of colored lines on the monitor. He said, “We’ve finished retesting all of the Pembury fecal samples from the sewer robots, and the results are truly fascinating. I’ve been able to verify our original testing was done accurately, and my methodology was sound. We’re seeing samples with various levels of infection, but none high enough to trigger appreciable side effects in the population. We’ve confirmed a larger portion of the town than we originally suspected was exposed to the tainted meat from the Tzeng’s restaurant. It must have been wildly popular, but no one accumulated enough of the compound to have any adverse effects at the genetic level. There would have been some increased aggression, some black fingers and toes maybe, but mostly headaches, nausea, some bleeding. The public is still shedding the infection. They’ll be down to almost undetectable amounts very soon, and the rate of decay as compared to our original samples is interesting because...”
Marty entered the lab through a side door and noticed Semion standing behind Johann. He looked at Meg who shot him a very slight head shake.
He hadn’t heard all of Johann’s long-winded and inappropriately detailed explanation of their lack of progress, but he could tell by Semion’s face it wasn’t being very well received.
Semion clapped and said, “Well done Doctor Cori, congratulations.”
“Thank you, Semion,” Johann said, turning around and smiling before Marty could stop him.
The huge Russian backhanded Johann hard enough to send him off his stool. His round framed glasses flew from his face and skidded across the floor.
Semion boomed down at the man, “Are you a durak? Do you have any idea how much money I am spending every second on you and these toys? Why would I give a shit about the shit from that town, other than you finding out who has been accelerated?”
Marty tried to keep his composure. He walked to the end of the row and leaned against a table as its sequencer’s robot arm labored away behind him. He said casually, “Of course you’re right, Semion. I think Johann was giving you background, and in hindsight I’m sure he would agree it was not the best use of your time.”
Semion turned and took a few steps towards Marty as Johann slowly crawled back to his stool. Marty fought the urge to run, and crossed one ankle over the other to remove the option.
As the red faced Semion towered over him Marty said, “Based on the first pass results the girl isn’t accelerated. She’s got normal human DNA, but we’re running another sample to be sure. We still haven’t ruled out the family, however. We need to finish testing some of the stool samples that are showing up as contaminated. They got rejected by the auto sequencers. There were several, including some from the Walker farm and the Hogan’s house. That’s not uncommon as these sequencers are great at mass DNA mapping but in many ways they are blunt instruments. They can be finicky, and fooled. We’re re-running them manually through the precision unit.” Marty pointed to three red cases on a table next to a much larger sequencing machine. The unit was sleeker than the others, with a tinted glass front window and several tubes connecting it to equally impressive ancillary equipment. “It’s going to take a few more hours but the results will be conclusive,” he said.
Semion stared at Marty for a long moment. He gave the doctor credit for not sniveling, even though he could see the bead of sweat rolling down the man’s perfect skin as he fought to hold his casual stance.
“Is the girl awake yet?” Semion said to the nurse as he continued to stare at Marty.
“She wasn’t when I last checked on her,” Meg said, looking at her watch, “That was eleven minutes ago.”
“Stay here, all of you,” Semion said, and stomped out of the lab.
Meg and the doctors watched him leave. As the door clicked shut behind him, and Marty let his breath out, Meg felt the phone in her lab coat pocket vibrate against her leg. “I need to prepare more of the microplate membranes,” she said as she crossed the lab, “I’ll be right back.”
Marty waved her off as he bent down to pick up Johann’s glasses. He brought them to the bleeding doctor, along with a disposable towel from the sink.
Johann snatched
them from Marty and gave him a sour look while dabbing at the blood in the corner of his mouth. As Meg pushed open the side door of the lab Johann called over to her, “Hurry back, and prep that dog. We’ll let the twins have their fun with the little bastard before we do the necropsy.”
Meg nodded and left the lab.
The treatment room door opened and Kelcy stared at the big man as he stepped into the room. She recognized his round red face from the picture Barton had showed her family.
Semion walked to Tian’s bed but held Kelcy’s stare as he said, “How are you feeling, son?”
“Fine sir, thank you,” Tian said, “Any news from my cousin?”
Tian could see a wave of stress cross over Semion’s forehead and run down his cheeks. He watched him forcing a smile.
“They are on the way back here, you’ll see your cousin soon,” Semion said, patting Tian on the shoulder.
Tian had studied hundreds of aggressive faces and he didn’t like the look on Semion’s. He could typically gauge which antagonist in a crowd of thugs was going to be the first to strike, or the first to draw a weapon. Before the first move was made he could usually pick out those who were scared, those who enjoyed inflicting pain, those who were deeply disturbed but wore a calm mask, and those who would kill without provocation. Semion’s face was a sea of all of those, and worse. He was crazy and smart. Tian assumed Semion was typically three steps ahead of everyone else in the room. It was a look Tian knew well. Most of the adults in his family wore the same face, especially his grandfather, and it made them very dangerous.
Semion walked to the foot of Kelcy’s bed. He nodded at the footboard monitors, and as he walked along the side of her bed she saw him glancing at her ankle and wrist restraints. He paused to look at the monitors on the headboard before turning to look down at her.
“It’s good to see you are awake,” Semion said, “Are you feeling well?”
Let Slip the Pups of War: Spot and Smudge - Book Three Page 27