The crack of his jawbone reverberated through Rico’s arm. He thought that would be it, the man would go down. The jab to his ribs told him differently. Pain shot through his body like a bullet and slowed him for only a second. He countered with another rifle butt to the temple.
The man wobbled back and forth as his eyes rolled back in his head. Ricochet reached out and poked him in the chest with his finger, sending him to the ground.
“That’s what I thought, you sorry…”
“Ricochet, report.”
Kong’s voice cut its way through the fog of anger in his head. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took a deep breath. “Targets down. Still need to secure.”
“Let us know when you do. My guess is they’ll be missed shortly.”
“Roger that,” he answered, securing the target’s hands. It took him under five minutes to tie both men and tuck them away safe and sound. Just for extra measure he pulled out his duct tape and slapped a piece across each of their mouths.
“Targets secured,” he reported.
“Don’t bother going back up top. Find a closer place to hunker down. Things are going to break loose fast.”
“Situation?” he asked heading back outside.
“They’re gathering again.”
“Boomer got that secret weapon up yet?”
“Affirmative. Make sure you cover your ears when I tell ya. It’ll disorient you if ya don’t. I’ve got it aimed toward the cage,” Boomer told them.
“Won’t that affect the hostage?”
“It will but she won’t be harmed.”
“Okay, Boomer, what ever you say. My faith’s in you, man.”
“What is this gizmo anyway, Boomer?” Sam asked.
A mixture of pleased and evil chuckles sounded in Rico’s earpiece. Boomer always loved his toys.
“Sound waves.”
The radio was quiet for a few seconds, everyone waiting for a further explanation. When one didn’t come, Ricochet asked. “Come on, man, explain. What about sound waves?”
“A very loud high-pitched sound will shoot their way. Given a few seconds it’ll mess with their heads. Confuse, disorient and eventually send them back away from the source.”
“A dog whistle? You gonna blast ’em with a dog whistle?”
“Something like that.”
“Hey, Boomer, we don’t want them running off. We want to take them into custody,” Kong said.
“Yeah, we can do that. One of us frees the hostage while the other three sneak in and take advantage of the dazed targets. I figure Smoke will be good at that since she can sneak up on God himself. You’ll be surprised how easily most of them will go down.”
“I’ll take the hostage,” Ricochet said. “She may be spooked by a white face at this point. I’ll get her out and head to the extraction point.”
“Don’t go too far, Rico, we may need your support. This isn’t like gas, it won’t reach all of them right away,” Boomer informed him.
“Roger that. I’ll stash the hostage and return.”
“Feds are waiting for word to move in. We get half of the targets down I’ll call them in. Get your plans firmly in your head and be ready to move. We wait for Boomer’s go,” Kong ordered.
Ricochet drew a mental line between him and the cage that held the hostage. He planned out what he would tell her so she wouldn’t panic and how he’d remove the padlock. Depending on what was restraining her hands, he’d remove the restraints and then they’d be on their way. He could stash her behind the cinder block building under some brush and return to help the team.
He checked to make sure his extra firearm was secure and then moved it for easier access into the waistband of his pants. Being preoccupied left him vulnerable to attack.
“We’re on alert, team,” Sam whispered into her mike. “They’re gathering in a circle around the hostage. They’re missing the two targets Rico took down, too.”
Ricochet set his sight on the crowd. Each man held rocks in his hands as they taunted the woman inside the cage with vile words. His anger flared and his mind processed the situation. The bars on the cage weren’t wide enough for the rocks to make it through. That meant their intentions were to terrify her.
Slightly moving his scope to the right brought the hostage into view. He could only see her back but it was board straight and her head was held high. Her hands were fisted behind her back like she was ready to take the people on. A strong front for someone facing their death, he thought to himself. He bet that tough exterior would crumble when he pulled her out of there.
“I’m moving in closer,” Sam whispered.
“Be careful, Smoke. We don’t want any tip-offs,” Kong told her.
Ricochet laughed when he heard a rude noise as her response. Telling Smoke not to let anyone see her was like telling a snake to slither. It just came naturally.
One of the men raised his hand, when he dropped it a barrage of rocks hurled through the air clanging against the metal bars of the cage. Rico clenched his jaw and watched. His finger twitched to pull the trigger of his rifle. He knew he had to wait for Boomer’s go but it was getting harder by the second.
One of the men lifted a long pole from the ground and began poking it through the bars at her. Ricochet’s body tensed, ready to spring into action. Her quick side-to-side movements kept the pole from making contact.
“We gonna move anytime soon?” he snarled into the radio.
“Wait for it,” Boomer said in his deep rumbling voice. “Wait for it.”
He could hear a high-pitched whine over the radio. It started out low and grew in intensity until it screamed. Suddenly it stopped.
“Move,” Boomer growled.
In that same second two men standing directly in front of the cage dropped to the ground. The others looked at each other with confused faces. He could tell when the sound wave rolled over the crowd. They all pressed their hands to their ears while their faces grimaced. Several turned and tried to flee but dropped out of sight before they made it too far.
Ricochet darted across the field toward the cage. He kept himself as low to the ground as he possibly could. No one seemed to notice him approach. He spared a glance at the hostage. She had dropped to the cage floor, her head lowered and her shoulders pulled high to her ears.
The annoying high pitched scream began affecting him. Before proceeding he stopped, fell to the ground, reached inside his pants pocket and pulled out ear plugs. He quickly stuffed them into his ears and then proceeded forward. He wouldn’t do her any good if he too was disabled by the high-pitched sound waves.
He continued weaving around metal targets until he reached the circle of men surrounding the cage. A glance around told him Boomer, Kong and Smoke had their hands full. Boomer was currently fighting hand-to-hand with two staggering men. Kong was busy restraining hands and feet of three more and he really wasn’t sure where Smoke was, but he had an idea when another man slipped into the high grass.
With the hostage still secure in the cage there was no reason he couldn’t take down a few himself. The first two went easily. A quick blow to the back of the head and they were down. The high-pitched sound was beginning to seep past his earplugs but while he jammed them in further it gave another target time to strike at him.
The blow to his back was weak, doing no damage. When he turned the man struck out again and making weak contact with his face. Again no damage was done. Ricochet looked into his eyes and laughed. The way they were rolling around inside his head it was a wonder he’d actually made contact.
“Hey, buddy,” Rico barked in his face. “You can’t do any better than that, don’t bother me.”
The man swung once more teetered and then fell to the ground. Ricochet just looked down at him, shook his head in disgust and then pulled zip ties from his pocket and bound the man’s wrists and ankles. He took another glance at the hostage. She was still sitting in the cage with her head hanging low.
“Ricochet, g
et her out. We can handle the rest,” Kong ordered.
Wasting no time, he jogged over to the cage. A gunshot rang through the air, the bullet bouncing off one of the bars. He dropped to his knees, pulled his rifle up and searched for the source.
“Where’d that come from?” Boomer yelled into the radio.
“Not sure but it was too damn close,” Rico responded.
Another shot fired hitting the ground in front of him. “Find that shooter,” he growled. “Smoke, a little of your brand of help would be good about now.”
“It’s the old man,” she huffed into her radio. “Give me three seconds and I’ll find him.”
Another bullet whizzed past his face. He could feel the brush of air as it passed. “Don’t have three, Smoke. He’s serious and a damn good shot.” Ricochet turned toward the cage. “Hey, get down flat on the floor. Don’t lift your head,” he shouted at the woman. He wasn’t sure she could hear him or if she could hear, whether she would be able to understand what he was saying.
Without hesitation, she threw herself forward on the floor of the cage.
“Don’t move until I tell ya to,” he yelled.
He aimed his rifle at the padlock and fired. Sparks flew, the hunk of metal jumped and smoke drifted from the entry hole. He took the butt of his rifle and hammered at the lock until it released. Another bullet skimmed by his leg slicing the material of his pants.
“Whoa, he’s getting closer. Smoke, you got a bead on him yet?”
“Working on it.”
He knelt down, inspected the rope used to tie the woman’s hands and then pulled his knife from the holder around his calf. “Hold still, I don’t want to cut you,” he shouted to the woman.
She was so still he worried if one of the stray bullets had found its way to her. As soon as the rope was severed she bolted up shoving Ricochet off to the side. When she turned and looked at him he knew exactly what she was doing. Unfortunately, he didn’t react in time. She reached out, jerked his backup gun from his waistline and pointed it straight at his face.
“That’s some way to thank a person,” he said holding his hands up. So much for the tough exterior crumbling.
She raised the gun a hair and fired.
“What the…” A loud thud sounded behind him, he turned his head and found one of the militia men slumped against the bars, blood trickling from his forehead.
“Damn, woman. Good shot. Now if ya don’t mind, let’s get the hell outta here.”
He picked up his rifle and tried to retrieve his hand gun from her. When she stuck it behind her back and smiled he figured what the hell. If she was that good a shot she might as well keep it. A bullet passed between them, pinging off the metal bars.
“I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough of this shit,” she said, turning and leaving the cage.
Hot on her heels, he exited the small prison and followed her into the fray.
“Hey, I need to get you outta here.”
“I’m not going anywhere until every one of these bastards is down,” she shouted at him. “And what the hell is that sound?”
One of the few standing men ran straight for them. From the corner of his eye he could see her raise her gun and point it at him. He brought his arm down across hers, lowering the gun.
“No. He isn’t armed.”
The man barreled into him. Ricochet gave him a headbutt, a quick jab to the stomach and brought his knee up into his face when he bent forward. He dropped to the ground in a heap.
“No need to shoot an unarmed man,” he said winking at her.
“Yeah, well, that one’s armed.” She used her body to shove him away, took aim and fired.
When he turned and looked, the large man who had dragged her from the SUV was lying on the ground, a rifle lay across his chest.
“Okay, next one just wing.”
As far as he could see there were only a handful of men left standing.
“Hostage secure, Ricochet?” Kong asked over the radio.
He looked her up and down. “Secure as she’s gonna get.”
“Then help us wrap this up.”
“Look I need to finish up here. Go back to that cinder block building and wait.” He told her.
“Like hell I will.”
With that she headed to the closest target. He followed. Without any hesitation she charged the dazed man, popped him in the mouth, then in the stomach and brought her knee up into his groin. The poor sap dropped like a fly. Ricochet knelt down and bound his hands and feet. When he looked up she was on to number two.
“Hey, leave one for me,” he shouted. Then he noticed the high-pitched sound wave was affecting her.
When she swung at the man she missed, stumbling and falling into him. The man slurred a hateful comment and then fell backward with her on top. Ricochet ran toward them, pushed her off and secured him.
“Don’t feel so good,” she said, then flopped on her back.
Chapter Two
“She gonna be all right?” Rico asked, looking down at the woman on the ground.
“She’ll be fine. It’ll pass,” Boomer answered with a smile.
“What’s so funny?”
Boomer chuckled. “Had your hands full, didn’t ya?”
Ricochet crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. “Had some pretty good moves for your average lady. Somethin’ odd about her.”
“Don’t let Sam hear you say that. She’ll kick your ass. But I know what you mean. Any woman who can disarm you like that has some serious training.”
“Don’t she though.”
“Hey guys, why are you just letting her lie there like that? Did anyone check and see if she had any injuries?” Sam asked kneeling next to her.
Boomer gave him a glance and wink. Obviously she hadn’t seen what transpired. Now he’d have to tell her and wasn’t that a blow to the ego.
“She can’t possibly be hurt,” Rico snarled.
“Why?”
Boomer couldn’t stand there with his mouth shut. He had to be the one to tell her.
“She took Rico’s firearm away from him, popped a guy in the forehead with a slug and then took down another target.”
Sam stood, looked at him and tried to hide a smile. “She took your firearm?”
He glared at the smiling Boomer. “Yeah, she caught me off-guard.”
“Hey, we need to bug out of here soon,” Kong said strolling up to the group. “Why is she still on the ground? Is she all right?”
“She’s fine. Probably wouldn’t hurt to have a med check her out though,” Boomer told him.
“Seems the great Ricochet had his firearm taken by the lady,” Sam joyfully told Kong.
“How’d that happen?” Kong asked with a surprised look on his face.
“She caught me off guard, that’s all. I was bein’ shot at.”
“You misjudged your hostage.”
They all looked down at the woman.
“Excuse me?” Ricochet squealed.
She pulled herself up off the ground, brushed her pants off, tugged at her tattered blouse and settled her hands on her narrow hips. “Let me guess. You thought I was some overly fem woman—now stop me if I’m wrong—who would fall apart as soon as her brave knight showed up to rescue her.”
He felt his mouth hanging open and slammed it shut. Now that she was erect and not running off to pound some guy he could tell she was no ordinary woman. This one had a background.
“Just who the hell are you?” he asked.
“Veronica Holter, call me Ronnie.”
“You okay, Ronnie? Any injuries that need to be tended to?” Kong asked.
“I’m fine, thank you. I’ve heard of the sound wave technique but that’s the first time I’ve ever experienced it. Takes a lot of control to fight through it. Heard it’s not on the market yet, how’d you get it?”
“That’s classified,” Boomer responded with a suspicious look.
“I ask again, who the hell are you?” It wasn�
�t just anyone that knew about tactical equipment.
“Ronnie,” Sam jumped in. “Obviously our intel didn’t tell us much about you and you aren’t under any obligation to tell us, but we would appreciate it if you did.”
The woman studied Sam’s masked face for a few seconds. “I’m guessing by the way some of those men just disappeared into thin air without anyone around that was you. And, if my memory serves me right, which it always does, I recall hearing rumors some years ago about a masked operative who could infiltrate any situation without being seen.”
The hairs on the back of Ricochet’s neck stood at attention. He glanced at Kong, who was clenching his jaw so tight he could crack walnuts. Boomer was showing a bit of concern as well. If Ronnie didn’t feel the heat from his eyes she was ice.
“Heard said operative had some impressive saves notched on his belt. Of course I didn’t buy it, no one’s that good. I believe the call name was Black Smoke.”
All three men physically tensed and settled their gazes on Sam waiting for her to respond. They would, of course, follow her lead, but it was her call if she wanted to reveal herself. When her eyes closed, they held their breath.
Ricochet didn’t like it, not one bit. This woman knew far too much about many things. He had some questions for her and if she pressed too hard on Sam he’d press back. When Sam opened her eyes he saw a touch of humor in them.
“I’m sure the rumors are embellished,” Sam said.
“I thought the same thing but damn if I could see anyone snatching those men. Could only be Black Smoke.”
“Well it is one of my specialties.”
The okay was given and all three of them relaxed.
“I’m gonna guess the one standing next to you is your man and these two,” she said, nodding toward Boomer and Ricochet, “are more than just coworkers.”
“You seem to know enough about us. How ’bout you share now?” Ricochet said.
“It is only fair, isn’t it? As I said, my name is Ronnie Holter. I, like you, work for myself. A few months ago I was contacted and told this militia group was harassing local people who weren’t white. In fact a few of them went so far as to violate a young girl and then dump her on the main street of town naked, bloody and broken. The locals tried to investigate but were threatened.”
Ricochet's Rogue (Agent of Mercy, Book Three) Page 2