Skulls shadows, p.22
Skull's Shadows, page 22
“Roger,” Hawkeye replied. “Copy snatch team moving from first to second floor.”
Two men came around the corner from the kitchen. Both had pistols in their hands and looked surprised to see Reaper and her team in the foyer, so they failed to take cover.
Reaper fired a burst of Sam rounds into the torso of each, and they fell in bloody heaps. “Keep moving,” she said.
The snatch team filed up the staircase while the others split into pairs and began to secure the ground floor.
A naked woman with wild black hair flew at them suddenly from the top of the staircase. She had a knife in each hand and buried them in the shoulder and neck of Murphy, the first man in line, by luck or skill bypassing his body armor. The two tumbled down the stairs, taking the next man with them.
Reaper stepped back against the wall just in time to avoid getting caught in the mess, and as the blade-woman jerked her weapons free, Reaper put a boot into her head from behind, snapping her neck sideways with an audible crack. Then she put a single round into the woman’s leg, hoping the virus contained therein would save her life.
Shortfuse froze and stared at the fallen woman. Reaper struck him on the arm. “Come on; follow me. Need to move fast. Someone check Murphy.”
She raced up the remaining stairs and into the hallway. Reaper would have preferred to check and clear every room, but they didn’t have time. They needed to secure Enrique Mendoles and be gone before all the guards in the compound converged on the house. Hopefully, Hawkeye was keeping them busy outside.
“Last one,” Reaper said, rushing forward, hitting the final door with her shoulder. She bounced off; even with body armor and gear she weighed barely one-seventy. Turning to the two who’d followed her up, she motioned to Hulk, her biggest man. “Breach!”
Hulk nodded, lowered his weapon and charged the portal. Three hundred fifty pounds at full speed did the trick. The door crashed inward and the man deliberately fell onto his left side, the way he’d practiced.
Reaper followed, dodging to the right, and looked up to see Enrique Mendoles sitting in bed with a shotgun aimed in her direction. He pulled the trigger and she felt the wave of heat as shot spattered over her head and into the wall, one of the pellets stinging her cheek. In return, she put two Sam rounds into him, one in the belly and one into his shoulder.
Enrique fell off the side of the bed onto the floor, the shotgun skidding into a corner.
Hulk powered to his feet and over to Enrique, who was holding his gut wound.
“You’re dead,” the large, fat cartel boss said in Spanish. “All of you are dead. Do you have any idea who you are messing with?”
“Just one more pendejo,” Reaper replied in the same language, wrenching his hands behind him to flex-cuff them. After wrapping a strip of duct tape around his head and over his mouth, she yanked him roughly to his feet. “Let’s go.”
She turned to see Shortfuse standing in the doorway. His rifle was pointed directly at her. “What –”
Shortfuse fired and Reaper felt the whistle of the bullet pass by. Something fell into her from the bathroom doorway behind her. She turned to see a scantily clad woman with a pistol in one hand and a SAM wound in her chest. The woman lay on the floor gasping, lung-shot.
Reaper picked up her boot and stomped down forcefully on the manicured hand that still held the pistol. She heard the crunch of thin bones as the woman screamed in fresh pain. “Serves you right, but don’t worry; you’ll soon be as right as rain.”
“I think we better go,” said Shortfuse.
“Definitely,” said Reaper, pushing the bound Enrique toward Hulk. “You take him.” She flipped the selector for all frequencies on her radio. “We have the package. Exiting the building now. Cover our extraction.”
Reaper led her people down the stairs. “Out!” she yelled to the rest that covered the ground floor. “Extract, now!”
They raced across the courtyard with a few bullets striking near them, but heavy covering fire from Hawkeye’s team kept most of the enemy suppressed. Reaching the break in the wall, they began climbing through.
Enrique slumped to the ground at the opening, either passed out or faking. With a grunt, Hulk threw the man over his shoulders. “Shit, he’s heavy,” he said, climbing through the wall.
Reaper waited on the far side until the last of her team was through. “Hawkeye,” she radioed. “We’re out. Call for extraction. Hit anyone that comes after us.”
“You got it,” he replied, and put a bullet into one of the braver thugs trying to climb through the breach behind them.
Reaper could see the light of dawn breaking, so she put her night vision goggles away as her team hustled toward the extraction point. Footsteps became heavy and slow as the post-adrenaline sluggishness hit them. It was clear that some of the team had been wounded, and everyone desperately needed calories.
Checking her GPS, she said, “We’re nearly to the extraction point. Keep pushing. We’ll treat and eat there.” She then radioed Hawkeye. “We’re about seven mikes out from the EP. Extract your team.”
“Will do...on our way...soon,” came a pained voice.
“You okay?”
“Long story,” Hawkeye answered. “See you in ten.”
At the extraction point, a large cargo helicopter waited, Flyboy at the controls and the rotors starting to spin up. Team members gave him shit as they climbed into the seats in back.
“Hey, it wasn’t all easy with me either,” he responded with a grin. “I hit some real turbulence on the way in, and I had to spend the night on these uncomfortable seats, so don’t tell me how bad you pussies had it.”
Crumpled MRE packages and other small projectiles made Flyboy duck, accompanied by catcalls.
Minutes later, Reaper saw Hawkeye stumble out of the jungle with his team. He had a long bloody gash down the side his cheek. At the end of the line, one of their two females, Bunny, led a flex-cuffed Hound Dog.
“Where’s Blade?” Reaper asked.
“Dead,” answered Hawkeye, gesturing at his face. “Came at me after you made it through the wall. Lucky I turned to reload my rifle or his knife would have gone into my skull.”
“You sure he’s dead?” asked Reaper.
“We’re sure,” said Bunny, a sour look on her too-pretty face. “I put three into his head and then rolled him into an army ant mound. Nobody gets up from that, and his body’ll be eaten in a day.”
“What’s up with him?” asked Reaper, pointing at Hound Dog. “He in on it?”
“Don’t know for sure, but they were butt-buddies,” said Hawkeye. “He tried to run and I wasn’t taking any chances. Figured we’ll straighten it all out in the rear.”
“Speaking of which, maybe we should get out of here,” said Shortfuse, pointing at the loaded helicopter with the blades turning.
Reaper nodded, and they raced to board the aircraft. She gave Flyboy the thumbs-up and he lifted.
“All things considered,” said Reaper, sitting next to Hawkeye. “I think it went pretty well.”
He chuckled. “Could have been worse. That’s one hell of a warm-up mission. Not sure I want to know what the main act will be.”
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Books by David VanDyke
Plague Wars: Decade One
The Eden Plague
Reaper’s Run
Skull’s Shadows
Eden’s Exodus
Apocalypse Austin
Nearest Night
Plague Wars: Alien Invasion
The Demon Plagues
The Reaper Plague
The Orion Plague
Cyborg Strike
Comes The Destroyer
Forge and Steel
Plague Wars: Stellar Conquest
Starship Conquest
Desolator: Conquest
Tactics of Conquest
Conquest of Earth
Conquest and Empire
Books by D.D. VanDyke
D. D. VanDyke is the Mysteries pen name for fiction author David VanDyke.
California Corwin P.I. Mystery Series
Loose Ends - Book 1
(Includes Off The Leash short story)
In a Bind - Book 2
Slipknot - Book 3
The Girl In The Morgue - Book 4
For more information visit http://www.davidvandykeauthor.com/
Cover by Jun Ares
David VanDyke, Skull's Shadows
