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Kai stood on the wooden ladder with one hand holding the top rung and the other braced against the trap door, her eyes on Asher’s face. He was staring at the tablet in his hand, holding up his finger in the universal signal to wait. Behind him, the others waited in silence, watching. She would go out first, then they would follow one by one, spreading out through the house. It was far from perfect, but it was the only shot they had at preventing the complete massacre of an entire team of Navy SEALs.
She shifted her gaze from Asher’s face to Kodak’s, meeting his dark eyes in the dim light thrown by Rina’s flashlight. He nodded almost imperceptibly, and she turned her eyes back to Asher. As soon as he gave the signal, Rina would turn off her light and she would go, followed by Kodak. They would make their way to the second level as quickly as possible, taking into account at least fifteen soldiers, and try to get Masha’al into position before the Americans got there. Failing that, they would have to improvise. She shook her head and swallowed. She gave them about a five percent chance of pulling it off. They must be out of their collective minds.
“Now!” Asher said, looking up. “The hallway and kitchen are clear.”
Rina switched off her flashlight and Kai pushed against the door, feeling it give under the pressure. Stepping up on the ladder, she continued to push slowly, lifting the door under the woven rug. Taking a deep breath, she pushed harder and felt the rug start to slide on the other side of the door. A moment later, there was a gap large enough for her fit her shoulders through and she shoved her head out of the opening. After moving up another rung on the ladder, she pulled her arms through and reached around the trap door to shove the rug off completely. Then, with final push, she angled herself out of the opening and onto the floor beside the door. Catching it before it slammed back down, she closed it silently before getting up and turning to move down the short hallway. She was in.
Her heartbeat fell into a steady rhythm as she moved quickly towards the front of the house. Kai heard the television playing in the front room and someone laughed, and then a deep voice spoke in Arabic.
“I’m going to check the back,” it said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Heavy footsteps moved towards the hallway and she grabbed the handle of the closet door, slipping inside noiselessly and pulling it closed. She watched through the crack as a man emerged from the front room, a rifle slung across his chest. He turned to walk down the hall towards the back door, and the tunnel opening.
As soon as he passed the closet, Kai slipped out of her hiding place, a long blade gripped in her right hand. She moved up behind the man swiftly, kicking out his knee as her left hand snaked around his head to clamp over his mouth. A few seconds later, she was pulling her blade out of his neck and moving backwards towards the closet again, dragging his limp body. The television droning on in the front room covered the sound of his boots sliding across the floor and, a moment later, she had dragged his body into the closet and was easing it to the floor.
Emerging a moment later, she nodded to Kodak as he came from the back of the house and motioned to the front room. He nodded back and moved forward, pulling a Beretta from his back holster as she went across the hallway to the open door. Standing against the wall, she peered around the door jam. After a quick look, she moved back against the wall and looked at Kodak, holding up three fingers. Her eyes dropped to his pistol and she shook her head, motioning for him to put it away. She didn’t want any noise until they had absolutely no choice.
Kodak raised an eyebrow in question, and she reached into one of the cargo pockets of her black tactical pants, pulling out a small, silver hockey-puck like disc. His brow cleared and he nodded, smiling faintly as she pressed a button on the side of the device before bending down and sliding it into the room. She moved away from the door in case some of the fumes made their way into the hallway. The gas was colorless, odorless, and deadly; and it worked within seconds. It also evaporated quickly, which was why it was one of her preferred weapons to carry. In a few minutes, the room would be safe to enter without a mask. Until then, they had to alert the others to avoid it.
“Front room is hot,” she whispered into her comm unit. “Give it a few minutes unless you have a mask.”
“Roger that,” Rina replied.
Kodak motioned for them to get moving and she nodded, going towards the front of the house again. They crossed to the other side of the narrow corridor but, as they passed the front room, Kai pulled her jacket over her face just to be safe. Kodak did the same, and they moved quickly to the corner where the hallway turned left. She pulled a small, flexible camera probe from inside her jacket and switched it on, plugging it into her phone. A moment later, she angled the tiny camera around the wall, watching the image on her screen. Around the corner was an open, square entranceway. The front door was closed and locked, and a soldier stood looking out of the window beside it, a machine gun hanging over his shoulder. He was the only one in the entrance-way, and he looked thoroughly bored. As they watched, he looked at his watch and exhaled loudly before turning his back and beginning to pace away from them.
Kodak moved around Kai swiftly, a combat knife in his hand, and disappeared around the corner. She watched on the camera as he came up behind the soldier. His knife went into his side, puncturing a lung on its way to the heart as Kodak wrapped his other arm around the man’s neck, covering his mouth with his hand. A minute later, he was easing him to the ground.
Kai glanced behind her in time to see Rina emerge from the back of the house wearing a mask. She motioned to her that she was going up and Rina nodded, indicating that she was going into the front room. Kai gave her a thumbs up and went around the corner to follow Kodak. If Rina was taking the front room, then Asher would be going to the other side of the house. He and Raj would use the entrance off the other side of the kitchen. Raj would place the master charge that controlled all the rest while Asher positioned himself in the corner room overlooking the other side of the compound. Between him and Rina, they should have a good chance at taking out quite a few soldiers before the Americans arrived.
Kodak motioned to the stairs leading to the second floor. Wide, painted steps led to a small platform where another flight of steps rose in the opposite direction to the next level. The first set of steps had a wall on one side and an ornate banister on the other. The platform itself was dimly lit by the light pouring from the second floor. As exposed as they would be going up, it was the fastest way to get to Masha’al.
She nodded and he moved to the side of the wall at the base of the stairs as she noiselessly crossed the entryway. The silence was suddenly broken by the unmistakable sound of a suppressed gunshot from the back of the house. It was followed quickly by heavy footsteps to their right, running towards the back of the house. A second later, another gunshot rang out, this one unsuppressed. It cracked through the air with chilling alarm and Kai winced, running to get beside Kodak along the wall as a door slammed open upstairs and footsteps pounded towards the front staircase.
So much for the element of surprise.
Kai pulled out her Jericho and listened as a man started down the stairs, barking orders in Arabic into a walkie-talkie as he ran. Waiting for him to round the stairs at the midway platform, she glanced at Kodak. He had his Beretta out and trained on the platform, waiting. It was fixed with a suppressor and, as the man rounded the corner onto the platform, the gun gave off a muffled pop as Kodak fired twice in rapid succession.
The man stumbled backwards as blood appeared on his forehead and his chest. He slammed into the wall before sliding down to the floor, dead. The body hadn’t fully hit the ground before Kodak and Kai were already on the platform, turning to continue to the second floor. She glanced at the dead man as she passed and, checking her step, turned back. Kodak paused, his foot on the second flight of steps, and looked at her questioningly. She crouched down and pulled the machine gun off the body, draping it across her own and grabbing the extra magazine from the terrorist’s jacket pocket. She was just straightening up and turning to join Kodak when there was an electrical equivalent to a hiss and the house was suddenly plunged into pitch darkness.
The Americans had arrived.
Rina moved through the front room quickly, her eyes on the men sagging lifelessly in the chairs. The television still played an old black and white movie, the classic, familiar scene eerie in the utter silence of death. As she crossed to the partially open window, movement on the floor caught her attention and she lowered her eyes to a man still twitching on the floor in front of the window. He had obviously been standing when the gas released and had fallen to the floor. She raised her eyes to the open window and shook her head. The air must have been just enough to dilute the gas, leaving him to die slowly. He wasn’t conscious, but he also wasn’t dead yet.
Reaching him, she pulled out a long knife and bent down, plunging it between his ribs to pierce his heart. The twitching stopped, and she withdrew her knife, wiping the blade on his jacket before straightening up and going to the window. Looking out, she had an unimpeded view of the front yard and the gate in the distance.
“I’m in position,” she murmured into her comm, pulling her rifle from the soft bag on her back. “I count six at the gate and another four between them and the house. The rest are waiting behind the first building to ambush.”
“I just got into the kitchen,” Asher whispered back. “I’m heading down the back hall to the other side.”
“Let me know when you’re in place. We’ll take them on together.”
Rina slid a magazine into her rifle and looked out of the window again. From this position, she could take out the four in the middle before the others knew what was happening. Once the SEALs came into view, it would be easier to pick them off without them realizing that the shots were coming from behind them. Her lips twisted dryly. By then all hell would be letting loose, and she very much doubted that she and Asher would be of any more use to the Americans. The rest would be up to the United States Navy.
Shaking her head, she glanced behind her at the door. It was very quiet out there, but she knew that wouldn’t last for long. It was inevitable that one of them would be seen, and then the alarm would sound. When it did, she would be a sitting duck with her back to the door. Looking around the large room, she spotted a tapestry screen in the corner. She went over to grab the screen, repositioning it in such a way that it would hide her from view of the doorway. It wasn’t much, but it was something. If nothing else, it would buy her a few seconds when they came into the room. And they would; she had no doubt of that.
“I’m in position,” Asher said softly in her ear. “I’ve got four taking cover behind a truck and three out in the open.”
Rina turned back to the window and picked up her rifle, positioning herself back from the window. No sooner had the words left his mouth than she heard a gunshot echo from the back of the house.
“And there goes our surprise,” she muttered. Thanks Raj, she added silently. He was the last one out of the tunnel, and the only one likely to have been at the back of the house. Typical.
“I’ve got a lot of movement on this side,” Asher said. “Two are heading towards the house.”
“They got called from inside. Stop them before they make it,” she told him, lowering her eye to her scope. “I’ll start picking off the ones on my side. They know we’re here now. Might as well say hello.”
With that, she squeezed her trigger and watched as the unlucky first target went down, thrown forward as her bullet tore through the back of his skull. The man next to him started to swing around to look behind him, but never got the chance. He joined the first on the ground mid-turn, his machine gun discharging as he fell. Bullets sprayed to the right, catching a third in his stomach, and Rina grunted.
“Two for one,” she said. “I’ll take that.”
“I stopped the two, but the ones behind the truck are moving out now,” Asher announced. “They definitely know we’re here.”
“Take down as many as you can,” Rina said, shifting slightly to zero in the last of the four. “The SEALs will be coming any minute.”
As if in response, the entire compound suddenly plunged into darkness and she let out a low curse, switching her scope to night vision.
“And here they come,” Asher said.
Relocating her target, she squeezed the trigger and watched him fall. “Let’s clear it out for them.”
She shifted her aim as the sound of an approaching helicopter filled the compound. Scanning to her right, she searched the shadows behind the first building for the group of soldiers she knew were concealed there.
“Come on, dickheads,” she murmured to herself. “Show me where you are.”
The drone of the helicopter grew louder as a large, black shape appeared just beyond the front gate, coming in fast. The men at the gates fell back, firing their machine guns up at the war bird in a futile attempt at defense. The fire was returned with far greater force from the Dillon mini guns on the sides of the helicopter as it hovered over the front yard of the compound. As the Americans appeared in the open side, the terrorists behind the first and second buildings moved out into the open, guns in their hands. Rina sucked in her breath as she watched one raise an RPG-7 to his shoulder. Without hesitating, she squeezed her trigger. The rocket launcher fell to the ground as her bullet tore into his back and out through his chest, throwing him to the ground.
“Main charge is set.” Raj’s voice broke over the comm in her ear. “We’ve got five minutes.”
Inhaling, Rina began firing, picking off the terrorists closest to the hovering chopper. They were the ones who had the most likelihood of actually hitting one of the men rappelling down. The propellers spun rhythmically, throwing up sand and dirt as the Navy SEALs descended, shooting as they came down into the onslaught of terrorists. Within seconds, the first one had landed and released his cord, going down onto one knee to lay down cover fire for the others coming down behind him.
“They made it,” Asher exclaimed, sounding stunned. “They actually made it down! We did it!”
Rina fired her last round and glanced at the eight men in full gear who had landed in the compound. They had all made it down.
“We need to move,” she said, pulling her rifle from the window. “We’ve done what we can. The rest is on them.”
Turning away from the window, Rina slid the rifle back into the slim bag on her back and pulled out her 9mm semi-automatic.
“I’ll meet you in the tunnel, Asher. We’ve got four minutes before this place goes up.” Silence was her only answer and she frowned, her brows coming together sharply. “Ash? Report.”
There was no answer and she clamped her jaw shut as she lowered her night vision goggles over her eyes. She was just moving out from behind the screen when two men came through the door. Raising her arm, she fired as they let loose with streams of bullets from their machine guns.
