Cold Blooded Assassin Book 6: Red Horizon (Nick McCarty Assassin) (52 page)

A chorus of grunting acknowledgements agreed with Lucas’s assessment.

“I’m in,” Lynn stated. “I’m done mommying. If there’s any more Betty digs from anyone, I’ll have my foot massage gear ready to go. That includes you, know-it-all.”

Clint Jr. locked eyes with his Mom. “Understood, Ma. We’ll be fine.”

“I wouldn’t be worried if Cheese hadn’t used up all our good Karma and luck with all his near disasters.”

“I heard that, Crue,” Harding said. “We’re flying into position now.”

Quinn gripped his weapon, ignoring any further banter. Their support aircraft were in the air, minutes from positions already decided on. He needed a moment to gather his thoughts for combat. His sister would be in a place, if things went wrong, where there would be little to shield her from harm, other than the rain of death exacted by the sniper teams. Quinn had made peace with the fact he would kill everything without thought or hesitation until he reached her: men, women, and children. Let God sort them out at the end. He knew any of them could be wearing bomb vests.

* * *

Johnny approached the gated community’s entrance with tired realization he would once again be forced to dredge up his Ebi Zarin identity, although he disavowed and detested every aspect of his long ago dead identity. He drove a late model BMW, steeling himself to interact with the guard in a completely nerveless manner, without any indication of what churned inside of him. He well knew one mistake could rob his children of ever seeing him and Cala ever again. Cala gripped his arm momentarily.

“It is a small thing, brother,” Cala echoed, reading his expression, with a long ago reference to his favorite movie: Thirteenth Warrior.

They reached the outer gate with Johnny patting Cala’s leg with acknowledgement of her intuitive grasp of his emotions. The guards at the gate were only armed with holstered weapons. He made an instantaneous mission decision as the guard drew near with a sneering look of animosity. Johnny knew the mosque would be the key to their report.

“Give me my MP5,” Johnny told Cala. She and Jean hid the old but very reliable silenced machine pistols under their burkas. Cala instantly slapped it into his hands from underneath her garb.

“Uncle Johnny?”

“Be ready, Viper.”

When the two guards reached the car, Johnny lowered his tinted window and shot both men in the head with two short bursts. Jean instantly disembarked from the car, running toward the guard post, but there were no more men inside the guard shack. She held ground, watching for any kind of notice. Johnny dragged the two bodies out of sight. Cala smiled at her husband as he reentered the BMW’s driver’s seat.

“I’m tellin’,” Cala joked as Jean joined them.

“No need,” John Harding said. “I wasn’t thrilled with you three trying to get past those guards and leaving them at your back either.

“We’re watching the compound,” Rachel added. “Clear so far, but you’ll have to recon fast if the guards had check in times.”

“Clear from our nest,” Benny said.

“Clear,” Casey acknowledged.

“Are you headed for the mosque, Kabong?”

“No change there, Muerto,” Johnny replied. “The guards’ body language as they approached did not look promising. We will go directly inside the mosque and need time for a thorough search.”

“Absolutely,” Nick said. “All snipers’ nests have a viewing of the mosque entrance. We will maintain a clear escape zone even if we have to let the ‘Ghostrider’ loose on everything around. You copy that, Laredo?”

“Understood,” Laredo said. “We are in support distance right now. Gus fed the mosque coordinates into our weapons system. We’re ready.”

Johnny backed in beside the mosque, the hands on his watch reading a little after one in the morning. The three kept dressed for the time being while approaching without weapons showing. Before nearing the mosque’s entrance, Jean fired their wide range EMP weapon at the approach while Johnny and Cala took positions on either side of the approach. By prior agreement, if they could talk or shoot their way past the guards, the armory they were certain had been placed in the mosque would be target one. Jean threw the electromagnetic pulse weapon in the car again. She then ran past her two guards to the front with a hand held battering ram, tried the door, determined the locking mechanism, and smashed through with one stroke of the ram.

Automatic weapons fire sliced through the opening as Jean slipped to the side, dropping the ram, and readying her weapon. Johnny and Cala ran to the other side with Johnny pulling the pin on a grenade. They knew the armory would not be on the main floor of the mosque. He tossed it in. It made a spectacular explosion inside with fire and debris shooting out the open entrance. Johnny waited twenty seconds and threw another one in harder. Jean smiled as the second one exploded with screams of agony.

Shouting, running figures firing wildly approached, only to be cut down immediately from above. Sirens sounded on the highest tower which also acted as the call to prayer for the murderous cult. Johnny, Jean, and Cala crossed paths firing in short bursts after slipping on their night-vision helmets with breathing filters. They fired indiscriminately into every body alive or dead they found. The damage from the grenades appeared ancillary rather than structural. Firing outside increased every minute, but the three knew the mosque had to be cleared before proceeding to look for the hidden armory.

“Main floor secure,” Johnny stated.

“Secondary force on the way,” Clint said.

Devon zigzagged through the compound’s streets with the two UH-60M helicopters in support with ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ blasting from both helicopters’ sound systems. They fired the Yak-B Gatling guns, making sure everything in front of secondary force died. John shot ahead as the armored vehicle neared the mosque and blew the prayer tower and siren to pieces. Devon whipped the armored vehicle into a slide bringing it around to face the escape route. Secondary force deployed around the mosque. Quinn and Clint Jr. halted at the entrance.

“Kong and Cutthroat at the door, Viper. Secondary force deployed.”

“Come ahead. We’re at the access to the underground part, we-”

As Quinn ran toward the access with Clint Jr. watching his back the rear of the building exploded. He spotted Jean, Johnny, and Cala diving to the floor. Quinn ran through the exploded section, taking the force of five rushing at it completely by surprise. He smashed through them like bowling pins. Close order combat followed unlike anything the attacking men expected. Quinn and Clint Jr. drew their K-bar knives without hesitation, knowing from experience the lethal shock their vicious stabbing attack would cause. Only one of the enemy who had been at the back after firing the rocket launcher broke free. He stood to shoot down into the milling mass of warriors. Jean’s MP5 burst blew his face apart.

The bloodied Marines finished off the other four enemy with killing strokes up through their chins. A larger attacking force moved toward them from the maze of buildings behind the mosque, firing as they came.

“Get down, Kong and Cutthroat!” Nick’s sharp order was obeyed instantly by the two Marines. M2 Browning machine gun fire cut through the rear assault party with devastating accuracy. Bodies nearly cut in half pitched all around until John Harding landed the UH-60M into the street’s rear, firing the Yak-B Gatling guns in a tight rotating fashion, clearing out everything in their path. “Sorry, Kong. We saw the threat, but couldn’t move into position with the M2 until a moment ago. Thanks, Cheese.”

“Combat… the inexact science, right Muerto? I didn’t see anything move down there when I took out the tower. One more inexact science moment and we back out and let the ‘Ghostrider’ turn this place into dust.”

“Agreed,” Nick said. “Anyone hit down there?”

“Cleaner’s wounded.” Johnny worked to staunch the blood oozing around the wooden stake from the rear debris explosion, knowing better than to extract it.

Quinn and Clint Jr. arrived at her side a moment later. Quinn gathered her into his arms and headed for Harding’s stealth. Issac helped him ease her into an emergency gurney on board the UH-60M. Johnny dived in with her.

“Achmed! Move into support position,” Harding ordered. “I’ll fly Cala to T for transport.”

“On it,” Jafar acknowledged.

Quinn and Clint Jr. joined Jean. Lynn and Clint ran toward them from the front to take Johnny and Cala’s place. Quinn smashed the access door leading down with one kick, slipping to the side in anticipation of weapons’ fire. His three companions fired bursts down into the underground facility for a moment.

“Damn it!” Jean hesitated for a moment. “We can’t throw stuff down that hole without taking a chance of blowing ourselves to kingdom come. Do you think there’s anything worthwhile down there?”

“Only one way to find out,” Lynn said. “We fire a coordinated burst. Then Kong drops down with Cutthroat backing the play.”

Jean reached out to smack Quinn on the back of his head. “You two warts fire the moment you hit the landing. Hear me?”

Quinn grinned. “Wow, I’m glad you came, Sis. Cutthroat and I would never have guessed we should fire when we hit the landing.”

Muffled laughter sounded uneasily in their ears from the networked assault group. Jean nodded. “Good one. Fire in the hole!”

Jean, Clint, and Lynn took turns firing bursts down into the void below. Clint gestured him down and Quinn dropped down the staircase barely touching a step with Clint Jr. right behind him. He hit the landing hard, swinging toward the interior, firing as he turned. Quinn’s burst riddled the unwary man readying to fire upwards again. Clint Jr. joined Quinn to concentrate their bursts at moving and firing targets.

“Landing clear! Bad guys here!”

Quinn’s words brought Clint, Lynn, and Jean individually with cover fire to the landing and outwards to join Quinn and Clint Jr. They held position. Each enemy who popped up to fire absorbed a .45 caliber hollow point slug through his head as Clint switched to the weapon least likely to explode anything hidden in the underground facility. So deadly was Clint’s fire, the last one hiding raised his hands shouting he was surrendering. Lynn clutched her husband’s hand before he could execute the last one.

“Don’t break my toy. He can help.”

Clint smiled and nodded at his wife, the premier interrogator of all time. Quinn and Clint Jr. had already secured the prisoner by then.

Lynn took off her helmet, sniffing distastefully at the cordite in the air. “Okay, porky, let’s get this over with. Take us on a tour of the armory. Miss something and you get one of these.”

Lynn jammed her stun-gun against the man’s groin, his scream echoing while he landed hard on the floor. Lynn bent down to pat his face. “Ah… so sweet… you think that hurt. You ain’t seen nothing yet, sweetie. Do you understand the rules of the game or would you like another demonstration?”

Still clutching his groin in the fetal position, the prisoner nodded his head in violent affirmative acknowledgement until he could speak. “I…I will show you anything… anything you want to see!”

“That’s my good little helper. Get him on his feet, boys. Let’s get the tour over with before we make this town into a crater.”

With Gatling guns blazing, Jafar’s voice sounded over the com unit. “Taking fire. They are regrouping, Crue.”

“Wait one.” Lynn turned with a triggered arc of blue to get her prisoner’s attention. “I’ll only ask this once. Do you have any women and children here? If you lie to me I’ll cut your dick off and choke you with it.”

“No! They are held near here in case of an inspection! Please… it is the truth.”

Lynn smiled. “Thank you, my little helper. Turn up the music, Achmed. Laredo?”

“Here Crue.”

“Once the UH-60’s are clear, lay waste to everything until there’s nothing but smoke and flame left.”

“Understood. You copy, Dark Lord.”

“Understood. Holding position after Cleaner drop off. T speeding for med help.”

“Understood,” Jafar acknowledged. “Clear of area now.”

“Plug your ears, kids. Ghostrider raining death and destruction.”

With ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ blasting, Laredo’s AC-130J Gunship made passes of which nothing survived on the surface. The UH-60M’s killed everything trying to escape the apocalyptic gunship fire. Nick and Rachel retreated with the M2 machine gun and sniper rifle, watching as Laredo and Gus literally erased everything from existence around the mosque. Rachel kept moving toward the extraction point. Nick stopped, setting up again for cover fire.

“Hold on, Trashy. We have work yet to do. I could use wind, heat, and fire readings.”

“What the hell do you think is going to be down there, Muerto?” Rachel began spotting again, letting Nick know the alterations in wind current, temperature flux, and wind direction at varying distance ranges.

“You’ll see, my love.”

It did not take long before Laredo turned the area surrounding the mosque into rubble.

“Movement!” Benny’s voice sounded for the first time. He called out coordinates, zeroing in on an area where a hatch flipped over amidst the chaos. The first combatant rising out of the opening dropped sideways and fell back inside.

“Nice work, Cracker,” Nick said. “Good job spotting, Killer B.”