Page 63 of Into the Gray Zone

We found the road leading to the entrance, the fort still about a hundred meters away, and Brett tried to pull over. A policeman blew his whistle and started waving his arms, demanding we come to him. Brett continued forward, his window down, and the cop waved us to keep going, not addressing Brett at all.

We drove past the entrance, with me cursing. I looked to the left and saw a shopping area, the lanes not as narrow as in Delhi but still dense. I said, “Take a left into that area. Find a place to park. We’re running out of time.”

He did so, tooting his horn and moving through the crowds, atone point using the bumper to clear a lane through the people. They didn’t seem to mind, which was crazy to me. Apparently, if you didn’t show you would aggressively plow someone over, the locals would just ignore you.

He began to pass a narrow alley, and I saw a bunch of cars behind the buildings. A parking lot. I said, “There, there!”

He turned, and we were riding forward on a lane that barely cleared our rearview mirrors. In about seventy meters, it opened up to a dirt lot full of trash barrels, mopeds, and larger vehicles, the area surrounded by the back walls of various shops, and unlike the street outside, it was empty of people.

He inched forward and said, “There’s no parking spot.”

I looked at my watch and said, “We’re out of time. The meeting is in fifteen minutes, and it’ll take us at least ten to get tickets and enter. Just double-park this thing on the far side and we’ll run to the fort.”

He reached the far side, pulled parallel to another car, and put our SUV in park, and I turned to open the door, hearing Jennifer shout, “Watch out!”

I saw a black SUV coming straight at me. I slammed back into Brett in the driver’s seat and the vehicle hit us head-on, crunching my door and spraying me in glass, our SUV rocking violently. Time slowed, my brain trying to process what was happening.

I looked out the shattered window, saw their SUV back up about twenty meters, then all four doors open, and the same Asian men I’d seen at the Imperial Hotel started spilling out, all of them armed. Brett opened the driver’s door, grabbing his pistol at his waist, Jennifer rolling to Veep’s side while he flung his own door open.

It was all out of time, in slow motion, my body simply reacting, flooding with a reptilian fight-or-flight response.

Before I had even processed what had happened, I’d jumped overthe separation between the passenger seat and the driver and rolled out, Jennifer diving out from the back seat, Veep and Brett already on the ground, scanning for threats. Then the gunfire started, the men in the SUV plastering our vehicle with rounds. My ears felt like they were full of cotton, my body instinctively trying to protect my eardrums from damage from the exploding gunshots as rounds ripped through the steel of our vehicle.

I slammed against the side of our SUV and saw Veep rise, shooting to try to suppress the enemy. He took a round, his body spinning behind me.

Mother fucker.

My brain went into overdrive, which was both fast and slow. I rose, pulling my pistol from its holster, seeing the front sight of my barrel and placing my other hand on the grip. I focused on the red dot and started killing.

One man was to my left, hiding behind a vehicle door and shooting through the window. I split his head apart with a single shot. Another was running to my left. I tracked him for a millisecond, snapped a double tap his way, but missed. A round smacked the frame of our SUV right next to my head and I rolled to the front of our vehicle, peeking around the bumper.

I saw two more men coming out of the SUV and crouched back down behind the vehicle. I turned, finding Jennifer treating Veep, Brett on a knee with his own pistol out.

The entire action had happened in the blink of an eye. Brett shouted, “Left, left!” And I turned, seeing the man I’d missed earlier darting into the parking area, going behind a civilian vehicle.

I said, “There are two more out there. Three on the loose.”

He nodded and faced away from me, toward the rear of our vehicle. I turned to Jennifer and said, “Status?”

“He’s got a through-and-through on his shoulder. Nothing vital hit, but he’s bleeding.”

I nodded, and Veep said, “I’m fine, I’m fine. I just can’t use my strong arm. I’ll have to shoot from my weak hand.”

I said, “Well, we’re in trouble then, because I’ve seen that shooting.”

He smiled, and I realized he really was going to be okay. I turned to Brett and said, “We need to end this. Brett, I’m going after the guy on the left. He’s trying to flank us. Keep your eyes on the rear, that’s where the other two will be coming from.”

He nodded at me and said, “They have to finish this soon, or leave. They’ve made a lot of noise.”

I said, “Let’s help them leave.”

I rolled out and started hunting the loose man in the car lot. The other two saw my movement and focused on me instead of Brett, taking a couple of shots as I ran, the bullets smacking ineffectually around me. The muzzle blasts gave away their position and Brett started firing, forcing them behind cover. I kept moving and made it across the open ground to the row of cars.

Behind me, Brett and the other two kept exchanging rounds, with neither getting the upper hand. I squatted down, listening, trying to hear the third man on the move. I leaned around the bumper of a car, looking down the row, and then heard a clatter on the roof.

I whipped my eyes up and saw the barrel of a gun aimed at my skull. My body reacted without thought, first slapping his weapon aside with my own, like we were dueling with swords, then grabbing his wrist behind the weapon with my other hand and jerking it violently to the ground.

The weapon discharged harmlessly into the metal of the car and his body slammed into the earth. I stomped a foot on the hand with the weapon and raised my Staccato, trying to put the red dot on his forehead. He whipped his legs around, hitting me just below my calves andsweeping me off my feet. I landed hard on my back, my weapon still held in front of my body, and he leapt up, raising his own pistol. I fired twice, hitting him once in the neck and once right in the middle of his face, splitting his eyes apart.

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