Page 107 of Double Shot

I was over the fence, rifle in a forward position, and all but sprinted across the grass. There was no cry of alarm, no spotlight hitting me. About the time I met the base of the wall, the lights flickered, and went out.

Five seconds later, they came back on.

Flicker.

Then they were out again. He had mimicked a power failure in the grid, and from where I was, I could see the lights on the road and in some of the buildings had gone out. Most people were asleep, so it wasn’t likely that calls would come fast, and the local utilities wouldn’t come into play immediately.

My plan to slip in the side door a second time was a bust, this time it was locked. We had prepared for this, and I had a single C4 charge, a door opener. I did a countdown, and within a fraction of a second of each other, two explosions went off. The door came apart in pieces, shattering the drop bar behind it, cracking the frame, and reducing most of it to splinters. On the other side of the building, Sadie had lobbed a high explosive round intosomething.I was in, rifle up and dropped down into a shooting stance.

There was another building-shaking explosion.

Then the shouting started. Several men came down the familiar staircase right into my line of fire. I emptied the first clip in ten triple round bursts. They threw themselves into cover, and a few returned fire. I advanced a step and into the breakroom. The hall behind me rattled with more coordinated gunfire.

Then there was a familiar thump, quickly followed by a second one.

Then the cursing and coughing started. She had started lobbing gas into the lobby, and they werenotprepared for that. Kaijin had neglected to mention it, I had to guess.Sloppy.

The gunfire ceased, and I heard shouted commands, and a lot of coughing, one person vomited, by the sound. I clung to the wall and advanced. Between the gas and the lights being out, visibility was awful, but I knew theirs was much worse. Hard to see through blurred vision and nausea.

Getting into the ranks was easy, and then it was close quarters with the AR, the triple pop of each burst fast and loud. It fell into chaos, and there were people shouting over their radios. They held discipline better than the Mercenary Monthly guys had last time, but they weren’t on our level.

Being in some national guard or homegrown militia didn’t prepare these guys for US Army special forces, or Royal Marines, or cyberwarfare, or an angry woman with a grenade launcher.

Especiallythat last part.

Mytraining barely preparedmeto handle that.

There was another thump, and I ducked as the flashbang went off, then another thump and a second one. Then there was the familiar sound of AR fire. Quick pops, three at a time.

My earpiece was alive with chatter, and the distant sound of that big automatic shotgun greeting the men at the guard shack.

Then a loudWHUMPas something outside went up. Aviation fuel and the helicopter, I ventured to guess. That would draw attention, certainly. Oasis only had a volunteer fire department, and that would slow their response time, and worked in our favor. If they even got the call, that was.

There was more gunfire, and I pulled back and sheltered behind the stairs.

The men who were still on their feet organized a fall back maneuver and were making for the front doors. The housing area had gotten too hot for them, caught between teargas, an elevated shooter, and a shooter they couldn’t find. It wasn’t the best idea, since Roan was coming up on their six, but I wasn’t going to correct them.

I saw one of them hit the doors and bail out into the night.

Then I heard Sadie let out an inarticulate scream, not pain, but raw anger.

She broke from her position, and I saw her streak across the upper hallway toward the room where more than a year ago I had killed the mark that had started this entire shitshow. She had spotted Kaijin and was going for the kill.

I had to back her up, the last time these two had crossed claws, Sadie almost lost a chunk out of her neck and had ended up looking like an MMA fighter after a rough match. I had to get to her, to not let Kaijin get in the position of taking her down or captive.

Crossing the room netted me a few rounds right into the dragonscale and sent me rolling across the floor. I came up onto my feet and raised my AR just in time for it be knocked from my hands and a follow up punch connect with my jaw. Teeth clacked together and my feet came out from under me again.

“I remember you,” a big man said. I looked up into the dark and ominous face of Ajahi. This was unexpected, and while I was going for my pistol, he grabbed me. I was in the air, then crashing into a wall.Fuck!The force of the impact knocked the wind out of me, and I lost my pistol. I fumbled for the AR, still hanging from its shoulder strap, but as I was bringing it up, he grabbed the barrel and used it to pull me into several hammer blows to the head and shoulders. I gave up going for the gun and went to blocking. Even with my arms up, he hit like a Mack truck.

He dropped a few low body blows, but the dragonscale stopped his fists just as easily as it stopped bullets. After he realized I was armored, everything he threw came after my face. I could barely connect even the quickest jabs, and those didn’t faze him in the slightest.

“Fuck, you’re supposed to be in Afghan,” I grunted as he hammered me into the wall.

“Last time I heard, you were screaming with ya balls in a vice,” he said. He relented the blows to the head long enough to grab my mask and rip it off. The lingering tear gas immediately set my eyes on fire.

“Speaking of that,” I said, and then delivered what was now in my mind, the Sadie Special, and I kicked him between the legs as hard as I could. The shell of ballistic armor over my knee gave me no impression of what I had hit, but his eyes bulged and I knew I had struck home. He staggered back, and I pursued, throwing several punches, pushing him back and onto the defensive.

I put my right foot into the bottom of his jaw and he fell back into the wall, more drywall crunching under the impact. Putting some room between us I pulled the AR forward, and was going to put a clip into him and saw that not just the scope was damaged, but the barrel was slightly bent, the shroud cracked, and the stock splintered down the side.

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