Page 102 of Her Marine
He held his suppressed M17 in his left hand, supported on his right wrist as he gripped a knife in that hand. He preferred to use his smaller weapons in situations like this one. Two people. Two people were targets, and if they could get in and out quickly and quietly, they wouldn't have to take the lives of any potentially innocent people they ran into.
Killian and Collins made their way upstairs. They would sweep the top while Edwards and Davenport swept the bottom floor.
After finding the first two rooms, they came to empty; they came upon occupants sleeping in the third bedroom. Killian gestured for Collins to watch the door as he walked closer. He found one of their targets sleeping beside who he would assume was his wife.
Picking up a pillow that had fallen to the floor, Killian hovered it over the man's head, placing his pistol against it. Suppressors didn't mean silence, and if he could keep the woman from waking up, she could keep her life.
He let out four rapid shots to the man's forehead and looked at the woman to see if the muffled noise had woken her. She hadn't stirred. Killian placed the pillow on the man's body as he checked his pulse, finding none and then checking for a heartbeat to double-check.
The two exited the bedroom, closing the door back, and he almost felt bad for what the woman was going to wake up to later in the morning, but unless she didn't know the shit her husband got into, he wouldn't feel sorry for her.
“Target one, eliminated,” he spoke into the coms, and he and Collins continued searching the top floor. They'd opened and checked four more rooms, three occupied by sleeping individuals, but none of them was the person they were looking for when Davenport's voice came across the coms.
“Target two, eliminated.”
“I think I figured out why there was no security at the house,” Haney stated. “They're just now arriving. There are at least four sets of jeep headlights coming down the drive.”
“We will not engage,” Killian informed them. “We'll meet at the back of the house, fall back into the woods, and circle to the rendezvous.”
He had no desire to get into a shootout when they didn't have the upper hand. Four vehicles meant at least a dozen people because they would not need more than two vehicles if it were just six of them. There was also no telling if they were armed and with what.
The six of them met behind the house and headed into the trees that surrounded the compound. Edwards was navigating, the rest of them keeping an eye out. They'd walked about three hundred meters when Edwards spoke.
“We'll come up on the perimeter of the compound soon. From there, I say we walk another two hundred meters, then circle to the rendezvous point.” His voice cut through the night's still silence, making Killian stop and look around. Closing his eyes, he listened. While it was late, he should have been able to hear something. Crickets, Iguanas…something.
Pulling out a transceiver, he turned it on. He didn't have the headphones to plug into it, but he didn't need them. He just needed to see if it spiked. It did immediately, and that wasn't good. It meant that someone was deliberately keeping all animals and insects from that part of the compound. Killian had an idea of why.
“Major, what's wrong?” Haney, who'd been walking behind him, questioned.
Killian tucked the receiver away, taking quick steps to catch up with the others.
“Hold,” he stated.
He hadn't been fast enough. He heard the soft click as Collins stepped down on the pressure plate, and as he began to turn his body to look at him, Killian reacted. He pushed Haney, who was still behind him, backward to get him further away as he reached out and grabbed Collins, yanking him toward him. The blast went off a millisecond later.
“The next thing I know, I'm waking up in the hospital,” Killian concluded.
“Your quick thinking saved Collins' life. He told me he didn't hear the pressure plate click, and the redistribution of his weight would have gotten him blown up if you hadn't pulled him away.”
With his life, but missing a leg. Killian had asked Slate about his unit after waking up later that night. His parents and sister had gone for the night, and Journee had been in the shower. Aside from his and Collins' injuries, the rest had been superficial, but the young man had lost a leg. He supposed it was favorable over losing his life, but he also knew Collins' military career was over, and it would devastate him. They'd moved him to a rehabilitation hospital, and Killian planned to go by and see him.
“Do you remember the last time you were hurt like this?” Commander Fields questioned, and Killian nodded. “I made you an offer. You turned it down.”
He gave him the option of honorably discharging or continuing his service. The latter was what he chose. “Are you about to make me the same offer, Commander?”
“Not quite. I'm offering you continued service or retirement.”
“You want to retire me out on temporary disability? With all due respect, Commander, I'm fine.”
“I know you are, son. I'm talking about early retirement. The initiative is in effect, and we'd only need the secretary to sign off. Which I have no doubt they'll do when seeing your exemplary service record, and with the years of service you've put in, you'd get at least forty-five percent of your current salary, and I'll ask them to pay you out of all the reserve vacation days you have.”
“Sounds like you're trying to get rid of me, sir.”
Commander Fields chuckled. “Far from it. If I could clone you and fill my units with you, I would.” He leaned forward, lacing his fingers on top of his desk. “I know that one's fortune can run out. You've been down twice, and I don't want yours to run out because I know you well enough to know that offering you a more relaxed position wouldn't appeal to you, Killian, but I'm only giving you your options. Each one includes more choices in itself.”
“Do you need an answer now?”
“No, take your time and think about it.”
