Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Zenko followed Charlie with Shaun on his six, his attention moving constantly between the route ahead and every place someone could be waiting to put a round into them.
Max had only found one shooter on the cameras, but almost certain wasn’t fucking certain, and Zenko had spent too many years moving through the ’Stans and other war zones to trust what he couldn’t see.
They used the buildings for cover wherever they could and crossed the exposed gaps quickly, a dumpster shielding them for the last few yards before they reached the alley beside the school.
Charlie stopped at the end of the alley beside a small outbuilding on the far side of the school, then signaled for them to hold.
“This is the back door to the janitor’s shed.” He rapped his knuckles against it before stepping to one side.
“Who is it?” A gruff male voice carried through the door, immediately alert.
“Charlie, and a couple of operators. We’re goin’ after the shooter.” Charlie kept himself to the side of the doorway. “You coming?”
The lock turned from the other side before the man inside called through the door. “It’s open.”
Charlie looked back at them but didn’t touch the door, waiting for their go-ahead.
Zenko glanced at Shaun and caught the slight lift of his chin, and he answered with a nod of his own before signaling Charlie forward.
“Jack, this is Shaun and Zen.” Charlie gestured between them as they entered the shed. “They were never here, and we never saw them, but until my boy gets his ass here, we’re going hunting for the asshole taking potshots at our people. You in?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Jack was nodding before Charlie finished speaking. “You bring me a weapon?”
He caught the rifle Charlie tossed him and immediately checked the chamber and magazine before giving the rest of the weapon a practiced once-over.
Zenko exchanged another glance with Shaun and caught the answering flicker of approval on his face.
Yeah, this guy will do.
“You can get us across to the school building without being seen?” Shaun crossed the cramped shed, stepping around the mop buckets before skirting the lawn mower.
“There’s about twenty feet where you’ll be in direct line of fire from the top of the pharmacy.” Jack pointed toward the school building. “What side do you need to be on?”
“I need to get onto a corner of the school roof.” Shaun shifted until he had a better view of the ground outside. “Preferably in shadow, on the opposite side from the sun.”
“Sniper?” Jack studied Shaun for a moment, his attention sharpening as he considered the request.
“Not as such.” Shaun started breaking the ground outside into reference points.
“The school door is Charlie. Here is Alpha. That oak tree is One. The roundabout in the playground is Three.” He worked through the remaining points with Jack before indicating the open ground between them and the school. “Our kill box is dead center.”
Zenko left Shaun working through the approach with Charlie and Jack and keyed his comms.
“TOC, Ambra One.”
“Go ahead, Ambra One.” Max’s answer came immediately through Zenko’s earpiece.
“What do you see?”
“Nothing.” Max paused while he checked the feeds. “He’s only popping his head up when vehicles approach.”
“Copy that.” Zenko released some of the tension from his shoulders.
Tires screeched outside, followed almost immediately by the wail of sirens as emergency vehicles poured into the school parking lot.
“Shit, boss?” Shaun moved toward the window but stayed out of its direct line. He didn’t hesitate over the title either. With the Ghosts still suspended, Noble was running this operation, and Shaun had fallen easily into working under his command alongside Zenko.
“Ambra Two, I hear them.” Noble’s order followed immediately. “Stand firm until we see if they want our assistance.”
“Fuccck.” Zenko stared across the playground toward the school, calculating how fast he could cover the exposed ground before common sense caught up with the idea.
“Ambra One, if you move one inch toward that building, I am not going to be pissed when those cops put a bullet in your ass.”
“Eagle, I’ve got our tango.” Max’s voice cut across the net. “Caught enough of his face to run recognition, and I got a hit.”
“Who?”
“Name’s Pearson. Local address, former military. I’m pulling the rest of his background now.”
Damn it, what Zenko wouldn’t give for the rest of their gear right now. The computer usually strapped to his wrist would have put Max’s intel directly in front of him instead of leaving him dependent on whatever TOC could feed through the radio and his phone.
Thank fuck for Max.
Zenko would take any intel he could get before kicking in doors after an armed tango.
“You are not kicking in doors.”
How the fuck does Noble know what I’m thinking?
“Shit, did I say that out loud?”
“Nope. I know you as well as I know myself, remember?”
“Roger that, Sir.”
“Maybe I should be jealous.” Shaun kept his attention on the parking lot, but the dry edge to the comment came through loud and clear.
Zenko caught the curious look Charlie sent their way but ignored it, keeping his attention on Shaun for another second before movement outside pulled his focus back to the parking lot.
The police chief was opening his vehicle door when shots cracked from the direction of the pharmacy.
Rounds punched through the hood and climbed toward the windshield.
Zenko brought the rifle up and looked through the scope.
“Fuck, those rounds punched straight through the windshield. Your cop cars don’t have ballistic glass?” Through the scope, he watched the other three patrol cars and the fire engine reverse hard out of the shooter’s line of fire.
“Yeah. Ben said his new one does.” Charlie stumbled in his rush to reach the window and braced a hand on Zenko’s shoulder as he tried to see past him. “Is he hit? Is Ben... okay?”
“Those are rifle rounds.” Zenko kept the scope trained on the chief’s vehicle, ignoring Charlie for another few seconds, shitty as it was. The older man wanted to know whether his son was alive, but Zenko wasn’t giving him an answer until he could actually see Ben.
Was that movement?
Something shifted behind the vehicle, but he couldn’t see enough of the chief to tell Charlie his son was okay. He keyed his comms without taking his eye from the vehicle.
“TOC, Ambra One. Police chief is pinned behind his vehicle. Shooter put rounds through the windshield, and the vehicle appears disabled.”
“Roger. Cupid, check Pearson’s background for weapons training, especially large-caliber rifles.”
“Yes, Sir.” Max went quiet while he searched, then came back over the net less than thirty seconds later. “Eagle, Pearson’s service record shows training on the Barrett M82A1.”
“Fuck.” Zenko tightened his grip on the rifle. If Pearson had an M82A1 up there, the vehicles in that parking lot weren’t going to give anyone much protection. “Orders?”
“They’re coming to get Ben.” Charlie pointed toward the deputies taking cover behind the remaining patrol cars, his attention locked on them.
Zenko followed Charlie’s gesture and found the deputies huddled behind one of the remaining patrol cars, their attention shifting between the chief’s disabled vehicle and the pharmacy roof. Charlie was right. They were getting ready to go after their police chief.
“Boss, those deputies are getting ready to go after the chief. Can we create a distraction and give them a fighting chance?”
“Fuck.” Noble went quiet for a few seconds before coming back over the net. “Agreed. It’s probably his only chance. No fucking new breathing holes, Ambra. Swear to fuck you get dead, I’ll bring you both back just to shoot you myself, got it?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Aye, aye, Sir.” Zenko followed Shaun’s confirmation that he understood the order with the Navy’s version of, ‘I hear, and I obey your order.’
“Charlie, you stay here.” Shaun checked his weapon before looking at the older man. “Once we pull the shooter’s attention off the parking lot, you’ll be able to see what’s happening with your son.”
Charlie squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed hard.
“No. There isn’t a damn thing I can do for him from here.
” He scrubbed a hand down over his face before looking at Shaun again.
“If I go out there, I’m not making it across that parking lot before I take a round in either the back or the ass.
I swore I’d have your six, so it’s your asses I’m following. ”
His attention pulled toward the window again, but he stayed where he was.
“Medical assistance isn’t my strong point. If Ben’s hurt, there isn’t a damn thing I can do for him until someone gets him out of there. What I can do is help you take out the fucker who ripped his car open like a fucking tin can.”
Zenko watched Shaun study Charlie for a long second. He knew that look. His guy had spent too many hours beside a hospital bed waiting to find out if Zenko was going to live or die, and whatever Charlie was going through with his son pinned down outside had clearly hit close to home.
Shaun finally nodded. “You got it.”
“How do you want to play it?” Jack pulled a flask from a cupboard behind the lawn mower and held it out to Charlie. “Swig out of that. It’ll settle your nerves.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my nerves, idiot.” Charlie took the flask anyway, unscrewed the cap, and swallowed a healthy mouthful. He immediately spluttered and shoved it back at Jack. “What the hell is that, gasoline?”
“Moonshine.” Jack took the flask back with a grin and screwed the cap into place. “Good shit too.”
“I’m thinking we don’t want him firing toward the school if we can help it.” Zenko studied the route they needed to cross. “TOC, you got any ideas? If we make our move that way, he’s going to fire after us, and a .50 is going to tear through a hell of a lot of building before those rounds stop.”
Damn, I hope like hell Noble has some freaking ideas.