Chapter 22 #2
“Copy.” Zenko’s acknowledgment was barely out before he shifted toward the nearest cover, and he moved with him, weapon already coming up as his attention locked onto the rear of the building.
***
Noble stood behind Max and watched him work across the feeds, switching between the drone footage and the body cams as Zenko and Shaun made their way toward the kitchen.
Both GPS locators remained active on the split screen, their audio feeds open, giving Max everything he needed to track Ambra One and Ambra Two through the compound.
Noble kept his attention on the drone footage.
Max had seen movement behind the building, and after watching his men walk through a place that should have held at least ten people without encountering a single fucking soul, Noble wanted to know exactly who or what had finally decided to show itself.
Max’s gaze moved over the rest of the data streaming across his screens before he leaned closer to the drone feed. “Boss, what do you think?”
Noble continued pacing behind him rather than moving closer to the screens.
They had learned that lesson the hard way years ago, when Noble, leaning over Max’s shoulder at the wrong moment, had distracted him long enough for both of them to come far too close to losing Roman.
Since then, the arrangement had been simple.
He stayed out of Max’s workspace and let him run TOC without breathing down his neck, while Max kept him updated on anything he couldn’t see for himself.
It worked, even if every instinct he possessed was currently telling him to get closer to those screens and find out who was moving behind that building.
“What do I think about what?” He kept pacing, his attention shifting between Max and the drone feed he could see from where he stood.
“There’s nobody on-site.” Max pointed toward the upper corner of the drone feed before Noble could answer. “Except—shit—and that movement up there.” His hand went immediately to comms. “Ambra One, this is TOC. I caught a glimpse of movement in the draw above the compound to your left.”
“TOC, Ambra One, can you elaborate on that?”
“Ambra One, I can make out one individual.” Max leaned closer to the drone feed, working to bring the area into clearer view.
On Shaun’s body-cam feed, Noble watched Zenko bring his binos to his eyes and scan the draw Max had called out.
Max hissed in a breath as the drone footage finally tightened on the draw. “Shift your asses now, Ambra One. That’s a sniper. I repeat, sniper on the field.”
The suppressed crack of a rifle came through comms almost on top of the warning, and every muscle in Noble’s body locked as Max glanced over his shoulder at him.
Someone has emptied the compound and left a sniper sitting above it with a clear line of fire on my men.
“Whoa, son of a bitch.” Zenko’s voice came sharply through comms, dragging Noble’s attention straight back to the body-cam feeds. “That shot went right through us, TOC. Right fucking here.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” Noble stalked closer before catching himself short of Max’s workspace. “Somebody take that motherfucker out of play before he puts another round anywhere near them.”
“Fuck me. Move, move, move.” Noble watched Shaun throw something toward Zenko as both men scrambled for cover, his hands curling into fists at his sides.
Every instinct he had was screaming at him to do something, while the fucking screens in front of him made it brutally clear there wasn’t a damn thing he could do from here except trust the two men on the ground and Max in the chair. “What did Shaun find?”
“Ambra One, TOC, is that what they just shot?” Max asked as Noble watched Zenko turn whatever Shaun had thrown him over in his hands.
Zenko held it up in front of his body cam, giving Max a clear view. Noble leaned forward before he could stop himself, trying to make out what the fuck had nearly gone through them.
“Yeah, it’s a DShK round.” Zenko turned it once more in front of the body cam. “Holy shit, it’s still warm. TOC, Ambra One confirms hostile fire from that hillside.”
Small clouds of dust kicked up across the ground around Zenko and Shaun’s position while Zenko was still speaking, each impact walking closer to the cover they had found.
Max looked over at Noble for direction as another one struck nearby. “We’ve got a bunch of these rounds coming in. Twelve-millimeter.”
“Goddammit. DShK rounds. Deadly fuckers.” Sending his people out without him there to have their sixes was the one part of this job he hated.
“What I wouldn’t give to send a fighter jet over that fucking hillside and drop something large enough to make that fuckin’ sniper regret every decision he’s made today. ”
“This doesn’t make sense, Boss.” Max kept his eyes on the screens as Zenko and Shaun returned fire. “Where are the workers? Why the fuck is there no one there?”
Noble stopped pacing. Max was right. The missing workers had bothered him from the moment Zenko reported the compound was a ghost town, but a sniper positioned above an otherwise abandoned site changed the shape of the whole fucking thing.
This wasn’t a normal workday interrupted by Red Squadron arriving uninvited. Somebody had cleared that compound.
“The only thing that makes sense is somebody tipped them off.” Noble’s gaze stayed on the drone feed, tracking the empty buildings surrounding the two body-cam markers. “They knew we were coming, so they cleared the fucking place.”
“The only people who knew were us and…” Max’s voice trailed off as a round slammed into the steel barrel Shaun was using for cover, the impact exploding through the body-cam audio and making Noble’s heart stop for a beat.
He stared at the screen, searching through the dust and movement until Shaun shifted behind the barrel.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Shaun was still moving. Noble dragged in a breath and forced his attention back to Max.
“And the CIA.” He stepped closer to Max’s station and reached over his shoulder to activate the voice comms. “Ambra One, Eagle, don’t make me come out there to unfuck the situation.
Would you like to get your asses out of trouble sometime this week, or do I need to start an international incident to pull them out of the fire again? ”
“Eagle, Ambra One. I’d love to, but I’m a little busy clearing our exfil path right now. How about you give me thirty seconds?”
Max snorted at Zenko’s response while some of the tension across Noble’s shoulders eased. Zenko still had enough attitude to give him shit while somebody was trying to shoot his ass off, but there was nothing undisciplined in his voice. He was working the problem.
Movement at the edge of the drone feed wiped away the momentary relief when Max leaned forward and swore under his breath. He keyed comms, his attention fixed on the drone feed.
“Ambra One, TOC. Be advised, four vehicles moving north on the dirt road. Current route puts them on approach to your location.”