Chapter 53
Chapter 53
A single sentinel had obviously been sent in the opposite direction and had come to investigate. This guy had no neck, the biggest muscles I’d ever seen, and looked like a caricature out of a movie. His rifle was pointed in our direction, and based on his projected path, we were not going to be able to miss him. He was coming right at us; he’d just not seen us. Stackhouse painted his red laser on the guy’s forehead, which was a comfort as I came out of the trees, my sound camouflaged by a wind gust. I caught him from behind and thought I’d wrapped him up pretty good, sinking my arm around his throat in a rear naked choke, when he reached behind himself and literally plucked me off his back. I’d seen the Incredible Hulk do the same thing in movies. He threw me off him, spinning me through the air like a Frisbee, and was in the process of drawing a pistol when I heard the crack of both Camp’s and Bill’s suppressors. Camp’s 178-grain bullet was traveling at 2,800 feet per second, while Bill’s 220-grain moved more slowly, around 950. Despite the difference in speed, both bullets hit their intended target within the same millisecond and rendered the ginormous man unable to think. Or live. Threat eliminated.
Camp was the first to speak. “You through messing around?”
I dusted off the snow, pulled my beanie up off my eyes, picked up my rifle, and slung it back around my neck. “Cold out here.”
“I’m sitting in the same cold you are.”
Gunner looked at me, tilted his head, and seemed to narrow his eyes .
“Now don’t you start too.”
Just then my sat phone rang. Camp heard it. “You gonna answer that?”
I accepted the call. Ariel Underwood spoke before I had a chance. “You busy?”
I was still trying to catch my breath. “You might say that.”
“We picked up some chatter. You made the wrong people mad. I don’t know what they’re doing, but whatever it is, they’re doing it now. Something about transporting three out of the ice. That make any sense to you?”
“Starting to.”
“Just thought you’d want to know.”
“Appreciate the heads-up.” Another breath. “Hope I can return the favor one day.”
“Oh, and one more thing: you got five bad men exiting the house from the rear, three west, two east, intent on flanking your position. You got about eight seconds.”
That was information I did not have. “Thanks again.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The line clicked dead. “Camp?”
“On it. Two Popsicles. Four o’clock. Coming in hot.”
About the time he said that, I heard bullets whizzing by my head. The three of us dove for cover and Camp and I began returning fire. Which, based on the fact that they were running in the open, they were not anticipating. So much for a surprise entry. Bill and his men concentrated their fire east, while Camp and I focused west. When I looked down ninety seconds later, two empty magazines lay at my feet and Gunner’s muzzle was covered in blood not his own. Three dead guys lay around us. One at my feet. The vice president stood protected behind Bill, who was standing alongside me. I placed my hand on Gunner’s shoulder. “Easy, boy.”
I could feel his heart racing above the pounding of my own.
Camp spoke first. “Clear.”
I looked at Bill. “We missed our window. Stay on my six.”
We ran for the door. I reached it first and skipped the subtle tactic. The frame splintered, the door flew open, and gunshots rang out from the inside. I rolled, came to a knee, and found a man standing in the center of the room, one arm around Sadie’s neck, a Glock to her head and a bad look on his face. I steadied both my red dot and my laser on the man’s forehead, considering my options, when a blur broke through the door, rolled, and came up firing. One shot. The round from Ashley’s Sbr surprised the man and caught him squarely in the nose, rocking his head backward and laying him out flat. Sadie, both angry and scared, turned, picked up the man’s Glock, and emptied it into his chest cavity. When finished, the naked girl stood over her abductor, threw the empty pistol at the man’s head, and screamed just inches from his face, “I gave you a chance! Told you he was coming! You didn’t listen. Who’s the idiot now!”
The man lay dead on the floor, bleeding from multiple holes.
Aaron wrapped his arms around his daughter while Bill wrapped them both in a blanket. I spoke next. “Camp, we need you.”
When he responded, I could tell he was running and out of breath. “Three seconds out.”
Camp entered the door as the vice president’s three agents entered the back. Aaron quietly asked Sadie, “Where’re your sisters?”
Sadie pointed to the cameras in the corner near the ceiling and shook her head. I was afraid of that. Without hesitation, Ashley’s agents shot the cameras, rendering operational blindness to whoever was watching us. I knelt, slid the worn tiger from inside my vest, and let Gunner sniff it. “Find ’em, boy. Find the girls.”
Gunner began sniffing every corner of the room, then the attached kitchen, followed by an attached game room. He then crept down a short hallway. A door on the left exited outside into freezing temperatures. No way they did that. The girls’ skin would freeze in minutes. A door on the right led into a library of sorts. Gunner circled the room, then the wood-burning stove, finally sitting next to the stove.
Smart. Very smart.