by Jon F. Merz
“Punch it!” I shouted, pounding on the roof. “Go, go, go!”
Vickers must have driven his foot through the floor because the truck shot out of the main gate. We wheeled around and again, I had to struggle to hang on as he did so. Then we bounced across an open field and on to the scarred road pockmarked by mortar shells and craters left behind from artillery bombardment.
We were flying now and I could see the airport runway to my right as we shot down the road. I looked up, desperate to see the lights of an incoming plane, but I saw nothing. Hotel Five wouldn’t advertise itself until it was on final approach. Even then, the pilots might choose to stay on NVGs to lessen the chance of being greeted by anti-aircraft fire.
I didn’t blame them one bit.
Gunfire erupted from the cab and I turned my head to see what the threat was.
An armored truck was crushing toward us at speed. It had plating all around the cab. Our rounds were bouncing off and it looked like we were on a collision course with it. Vickers spun us around and we jumped a rut in the track that sent us crashing all over one another.
“We’re not gonna make it!”
The truck hit a pile of concrete and then we flipped in the air. I lost all sensation of time and space as my body flew free of the truck.
And then everything went black.
17
I couldn’t hear anything for several moments. And then a rush of sight and sound came flooding back into my skull. A high-pitched whine told me something had blown up dangerously close by and shocked my hearing. I blinked and winced as I felt bits of gravel and dirt clogging my eyesight. I reached a gloved hand up to my face and tried to wipe things clear. I was moving in slow time with everything drawn down to a painful crawl.
Gunfire scarred the ground all around me. I caught movement. Saw figures, but couldn’t yet focus.
My hearing was still shot. But I knew someone was yelling at me.
I felt hands grab me up and move me out of the open ground where the ISIS fighters must have been desperately trying to kill me.
I shook my head and felt nauseous at the same time. I looked down and saw that my right glove was streaked with something wet. I sniffed it and knew it was blood. My blood.
Talya stuck her face into mine. “Are you all right?”
She sounded like she was speaking in slow motion. Like an old 45 was being played on a 33 setting. I tried to nod, but I felt a rush of blackness at the edges of my consciousness. I’d taken a real good knock to the head and knew I probably had some type of concussion.
Talya gave an order to Siskin who had been the one to drag me under cover. I watched the scene unfold around me with dismay. I felt like I couldn’t do anything. My M4 was nearby and I reached for it, but Siskin shook his head and told me to stay put. He wrapped some gauze around my head and then taped it off. Then he found my medical kit strapped to my body and gave me a quick shot of juice.
Instantly, I felt better. It had been too long since I’d had anything to drink, and even for a vampire like me who hates drinking blood, it was utterly marvelous. My head cleared quickly and I could hear and see normally again.
“You good?” asked Siskin.
“Yeah,” I answered. “Thanks for hauling me out of the kill zone.”
He smirked. “Thanks for springing us from that dump.”
“Where are we?”
“In a bad place,” said Siskin. “No cover except what we have here. The armored truck took us out. Vickers is injured and Travis has been shot twice. Denison and that woman are holding the goons off, but they can only do so for so long.”
I grabbed my M4 and this time he didn’t stop me. “Then let’s see if we can help them some, shall we?”
He nodded and we scrambled over to where Talya and Denison were firing. I could see that the truck was a flaming wreck. Fifty yards away, the armored truck had simply set itself up in a blocking maneuver so we couldn’t progress toward the airport. At least ten ISIS fighters were hammering our position with raking gunfire and their rounds were getting ever more accurate. They might not have had ammo that could kill vampires, but they could sure wound the hell out of us. Not to mention the fact that their bullets could kill Talya.
And that was unacceptable to me.
I slid over to Talya and squeezed her shoulder.
She kept firing. “You all right?”
“Yeah, just got the wind knocked out of me for a moment. I’m good. Sitrep?”
“Shit,” she said. “It’s complete shit. If we don’t figure out how to get past that armored truck, we’re going to be overrun and killed. As it is, they’re only waiting to see how many of us there are. If I were them, I’d storm our position right now.”
“Fortunately not everyone thinks like you do.”
“Good point.” She squeezed off another round that caught a bad guy and he went down in a spray of blood. “But even these fools will figure it out sooner than later. We need a solution here.”
“Roger that.” I slid back and checked the area. There was still a lot of activity to our rear and I suspected the ISIS fighters back at the compound were busy mounting up. In minutes they’d be back in the fight and our merry band of warriors would be in some serious crap.
Siskin looked at me. “We need to get to that armored truck.”
I nodded. “Agreed. Tell Denison we’re going to flank them - come around on their position but we need time to reach it.”
I waited until he passed the word and then came back. “Okay, let’s go.”
“I’ve got point,” I said. I waited until Talya and Denison let loose with a hail of fire aimed at the truck. I knew it would cause the bad guys to duck down. As soon as they started firing, I led Siskin off to our immediate right in a wide arc that looped us around and to the rear of the armored truck. We moved in spurts in case anyone noticed us. But as we came abreast of them, it was clear we hadn’t been noticed.
Bad luck for the bad guys.
Siskin and I opened up on them from their left, our rounds ripping into them with deadly accuracy, killing several immediately and wounding a whole lot more. The armored truck kept firing, however, so Siskin and I closed on it and Siskin climbed up, firing into the truck through the firing ports, killing everyone inside.
Fire from Talya and Denison stopped immediately. Siskin started hauling the dead out of the truck, while Denison and Talya helped Travis and Vickers. We regrouped and got everyone inside the armored truck.
Siskin gunned the engine. The smell of blood and guts hung heavy inside the truck.
“Get us to the airport,” I said. “They’ve got to be coming in soon.”
Siskin didn’t need to be told twice. He stomped the gas and we shot off toward the runway.
18
Palmyra’s airport wasn’t anything to write home about. Especially since it had seen its share of artillery blasts and gunfire. As we drove down the road toward it, Siskin had to swerve countless times to avoid the shell craters that had ripped apart the asphalt. The armored truck rumbled down the road, laden down with the added weight of the armor and the six of us inside. We felt each bump and groaned as Siskin did his best to get us to the airport in one piece.
Ahead, we could see a chain link fence had been sent up around the perimeter and beyond it, barbed wire encircled the area. Siskin didn’t even look at Denison, he just stomped the gas and we flew through the fence and over the barbed wire with a series of bounces that sent me into the roof with another thud to my fragile head.
Talya looked at me. “You okay?”
“Gonna have a helluva headache when this is all over,” I said. “But a couple of drinks and a beautiful nurse might just take the edge off.”
She smirked. “I’ll see what I can do.”
To our left, the main runway ran for close to a mile. I saw several trucks parked alongside it, bristling with machine guns and pissed off looking Jihadis. If they hadn’t known we were the enemy before, Siskin driving through the f
ence had certainly confirmed it. We started taking heavy gunfire as we drove along. The rounds splanged off the metal armor that encased us. But we would have to stop eventually and figure out a way to dispose of the threats.
My phone rang and I saw it was Niles. “You’d better have good news,” I said over the splanging.
“Hotel Five is thirty minutes out. Do you have the package?”
“Yes. We have all four of them.”
The sigh of relief I heard Niles breathe echoed down the line from all the way back in Boston. “Awesome. Now just hold on until Hotel Five arrives and you’ll be back in the States by tomorrow.”
“Yeah, we’ll do out best. We’re taking fire right now from a lot of hostiles.”
“Is that that dreadful racket I hear in the background?”
“Gotta go, dude. Tell Hotel Five not to be late.” I disconnected and passed the news to the others.
Denison wasn’t too thrilled. “Thirty minutes? What the fuck are we supposed to do for thirty more minutes?”
“Drive,” I said. More to Siskin than Denison. “If we can keep them chasing us instead of holing us up somewhere, we’ll be better off.”
Denison nodded. “Yeah, unless they bring out something really bad to stop us.”
Talya frowned. “Don’t be a pessimist.”
“I’m being realistic,” said Dennison.
Talya shook her head. “Pessimists always say that. It’s like you’re too afraid to hope for the best because maybe things didn’t work out in the past the way you wanted. But that’s a shit way to go through life. Put a smile on your face and even Death will hesitate when it comes for you. Otherwise, what’s the point of living?”
“I’ve seen too much death to be an optimist,” said Dennison.
Talya eyed him as we rumbled along. “Let me guess: you don’t have a lot of close friends, do you?”
Dennison shrugged. “I have plenty of friends.”
“Bullshit,” said Talya. “The ones you do have, you probably take them for granted. I know your type. You compartmentalize everything because that’s the only way you can deal. You don’t want to let people get too close to you because you’re afraid you’re going to lose them. So you keep them at a distance. You never allow yourself to let them know you care because you think that’s a weakness and it would only make it hurt worse if you did lose them.”
She cleared her throat. “Well, you know what? You are going to lose them. And I’m not talking about death, either, even though they will eventually die. I’m talking about how those friends will get tired of being around a grump who always complains and never smiles. And never appreciates them.”
“I appreciate my friends,” said Dennison.
“When’s the last time you told them?” asked Talya. “When’s the last time you initiated a get-together? Or called them? Or took a few minutes to sit down and talk to them?” She sighed. “You think you’re doing them and you a favor by not showing that you care. What you’re really doing is depriving yourself of being around people who truly care about you. And you’ll miss out on friendships and relationships and experiences and love and lust and a boatload of other things that would make you happy, if only you weren’t too much of a coward to let yourself be open to it.”
Dennison eyed Talya and for a moment I thought they were going to start duking it out in armored truck. But then Dennison just cracked a grin and said, “Who the hell did you say you were again?”
Talya didn’t miss a beat. “I’m your fairy fucking godmother. Now stop being a miserable prick and enjoy your life - even if it only lasts a few more minutes.”
Dennison turned to face me, but I only shrugged. “Don’t look at me, man. You brought this down upon yourself.”
Talya nudged Siskin. “Keep the gas on. If they catch up with us, they’ll be able to punch us full of holes. And don’t stop unless there’s a damned good reason to.”
Siskin frowned. “Like what?”
“Huh?”
There was an edge in Siskin’s voice. “What would be a good reason to stop?”
“I don’t know,” said Talya. “You’ll know it when you see it, I guess.”
“You think maybe a small cannon would be a good enough reason?”
I leaned forward and craned my neck to try to see out of the narrow viewport.
“You see it?” asked Siskin.
And I did. Ahead of us, two hundred yards away down the runway, the ISIS fighters had a small cannon aiming in our direction.
Ready to fire.
19
“What do I do?” asked Siskin as we continued to scream down the runway toward the cannon.
“Floor it,” said Denison.
I saw the cannon fire like a giant blob of pure fire was being vomited at us from close range. Siskin jerked the wheel and the projectile narrowly missed impacting with the front of the truck. As it was, we went up on two wheels momentarily before the awesome weight of the truck pulled us back down onto four. Siskin spun us past the cannon and as we did so, Denison leaned out and fired off a volley of rounds that killed the two men manning the artillery piece. As they went spinning down dead, Denison leaned back in and pulled the door shut just as rounds splanged against the metal.
All around the airfield, we could see more trucks converging on us. I shook my head. “We can’t keep this up indefinitely.”
Denison scanned the area. “Any chance you can get Hotel Five on the phone and ask them what the goddamn hold-up is?”
I punched Niles’ number up but the call didn’t connect. Then I saw that I had no service. “No good.”
Talya pointed at the far end of the runway. “Look like they took out the cell tower. No wonder.”
“Great. We’ve got no way to contact them.” I looked at Denison. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to get the hell out of here,” he said. “They ought to be coming in for a landing soon, right? So we keep driving-“
“Brace!” yelled Siskin a split second before the left side of the truck lifted off the ground and came back down with a huge crash. I started to go weightless again, but Talya grabbed me and held me down so I wouldn’t bump my head.
The interior of the truck got really hot really fast. Siskin was already clambering out. “They hit us with an RPG. Everyone out or we’ll cook in this thing.”
Denison got his gun up into his shoulder. “Follow me.” He jumped out of the truck and started firing immediately.
We fell out after him and started moving toward the only piece of cover there was: a small electrical box that must have powered the runway lights. Denison was punching rounds down range at bad guys to our right side. Talya backed him as we moved while Siskin, Travis, Vickers and I headed right for the box so we could cover the other arcs. Even wounded, Travis and Vickers were doing their best to keep up the fight. Rounds zipped all around us and I felt one of them slash past my shoulder.
I turned and fired, dropping the ISIS fighter who had shot at me. My two rounds punched him in the throat and he fell spouting a red geyser out of his mouth.
We made it to the cover of the box, which only stood about four feet by four feet. It was a minuscule piece of real estate to hold, but it was all we had. And we weren’t about to let it go until Hotel Five arrived.
We took turns firing at the ISIS fighters and keeping them at bay. We changed mags more often than I wanted. I knew we had to be low on ammo.
As I was thinking this, the incoming fire died out.
We stopped shooting.
Talya eyed me. “What the hell-?”
I shook my head. “No idea. Denison?”
He shrugged. “Don’t look at me. Why the hell would they stop?”
Travis pointed further down the air field. “Look. Someone’s coming and they’re holding a white flag.”
“Oh, well,” said Vickers. “Clearly they want to surrender. After all, we have the overwhelming superiority of numbers and firepower.”
“You
forgot good looks,” said Siskin.
“I didn’t want to embarrass you,” said Vickers. “Being that you look like someone beat you with an ugly stick.”
I smirked. Humor was such a plus even in the worst situations. The fact that the guys were ribbing each other was a good sign. And it was what separated operators from the rest of the Service: their ability to make the best of a bad situation.
I eyed Talya. “What do you think?”
She shrugged. “If it buys us time talking to them. Why not?”
“Agreed.” I moved over to Denison. “I’ll talk to them.”
He frowned. “You sure?”
“Yeah. I agree with Talya. If nothing else, it buys us a few more minutes until Hotel Five arrives. They probably don’t know they’re coming in, so to them, this looks like a desperate play on our part to hopefully steal an airplane and fly away.”
Denison nodded. “All right, but if anything even looks suspicious, I’m putting a round through that fucker.”
“Please do,” I said.
I moved out from behind the box and let my M4 fall to my side on its sling. I wasn’t going anywhere near the dude with the white flag without a weapon on me. I didn’t care if he had that flag or not. These guys were murderous scum and I saw no reason to honor the general rules of combat with them. No doubt they’d kill me as quickly as they could.
If they knew how.
I approached the ISIS fighter walking toward me. His head and face were covered but as I drew nearer, he removed his kiffeyeh and I saw him clearly for the first time.
And it nearly rocked me.
He looked almost identical to Amir and Khaled Aziz. I’d killed Khaled years ago in Berlin. But I’d only recently killed his brother Amir who had come after me for revenge.
The guy must have noticed my surprise because he smiled. “Hello Lawson.”
I don’t like it when people I don’t know somehow know my name. I don’t like it one bit. “Who the fuck are you?”
