by John Ringo
Well, there was only one thing to do. Farzad hit the release and began to spew VX out of the back of the converted Piper.
Mike cursed as vapor began to bellow out of the back of the bird. Most of the Keldara had MOPP gear in their bags, but he wasn't wearing his and neither were any of the civilians. So he kept his finger clamped on the trigger as the plane droned across the lake, laying down a cloud of deadly gas behind it.
He'd led it by too much at first, probably just right if it had been a shot from the side but the plane was heading, more or less, just at him from right to left. As he corrected it banked towards Cinderella's castle and another stream of tracers headed towards it, falling low. Nikolai finally had a shot.
Mike kept his finger on the trigger, mentally blessing the designers of the new generation of M-60 and kept his elation down as the stream of fire finally hit the engine cowling. The engine began to smoke and as he followed the line back into the bird it banked to the side, out of control, and began plummeting downwards.
However, the thing was still filled with VX and it was headed down towards the crowd gathered for the parade. Most of the crowd had scattered, screaming, as he opened fire and it became obvious what was happening. One girl, though, was just standing there, paralyzed.
The plane shuddered again, the vapor cutting off for some reason, and staggered through the air, headed for the Haunted Mansion. Mike wasn't really paying attention, though. He'd dropped the machine gun and was sprinting across the open area towards the frozen girl.
He heard the guy behind him shout something, but he wasn't paying attention to that, either. He figured he had about a one in four chance of reaching the girl before the plane smacked into the small hill the Haunted Mansion was on and covered the whole area in toxin.
Will had kept ahold of the ammo box, watching the stream of fire from the guy in civvies and saw the plane get hit. He'd even seen the burst of blood inside the cockpit that indicated the pilot had taken a good solid hit. As the plane fell he kept his eyes on it then realized the guy was gone. The '60 was on the ground, smoking, and the guy was sprinting across the suddenly deserted road.
Mostly deserted. Lindsey, the idiot, was just standing there. Jason wasn't in sight and hopefully Dafney had grabbed Allison and made it to cover.
But Lindsey was going to be right under where the damned plane was going to hit.
The guy in civvies, though, either didn't realize that or didn't care. He snatched Lindsey up without slowing down, the girl's body cracking into a U as his arm hit her side, and vaulted the low iron railing around the lake with one foot on the top.
The two bodies hit the water just a moment before the plane hit the ground and the entire area was engulfed in flame. For the life of him, Will couldn't figure out if his oldest daughter was alive or not.
"Oh, fuck . . ." he said, dropping to his knees. The flames were producing a towering pillar of what could only be poisonous smoke, but it was drifting to the west, away from the park. The only deadly spot was right where the guy, and his daughter, had disappeared.
Mike hit the water almost simultaneously with a wash of flame. He'd made sure the girl was down, his hand clamped over her nose and mouth, so the flame got his back not hers or her hair.
The girl was struggling in his arms but he ignored it, keeping his hand clamped over her mouth and nose as he swam through the murky water towards the boats he'd seen parked by some sort of big tree. The surface of the water was on fire and some of that fuel had to be mixed with either VX or precursors, neither of which were going to be destroyed by that temperature of fire. But, somewhere, there would be clear air. The VX wouldn't have spread far, yet.
He got under the boats and found a pocket that looked clear. Popping up, he sniffed the air. Sure, VX didn't have a smell, but smoke did. He might survive one whiff.
He didn't die so he pulled the girl above the surface and let go of her mouth.
"I'm not trying to kidnap you or kill you," Mike said, holding her up by both arms as she got a breath. "That plane back there has poison gas. Now I'm going to do another swim. You've got to hold your breath. And now, because the cloud could be coming this way."
"Okay," the girl said, wide-eyed.
"Take a deep breath," Mike said, then clamped his hand over her nose and mouth again.
He swam out from under the boats, heading south. At least he thought it was south; it was away from the fire anyway.
He swam until he hit a concrete wall, bruising the knuckles of his hand, then followed it as it curved. When he'd gotten about as far from the crash as he was going to get he surfaced again and looked back.
The hill that Haunted Mansion perched on was seriously engulfed. But the smoke was mostly going straight up or to the west. That was good; most of it wasn't headed for the park.
The problem was he couldn't get out here. The edge of the concrete wall was a good six feet up.
There was, however, a landing just south of him. He started side-stroking that way, the girl still held with his right arm.
"Hey, buddy," a voice called above him.
Mike looked up and vaguely recognized the guy who had played assistant gunner. He was even carrying the M-60.
"Daddy?" the girl said. "Daddy!"
"You wouldn't happen to have a rope or anything useful would you?" Mike asked.
"No, but I was just going to say thanks for saving my kid," the man replied. "They're evacuating the park."
"Good to hear it," Mike said, reaching the landing. He pushed the girl up and she ran to her father who picked her up, big girl though she was. Mike followed her, getting up onto the landing then taking a knee as he just breathed. It had been a long damned day. And what was it with girls and swimming on this op?
"Seriously, man, thanks," the guy said, taking a knee next to him.
"Seriously, you're welcome," Mike said, looking at the two of them. His jaw flexed when he really looked at the girl's face. Blonde hair, blue eyes, even the cheekbones and, yeah, the lips were right. She looked one hell of a lot like Gretchen would have looked at the same age.
"Thank you," the girl said. She'd looked over his shoulder and could see where she'd been standing. The area was covered in flames.
"You're welcome as well," Mike said, pulling the communicator pad off his belt. He shook it and was unsurprised to see that it was still functioning. That was why he'd paid an arm and a leg for the system. "Kildar here."
"Kildar!" Greznya said. "Armenak saw you run into the fire! We thought you were dead!"
"Not yet," Mike said, standing up and holding his hand out for the machine gun. "Tell Dragon I need pickup," he continued, walking up the steps of the landing. "And put me through to Pierson. We've got some loose ends to clean up."
He paused at the top of the stairs and watched as the man, with his daughter still piggyback, walked up.
"Lass, what's your name?" Mike asked, shouldering the M-60.
"Lindsey," the girl said.
"Lindsey, I need you to do me two favors," Mike said. "You planning on getting married and having kids?"
"Yes," she replied, blushing. "Someday."
"Someday is good," Mike said as the black Hind hovered above and then began to drop into the open space behind him. "I want you to do me two favors in that regard. The first is you pick a good husband. Pick somebody smart and strong, somebody who doesn't beat you or shout at you and plans on being somebody. A guy who has it on the ball. Pick good genes, girl, that's the first favor. The second favor you owe me for this, Lindsey, is you got to name your first daughter Gretchen."
Cell phone connections had been overloaded, but Will had managed to get the whole family collected before they entered the tunnels. Will was amazed by the tunnels under the park; they were big. But even as large as they were, they were crowded.
Will had ahold of Lindsey's hand while Dafney led Jason and Allison. The crowd, fortunately, was moving pretty smoothly and nobody was panicking. Just shuffling forward to some un
known destination.
"The exit is not far, folks," a Disney security guard said, waving the group on. "Remain calm and keep walking. There will be busses waiting when you exit . . ."
"You okay?" Dafney asked.
"Fine," Will said, rubbing Lindsey's still-wet hair as they exited a side tunnel into a much larger area. It was still packed, though. Apparently, the whole park dumped into it. He looked back at her and grinned, then blanched. A guy who looked pretty damned Middle Eastern to Will's eyes had just pulled out a can of OFF. Since there weren't many mosquitoes in the tunnel, he probably wasn't worried about bites. And he had a weird look in his eye. It was that, as much as anything, that had Will suddenly moving, pushing his youngest daughter aside and swinging . . .
He hadn't gotten in a fight since he was in the Army but the roundhouse was muscle memory, even if diffused, and it connected perfectly. What he'd forgotten was how much hitting somebody's chin with your fist hurt.
"Fuck," he said, cradling his hand as the man crashed to the ground, the can of OFF rolling away unsprayed. "SECURITY!"
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Anastasia was just about worn out; this was just too much of a good thing.
Gonzales had been torturing her practically nonstop, getting every scrap of information she was willing to give. Katya had been there for most of it, and had caught more than a piece, as he brought in guards to rape and whip them both when he got worn out.
Currently she was tied belly down to a saddle with one man raping her in the ass and another taking her in the mouth. Gonzales was back to whipping, his arm having given out twice so far. He didn't even really seem to be interrogating her anymore, just punishing Mike through her.
As the man came in her mouth and backed away, she looked over at Katya, who was chained up in a corner, and rolled her eyes. The girl snorted through her gag in laughter. Hopefully, the group would take it as some sort of stifled plea.
"What does he want?" Gonzales said, pulling her head back by her hair. "What is he after?"
"The gas," Anastasia whimpered. "And . . . and . . ."
"He's after my money, isn't he?"
"Yes!" she admitted, bursting into tears. "Yes. I heard him speak of it. A great deal of money. He wishes to steal it from you. It was to be transferred by . . . b . . . p . . ."
"He knows about the boat," Gonzales said, straightening up. "Gomez must have talked. Tell Suarez to send a message, right away, to move the shipment."
"Yes, jefe," the guard by the door said, darting out.
"Does he know where it is?" Gonzales asked, pulling her head up again. "Tell me, bitch!" he added, striking her on the back with the whip.
"In the Keys," Anastasia said, taking a guess. "Something Key."
"Fuck, he even knows it's in Marathon?"
Katya rolled onto her side, trying to turn the gales of laughter into something else. She'd been tortured by experts over the years and while she didn't enjoy it, she knew what "expert" meant. And Gonzales was an idiot. If he was the quality of individual that ran major segments of a cocaine smuggling ring, well, anybody could do it.
Come to think of it . . .
She managed to stop laughing by turning it into a whine as if from terror.
"Katya," Julia said over the radio link. "That whine is not only extremely annoying, we're having a hard time hearing what is being said. Did he just say a boat with money on it is in Marathon?"
"Uh, huh," Katya said through her gag. "Uhhhh . . ."
"Get that bitch over here," Gonzales said, gesturing to Katya. "You wanted to make out with this one. Well, make out with her. Do it all with her. I want to watch . . ."
"Katya," Julia said. "Be advised that if you can extend the time with your hands undone, it might be advisable. We're going to need a distraction in a few minutes."
"There's the boat," John Hardesty shouted over the wind, pointing to the water below.
Mike's regular pilot had eventually turned up and upon Mike's arrival at the island had had a bit of a tiff with his boss. Tom Chatham, on being informed why Mike needed something along the lines of a Beaver, had insisted on driving. But John pointed out that not only did he have more time with Beavers, he was Mike's regular driver. The two had worked it out as gentlemen after Chatham pointed out who was the boss. So Chatham was driving the blacked-out Beaver while Hardesty worked the door.
Mike gave him a thumbs-up and considered the angle. Given the reported winds aloft, it was close enough. So he grabbed the edges of the doorframe and hurled himself out.
Since they were only at fourteen thousand feet, the jump didn't technically qualify as a HALO. HALO only counted if you were using oxygen. But Mike was glad enough to be able to dispense with the bulky bail-out bottle. In fact, all he was carrying was a set of battle armor, a heavy load of rounds for the Whisper .45 caliber sub-gun, a pair of silenced pistols and a few flash-bangs. Jeseph and Ivan, who followed him out the door at fifteen second intervals, were just about as lightly loaded.
He delta tracked in on the anchored yacht, then popped his canopy at 1500 feet, banking around to approach from the stern. There were two guards on the rear deck, armed guards, watching the water for boats or swimmers. Well, couldn't have that . . .
He lined up on the open deck, then drew a silenced pistol in either hand. The shots were almost simultaneous, in very rapid sequence. Both of the guards dropped without ever noticing the black parachute dropping out of the night sky like some elder god.
Mike hit the release on his harness while still five feet in the air and dropped soundlessly to the deck. The parachute sailed backwards on the light wind and vanished into the water. With no one in sight he holstered the pistols and lifted the Whisper sub-gun, moving silently forward towards the superstructure.
There was another guard posted to port. Two rounds to the head sent him overside to splash into the water. A guard came from the bow, wondering about the sound. He found out what had caused it, but it didn't do him much good as two more of the hollow point rounds blasted his brains all over the side of the vessel.
A quick check to starboard showed a fifth guard there. He, too, went over the side, just as Jeseph thumped onto the deck.
Mike looked back to make sure the Keldara had gotten free of his parachute, and that it was out of Ivan's way, then gestured to the superstructure. The topside guards were down but that wasn't the whole mission.
As the Kildar ghosted forward, as silent as a murderous shadow, Jeseph followed as quietly as he could. There were souls to gather this night.
Yosif was still having some control problems with his nerves and on one level he knew he shouldn't be doing the op. But he had scores to settle. These bastards had helped bring in the shit that had probably permanently fucked him and he intended to send at least a few to the Cold Lands.
But he let Vugar lift the ladder to catch on the side of the yacht. He wasn't sure he had the dexterity for it anymore.
He did have the dexterity, though, to be the first swarming up the ladder. When he got on deck he dropped the rebreather and pulled his MP-5 into a high ready position, then ghosted down the port side of the superstructure.
Below were the guard staterooms. They were his team's job to "secure."
He intended to make them very secure.
Suarez flipped through the security screens, then backed up. The guard at the starboard security position was missing. Flipping to port, at first he didn't see anything. But checking the forward looking camera he could see a body down on the deck.
As he leaned forward to hit the alarm there was a thump outside his door. Several. Two quiet thumps then a louder one, like something hitting the deck.
He hit the alarm switch and turned to call for a guard when the door opened.
A man in black was pointing a silenced submachine gun at his head and Enrico slowly raised his hands.
"Hola," the man said in a friendly tone. "Enrico, isn't it? Tell you what, back away from the computers and nobody gets hu
rt."
"Find out what it is," Gonzales said, picking up a knife and advancing on the two women on the bed. "It is probably your boss, come to pick up his little whore," he said, reaching across the bed to grasp Anastasia's hair. "Well, let him find a dead body instead."
Stasia lifted an arm to block but she needn't have bothered. A blow from Katya on a nerve juncture opened Juan's hand and sent the knife spinning across the room.
Katya continued the strike into an arm-bar and rolled the man backwards onto Stasia.
