Tavish swung the assault rifle around the snow field. He had seen a scope flash just before the shots, but now he was too low to see far into the field and he didn’t want to raise his head too high. He had guessed the lens flash he saw to be four hundred meters or so away, and confirmed it when he counted the time between the bullets hit and the rifles’ report.
Whoever it was out there knew what they were doing. The assault rifles they had supplied to Vic’s men were intended to pump a lot of rounds out but were barely effective to three hundred meters, and that was in experienced hands and on a clear day. The shot Tavish heard was a rifle shot, and a hunting rifle in the right hands could be deadly accurate at four hundred meters. If these shooters were practiced in winter shooting in blowing snow they could mean real trouble for Ty’s cowboys.
Tavish watched as the gray wolf darted away and ran low and straight for the river bank where it met the misty woods at the back of the clearing. Using a wolf to spring an ambush was a new one for Tavish, and he’d seen his share of ambushes. It had to be Hamish, and it appeared he wasn’t the drunken old Scot Tavish had thought he was. The wolf had been just close enough for them to see it, but far enough away to be tough to hit. It also occurred to Tavish that if the boy was the only one out there with Hamish the kid was a hell of a shot.
Jero, Ty, and Gray Ponytail opened up from the corral fence with their assault rifles. They sprayed the snow field in all directions. Gray Ponytail was shooting at the wolf, who was just a ghost outline now and too far away to ever be hit by these rifles. Tavish didn’t think the man could have hit the barn the way he was spraying wildly. The reports from their assault rifles popped around the valley and rolled back at them from the slopes before falling away.
Tavish thought about the wolf trap, and then about the boy, Ben, and his black dog limping in from the white of the blowing snow field at an opportune moment. They hadn’t tied up the dog, and he couldn’t recall if it was wearing a collar. He looked at the deck through his scope. He saw the three remaining idiots at the railing shooting bursts into the field, and then he noticed Jia and Lucy inside the house with their backs to the closed slider. Their hands were raised.
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Christa saw the neck of the man in the camo vest pop open and blood spray on the slider just as they all heard the shot. The glass spider-cracked and a second later fell in a shower of little tempered glass blocks.
He fell over the railing and the rest of the thugs on the back deck balcony started shooting into the field. She could tell they hadn’t acquired targets and were just spraying and praying.
Jia jumped behind Lucy as Christa raised her gun.
Just as she pulled the trigger the other glass door of the slider shattered and a bullet whipped past her ear close enough for the concussion to painfully flick her swollen eye. She flinched and pulled her shot. It went high, taking a small chunk out of Lucy’s leather jacket collar and missing his neck by an inch.
Tavish squeezed off another round and was impressed Christa could move so fast. His shot went just under Lucy’s armpit but missed Christa as she disappeared from view. Tavish smiled, and nodded at her as he realized a few hours ago she had looked him in the eye and convincingly lied to his face as he split open her knuckles one at a time. One tough girl, he thought, pity.
He waved to the men on the deck but they were busy shooting at nothing. Tavish fired a round into the wooden railing next to a heavy man with a black wool vest, spraying splinters in his face. The man looked around, and then noticed Tavish pointing. The man spun, saw Christa raising her gun as she moved, and he lifted his assault rifle. He sprayed bullets into the house as he ran past the sliders and down the deck stairs.
Christa had taken a few large hops to the side and tumbled over the couch, shoulder rolling on the floor behind the kitchen island as the back of the couch and granite countertop of the island exploded in a line of small torn holes.
The dogs had spread out around the room and taken up positions to strike at the deck. Spot and Vuur saw Lucy reach into his long leather coat and pull out a hand cannon. Both dogs dug their hind claws deep into the thick family room rug and lunged together at the big bodyguard as snow and wind whipped into the house. It flapped the tails of his jacket and puffed at the flames in the fireplace.
Vuur crossed the distance in one leap and went for Lucy’s gun hand.
Christa had dropped the small red pocket lock blade when she dove away. Spot picked it up from the floor before he took two steps and jumped. He split his other paw open and leapt for the big man’s fat neck.
As Lucy aimed the big gun at the large black-faced dog leaping at him he shot out his other hand. He caught the smaller black dog in mid-air. His fist closed around a big chunk of the dog’s neck fur.
Spot brought the blade up in a sweeping arc, driving it through Lucy’s leather coat and burying it into his thick forearm as Vuur slammed into him and clamped down hard on his gun hand. Vuur bit down hard, severing two fingers before he yanked the gun from Lucy’s hand.
Lucy howled and was driven backwards as Jia launched herself out of the house. She half-fell down the icy deck stairs as she followed the fat man in the black vest.
Lucy stumbled back through the doorway and across the deck. The pain from the blade stuck in his forearm caused him to release Spot as he skidded on the ice and glass.
Spot shot up again as soon as he hit the deck. His hind paws landed on Lucy’s belt and his opened front paws wrapped around his thick neck.
Lucy’s backside thumped into the deck railing between the two remaining thugs.
Spot sunk in deep and his finger-pads found their target. He concentrated, and sent a shot of epinephrine down to his paws as he compressed the bodyguard’s carotids.
Lucy looked into the dog’s too-knowing stare and panicked. He flailed wildly, pounding at the dog on his chest and slapping at the men next to him.
As Spot felt his strong pads block the big man’s pulsing arteries, he was dreading having to tell his sister she was right. He recalled an argument they had long ago about the best way to strangle someone. Smudge ended up convincing him that her method of carotid compression required much less pressure than his preferred tracheal asphyxia. It was also faster, and more controllable. Based on the dark thug’s eyes rolling back into his head and his arms dropping to his sides, Spot would have to admit to Smudge she had been right. Damn, he thought.
As Lucy’s vision went dark he and Spot started to fall back over the railing. Vuur spat out the hand cannon, and the fingers, and rushed forward. He chomped down on Lucy’s groin, pulling them both back onto the deck.
The two thugs at the railing stopped capping off rounds into the snow field and watched the big bodyguard between them being choked by one dog, and having his balls ripped out by the other.
They stared dumbly at Spot’s opened paws and tried to make it work in their heads as the remaining police dogs came fast and low towards them from inside the house.
A tall thug with a big brown beard and a white knit skull cap backpedaled away from Lucy. He scrambled down the deck and swung his gun towards Sholto. He slipped as he pulled the trigger, drawing a line of bullets from the toe of his boot, across the deck, and into the house. The floor in front of Sholto splintered and she dodged behind one of the fireplace’s large dog-shaped andirons as it sparked.
Rook shot through the doorway opening from the opposite direction and pounced.
White Cap steadied and tried to raise his gun but Rook bit and yanked off the man’s entire trigger hand at the wrist. He stared disbelieving at the stump as Rook bit it again and pulled him down to the deck. The massive black faced boerboel lunged forward and took the man’s entire beard into his mouth. He snapped the thug’s jaw with a quick, powerful bite.
Sholto was at his side in a flash and they quickly finished the job together.
At the bottom of the stairs Jia caught up to the heavy man in the black vest. She stayed next to him, usin
g his bulk as a shield as they ran down the snowy path towards the barn.
From behind his igloo shield Tavish watched the dogs on the deck attack. Lucy and the bearded man were flailing under a barrage of moving fur. He saw the remaining man take a few steps away from the dogs and raise his assault rifle. An instant later the man’s shoulder puffed out in a spray of red and down stuffing, and then Tavish heard the rifle shot from the field. The man on the deck spun and the back of his jacket puffed out twice more as the kitchen slider blew out. The last two shots must have been Christa firing from inside the house, and Tavish watched as the man fell backwards over the railing.
He cursed himself for having underestimated her, and as he spun and scanned the field again he thought, And these so called ‘soft targets’ of Semion’s are starting to tip the balance of power in the wrong direction.
He slid above the metal dome of the igloo and scanned the snow field through the rifle scope. He caught a hint of movement in the woods behind the barn. It was two objects, and they weren’t much more than outlines. The shapes were barely a different color than the shadows they were moving fast through. They had to be dogs, but dogs shouldn’t be able to move that fast in the deep snow and thick woods. Regardless, he assumed they weren’t on his side, and wouldn’t help his quickly diminishing advantage. Before he could find center mass on the first target the igloo under his elbows shook and a jagged hole opened up in the metal right next to his cheek. An instant later he heard two rifle cracks in quick succession.
Tavish ducked and looked back towards the barn’s fence where Gray Ponytail was looking down at a missing piece were his shoulder had been a second earlier. A red flood started to flow down his arm.
Ty and Jero stopped shooting and looked at the guy between them, and then at each other before they dropped down behind the fence. They quickly realized the skinny wooden posts and rails of the fence would offer them no cover. Ty picked up the man’s rifle and he and Jero crouched as they dragged the howling man through the corral towards the snow machines.
The heavy man in the black vest and Jia had made it to the barn. She followed behind him as they scrambled low through one of the wide open doors. He slung his assault rifle and climbed on the first idling snow machine. Jia jumped on behind him and was barely able to hold on as he roared out of the barn. They spun in a tight arc in the snow and raced out of the corral, heading east towards the mine.
Ty and Jero launched out of the barn right behind them on two of the other snow machines, with Gray Ponytail facing backwards over the back of Jero’s seat. He was slumped and holding his bloody shoulder.
Tavish ran low to the barn and jumped on the last idling snow machine. He oriented himself to the controls and then looked out into the field of snow as he gunned the engine.
Appearing from the gray and white fog of the tree line was a sled being pulled by a team of running dogs. They were far across the field, and in the blowing snow it was hard to be sure but Tavish thought he saw two men. One was standing behind the sled and one was kneeling in it, and they both had rifles. He took a guess that the kneeling man was actually an eleven year old boy. He saw a pair of muzzle flashes and the corner of the plastic windshield of his snow machine shattered before he heard the crack of the rifles. He yanked the throttle and followed the other snow machines as they growled loudly and shot from the corral.
The path behind the barn climbed away along a low slope. There were a few hundred meters of open snow to cover before they reached the relative safety of the trees.
Tavish hadn’t been around snow machines since he was a kid and these seemed sleeker and much bigger than the ones he remembered. They were all black with a purple stripe, and they were either brand new or had been pristinely maintained. The engines were powerful and the machines ate up the snow.
They quickly reached top speed and were doing better than a hundred fifty kilometers an hour. It wouldn’t take long to reach the woods and they would easily outrun the dog sled, but not a rifle bullet. Or two. He leaned down low over the engine behind the little broken windshield, and noticed Ty and Jero were doing the same.
Gray Ponytail looked strange sitting bolt upright behind the hunched over Jero. He looked to be in a lot of pain, but Tavish had to give the tough miner credit. He held his rifle with his good arm and was firing bursts at the sled in the distance.
They caught up to Jia’s sled. She was pressed against the back of the big man who was driving. She wasn’t wearing a coat and Tavish could see she was shivering.
Tavish heard two more rifle shots. They were very faint over the roar of the snow machines’ engines and he didn’t see or feel any hits.
He risked a quick look back over his shoulder. He didn’t want to slow, or risk losing control so he got just a glimpse of Hamish’s sled. It was still far back in the field and seemed to be crawling compared to them. He saw a muzzle flash from the back deck as well but there was no way Christa’s pistol would have any hope of reaching them.
He turned back to his sled as all four machines reached the woods. They steered closer to each other and entered the trail. He assumed it was some manner of fire road as it was wide enough for the sleds to run comfortably side by side in pairs.
They continued to lean heavily on their throttles and blast their machines down the trail. The engines hummed loudly, and a shaking Jia turned to face Tavish and shot him a frustrated head shake.
As they rounded the first bend a large white dog was waiting for them in the middle of the trail.
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The snow whipped at his face and Tavish had to blink several times to confirm what his wind-torn, watering eyes were seeing. The dog perfectly matched the snow around it. It wasn’t pure white but a shade of gray-blue that mimicked the shadows of the trail. It was a medium-sized dog with a fluffy coat, about the same size as Hamish’s sled dogs but much thicker through the neck and shoulders. Tavish noticed it was also wearing a military style winter camo vest. It stared at them for a moment, and then broke into a full run straight towards them.
The four roaring snow machines closed the distance to the dog quickly. The trail narrowed a bit and the sleds slipped into a staggered line.
Even with the dog charging them no one wanted to stop to shoot it. They hadn’t moved far enough down the trail to remove Hamish’s sled as a potential threat. They hadn’t let off the gas or taken their hands off the handlebars. Their rifles were slung over their backs and with the trees zipping by so close no one dared trying to drive with only one hand.
The four sleds split as they reached the dog and Tavish wondered what the animal was trying to accomplish. Even though the dog moved quickly through the deep snow it couldn’t hope to pounce on them, at these speeds the sleds would easily maneuver around it. No one would risk trying to run the dog down as it looked beefy enough to cause a proper wreck, and it was jumping high enough out of the snow to come over the handlebars. He thought about slowing to pull his pistol but didn’t see the need, and he didn’t want to get too far behind the rest of the group.
As the sleds passed quickly around the dog it spun in the snow and barked so loudly Tavish jumped in his seat. The bark was too loud, they should have never been able to hear it over the roar of the four engines but he felt it clear down to his bollocks. Tavish wondered what the fuck was going on with this family and their strange canines. He suddenly thought it would be good to finish this business and get the bloody hell away from Canada.
Gray Ponytail almost dropped his rifle. He hadn’t see the dog and when it barked right next to him he flinched and looked at it with wide eyes.
A tree branch brushed Gray Ponytail’s good shoulder as Jero careened around the dog, leaving a trail of falling powder behind them. At that moment Tavish saw a flash of movement and realized the sleds had to separate to avoid the dog which brought them close to the trees. This was another ambush using a dog, and again he’d caught it too late.
Just as Jero started to steer his snow ma
chine back to the center of the trail the big gray wolf leapt from the thick pines and knocked him and Ponytail off the machine’s bench seat.
His throttle lever sprung back to idle when he let go of the handlebars and the engine went from a screaming roar to a low purr. The machine veered slowly into the center of the trail and came to stop as it sunk down into the powder.
Jero pin wheeled in the deep snow, finally coming to a stop on his back. He sprang to his feet, brushing the snow from his face and swinging the rifle around from his back.
Tavish’s sled sped around the wolf so close he could have grabbed it. He passed Jero before he came to a stop next to the now empty sled.
He turned to see the huge animal had Gray Ponytail’s good shoulder in a vise grip and was growling deeply and shaking him violently. It let him go and looked up for a second before taking another bite, and tugging the man over Tavish’s tracks and into the woods on the far side of the trail.
Ty had covered a lot of ground before looking back and noticing the stopped sleds. He slowed to a stop and spun on the seat as he unslung his assault rifle.
Tavish unzipped his coat and pulled his pistol with blinding speed, his first target had been the wolf but out of the corner of his eye he saw the white dog was right behind him. He got off one round just as the dog disappeared in a flash into the woods. He swung back to the wolf but he could only hear Gray Ponytail screaming from behind a thick umbrella of snow covered pines.
Jero opened up into the woods, alternating between where the white dog and the wolf had disappeared as he high-stepped through the snow towards his sled. He shot in bursts between each big step.
Tavish raised his hand and Jero paused. They heard Ponytail give one last scream, and then the bushes rattled loudly.
Jero swung his gun towards the sound, but Tavish swung in the opposite direction and saw the white dog running fast behind the trees on the slope above Jero’s sled. The damn dogs were coordinating their attack in a way Tavish wasn’t sure even the best trained dogs could do, and he didn’t see any humans around to command them. He tried to push that aside, any moment Hamish would be coming around the bend and Tavish wanted to be gone when that happened. Confined by the trail, and at these distances, they were sitting ducks for a rifle shot.
The Glasgow Gray: Spot and Smudge - Book 2 Page 35
