Blu sighted on the man closest to Hamish. He was still mostly covered by the second floor window and she barely saw his outline through the glare and the falling snow.
Spot turned, saw Blu taking aim, and dashed back towards Hamish who was still running and hadn’t seen the shooters. Hamish saw the dog coming and whispered, “What’s the matt-“
Spot dove and grabbed Hamish’s feet, tripping him.
The man in the third floor window fired first. The shooter was looking to cut Hamish in half but the snow chipped and sparked behind them as Hamish tumbled over Spot and they rolled away. The rifle’s recoil pops bounced around the mine and reverberated out into the valley.
Hamish came up on one knee and brought up his assault rifle, trying to find a target through the snow blowing in his face.
Blu sent a short burst towards the shooter’s window, shattering the lower pane and chipping the wood frame of the casing. She thought she had hit him until he spun and sprayed in her direction, showering her with snow and rock chips as she dropped back behind the boulder.
Spot saw her duck, and watched the kneeling Hamish swinging his rifle in small arcs as he searched the front of the building for the shooter. He could see Hamish was struggling to choose between dashing for cover and finding a target, and Spot wasn’t sure which was the right call, either. They were exposed in the middle of the lot but it was still more than twenty meters to the nearest hiding spot and Hamish made a big target.
Spot saw both men taking aim and he bolted away from Hamish. He ran in front of the building and stopped in clear view of the shooters. He barked and leapt wildly around in circles.
When he saw both men swing their rifles towards him he changed from white to black. The color change started at his snout and flowed down his neck and over his whipping tail. He changed to white again, and then started to flip his coat colors back and forth as fast as he could. He also pulsed his coat’s thickness. He looked like he was flashing under his white camo vest.
Both men paused. They stared at the strange dog chasing its own tail in the lot below. The odd thing was hard to follow with their rifles. It looked like it was fading in and out against the blowing snow like an optical illusion. They forced themselves to look away and pick up their targets again.
Hamish had started to move towards the building but was still frantically searching for the shooters. There was just too many shadows and windows. Spot barked and pointed his whole body like a hunting dog at one of the third floor windows.
Hamish drew down on the window and found the man aiming right at him. The man’s gun flashed and bullets sparked as they sped across the ground towards him. One sent up a spray of chips right in front of his boot, and then one punched through his thigh.
Hamish winced as he pulled his trigger. The man ducked as the shots pinged off the metal wall near his window but he popped right back up again.
Spot shot back towards Hamish as he looked up and saw both barrels sticking out of the windows. One was pointed at Hamish and the other was pointed at Blu.
The shooter aiming for Hamish lowered again behind his rifle, took aim, and then he just vaporized.
He was there one moment and the next he was just a puff of red as his rifle tumbled out of the window and crashed onto a stack of pallets below.
At that same instant Blu watched the head of the man aiming at her come off. It spun up and away, bounced off the window sill and fell back into the garage along with his body and his rifle, leaving a red trail on the upper window pane.
They heard the shots a fraction of a second later. Two simultaneous booms overlapped each other. They echoed loudly around the valleys of the mine bowls before chasing each other away into the mountains.
Hamish grabbed his leg and fell back into the snow. He pinched down hard on the wound as Blu came running low and fast over to him. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him behind the nearest pallet of plastic-wrapped equipment.
She pushed his hand away from the red hole in his pants as Spot joined them. He watched the buildings while Blu pulled her belt off and wrapped it around Hamish’s leg. She cinched it down tight just before she said, “This is going to hurt.”
Hamish lifted off the ground and took in a sharp breath as Blu found the exit wound. It was an in-and-out shot through the outer meat of his thigh. As long as they kept pressure on it she figured he wouldn’t bleed out. She quickly stripped off her bulletproof vest, jacket, and uniform shirt. She pulled her thermal top over her head, wrapped it tightly around the wound, and tied it tight.
“Here now lass,” Hamish said between deep pants, giving Blu’s exposed bra a look, “We hadn’t time for any of that now.”
As Blu got dressed she gave Hamish a dirty look and a quick kiss before pulling him to his feet.
Spot had been scanning the rim of the mine.
He’d recognized both of the distinctive large caliber sniper rifle shots, and he knew who must have brought their sniper friends to the mine.
He started to wag.
Chapter 85
Lissa looked through her spotter’s scope at her husband. Harry was half way around the rim of the west mine bowl with his ridiculous fifty caliber cannon. He was looking back at her from his spotter’s scope and grinning like he did the first time she let him round second base. He gave her a wave with his two fingers as he took a pull from his little oxygen mask.
They were five hundred meters from the complex, and from their high vantage points they could cover both access roads and everything but the very rear of the buildings.
Lissa turned back to her sniper rifle. She toggled the massive scope from thermal imaging to night vision and back to normal optics as she scanned the shadows and nooks of the buildings through the blowing snow. After dropping Harry off she had parked her work truck under a stand of trees at the head of the south access road, and she was seated cross-legged on the hood. She and half of her large rifle were covered in a winter-camo hooded poncho. It was tucked under her body, making a teepee that flapped gently in the wind.
As she scanned the buildings she signed an all-clear to Smudge who was standing in front of the truck with the big wolf Hamish called Glasgow.
Smudge finished zipping up one of her vest pockets and the two dogs darted off, heading down the south access road into the mine.
Lissa swung her scope down to watch Hamish limping with an arm around Blu. They had slung their assault rifles and she held open a door as Spot ran inside the building. The dog’s head appeared again a moment later and Lissa watched Hamish and Blu follow him inside.
She moved her scope to the bottom of the access road and saw Smudge and Glasgow meet one of Hamish’s huge police dogs before they disappeared around the back of the complex.
Lissa tried to push away the whiplash she was still feeling about her doorbell ringing just after dawn, and seeing Smudge and her big wolf pal standing there when Harry opened the door. On the way to the mine Harry had to keep Lissa from driving off the road as she kept looking back through her rear view mirror at Smudge, who had shrunk back to normal size right before their eyes, and the wolf riding with her in the back of the truck.
She willed herself to focus on her task, and shot Harry another quick look. He had the same multiple mode sniper scope, and she could see the glow in his thick glasses change as he toggled through the settings while moving his huge rifle from side to side. He put his eye to his spotter scope briefly, and seeing her looking back at him signed, Just my luck, doesn’t look like Vic’s dumb enough to poke his big stupid head out.
She flashed him smile and they went back to covering the buildings.
A few minutes later Lissa caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. She spun and pulled her pistol as a vehicle crunched to a stop right next to her.
Dave lowered the window of his cruiser and said, “Hey Lissa, where’s Harry?”
“Jesus Dave, do you want to fucking get shot?” she said, pulling out an earplug as she holst
ered her pistol and turned back to watching the buildings through her scope, “Harry’s a ways down the rim road.”
Dave got out of his cruiser and put his hat on. He said, “I was patrolling Christa’s ranch but the place is ten twenty-four. She and the boy are secure. Figured it was more imperative I report in down here.”
He stepped to the side of Lissa’s truck, looked down at the mine and put his hands on his hips as he said, “What’s our current sit rep?”
Lissa rolled her eyes. She’d known Dave since he was ten and he just never seemed to grow out of being a snot-nosed imbecile. He was the one Lissa pointed to when people asked why she and Harry never had kids. Before his equally moronic parents somehow got him to stop smoking pot long enough to get into the police academy, they forced him to take a shooting class at the range. He couldn’t hit a moose if it was standing on his foot and he bitched and whined at Harry the entire time. The targets were too small and the range was too cold and the guns were too heavy, and too loud, and not calibrated properly, and were obviously defective. Her husband had never been so thankful to be deaf.
Without looking up Lissa said impatiently, “I think we got this. We can secure the front, both sides, and both access roads. If they try to hike out the back we’ll see them. We can’t shoot effectively that far in this wind, but Harry can pin them down until I drive—”
“And Hamish is down there?” Dave asked, interrupting her.
“Yeah Dave,” Lissa said, not trying to hide her annoyance, “He and Blu just went into the crusher building on the north side.”
“I guess that’s acceptable for now,” Dave said, “I’ll let you know when we need to recalibrate.”
When Lissa turned to suggest Dave go back to whatever crossing guard duty Blu had assigned him to she noticed he had three parallel red marks running down the side of his face. They looked angry, and very fresh. They looked like a scratch from a dog.
She went for her sidearm again but it was too late.
Dave shot her three times with a silenced pistol, and then twice more after she tumbled off the hood of her truck.
Chapter 86
The huge, dark crusher building was filled with dirty bus-sized gray metal vats connected by a network of conveyors and yellow walkways. Below the vats were several rows of open top train cars.
Blu helped Hamish hobble over the tracks to a metal work bench. He dropped on top of it as she scanned the shadows of the big building with her rifle.
Spot had darted away to patrol the immediate area and appeared every so often from behind a train car or a catwalk to nod an all clear to them.
“Okay cowboy, you’re out of this rodeo,” Blu said quietly to Hamish as she waved to Spot. She handed him his pistol, and checked his radio by blowing softly into her lapel mic. The speaker of his handset crackled softly and she nodded, and then put a hand on his shoulder. She gave him a firm look as she said, “Stay put, we can’t have you leaking all over this clean mine. I’ll send Vic your regards.”
“Aye,” Hamish said, looking down at his blood soaked pant leg, “I’d better hold down this bench so it can’t get away.”
Blu gave him a smile and a tug of his beard, and then walked off low and fast with her rifle held high as she moved between the train cars towards Spot. He was at the far wall, waving her over to a door that led to the big maintenance garage building.
When Smudge and Glasgow reached the end of the access road they slipped around the back of the complex, darting between the gauntlet of equipment and pallets. They were headed to the rear of the maintenance building when Vuur stepped from the shadows and signaled to them.
After quick introductions for Glasgow they followed the police dog to the rear of a small outbuilding. Rook was there, standing at the rear of a snow covered black van. There were recent footprints leading from it to the maintenance garage’s big sliding door.
As soon as they approached the van Smudge and Glasgow immediately caught the terrible scent. It was stronger than it had been on the rogues, and Glasgow started to backpedal.
Smudge calmed her with a nudge, fighting to keep her own apprehension buried as she assured Glasgow everything was okay.
Smudge jumped up on the back bumper and wiped the snow from the van’s rear window. After cupping a paw over her eyes to see through the tinted glass she jumped down and said to the boerboel brothers, Well done, lads, and to Glasgow she said, Come here for a minute, I have an idea, as she grabbed the big gray wolf’s radio collar.
A minute later they walked from behind a pallet near the large sliding garage door of the maintenance building. The door was open and they could see Vic’s work truck parked next to the stairs.
Smudge could also see Rotty-wolf on his cardboard bed with his snout poking out from under the metal stairwell. The office lights were off, as were all of the lights in the immense building. The two snow machines were parked far inside the garage behind one of the big yellow rock trucks. There were several of the massive trucks lined up in the repair bays. They were in various stages of disassembly, and huge engine parts hung down from gantry cranes mounted to the ceiling. In front of the trucks, at the front wall of the building, Smudge saw the catwalks and windows where the Chogins had stopped the two shooters. She could see the blood spray on the windows and what was left of their bodies.
There was no sign of anyone else and the rest of the building was nearly pitch black.
Glasgow tipped her head up as she sampled the air. She could smell the four male wolves in their cages and she could smell more of the vileness that covered the van and the rogues.
Smudge picked up on Glasgow’s nervous shifting and said, Relax, these guys aren’t rogues, they’re normal. Well, mostly normal. I’ll introduce you but we have some business to take care of before you get too distracted with boys.
Just as Smudge was going to slip into the building the deputy’s cruiser came around the corner of the complex and sped quickly towards them.
The dogs slunk back under cover as the car swept past them and drove through the open sliding door of the maintenance building. It curved around Vic’s truck with its wet tires squealing on the concrete floor. The cruiser turned past the corner of the office stairs and its lights came on as it continued out of sight into the dark of the cavernous garage.
Chapter 87
Blu reached for the door handle of the corrugated metal door but Spot tugged on her pant leg for her to wait.
He jumped up on a work bench and tossed her a can of spray lubricant. She doused both hinges and gave him a thumbs up before slowly pushing the door open. It creaked just a little and then swung open without a noise.
Blu held the door with her foot as Spot darted into the maintenance building and stopped behind a fork truck parked under the front catwalk.
Spot gave the room a quick look and a sniff, and waved her in. Blu scanned the dark inside of the building with the assault rifle in front of her. Just as they started to move towards the rear office Dave’s cruiser drove into the building, turned in front of the stairs, and his lights came on as he disappeared into the darkness behind overlapping walls of racking.
Spot and his sister had played hide and seek in the dark at the back of the garage with the wolves. It was a maze large pallet racking and tall shelves stacked haphazardly with equipment and parts of all sizes. The garage’s filthy front windows let some light into the bays where the rock trucks were, but it was black in the back and Dave’s car could be anywhere in there. It would be impossible to cross the open garage and get back there unseen.
Spot shared Blu’s worried look and they moved quickly along the front of the building, sticking to the shadows under the catwalk and keeping an eye on the office and the dark at the back of the garage. They moved around the blood pools from the shooters and walked past empty bays until they could use the cover of the first disassembled rock truck to go further into the garage.
As they walked around a pair of two-meter tall tires and below a huge
hanging transmission, the speaker of Blu’s police radio crackled to life.
“Salut Hamish and Captain Pinard,” Vic’s smug mumble said over the radio, “I have someone here you may want to say hello to.”
Blu quickly plugged in her earpiece, cutting off the radio’s speaker. She crouched and spun around with the rifle, hoping she had been quick enough to not give away their position.
Vic’s voice came over the radio again, “Allons Hamish, I know you can hear me. Not feeling chatty, eh? Bien, let’s try this.” There were some muffled thumps and then he said, “Say hi, mon cheri.”
Christa’s voice said calmly, “Five total with ARs, three local, twelve meters rear center, Ben is wi—”
There was another thump and Vic said, “Pick her up. Hamish, I think you get the idea. I know you’re in the crusher building somewhere. I need you two to show up in the middle of the maintenance garage in the next ten seconds or Peggy-of-Arc here gets her other eye poked out.”
Spot leapt up onto a work table next to Blu. He heard voices coming from farther back in the garage and pointed out their number and direction.
Blu nodded, and could tell the smart black dog was clearly frustrated he couldn’t communicate more to her. She whispered, “I’m sorry boy, I’m not sure what to do here.”
Vic came over the radio again, “Seven, six, five… And did you catch Peggy mentioning I also have petit-Hamish to bargain with after she’s used up?...four, three, two...”
Blu was reaching for her lapel mic when Hamish replied, “Wait Vic, don’t. We’re coming.”
Blu quickly set her rifle down. She undid the top button of her uniform trousers, untucked her shirt, and then reached down to quietly unstrap her ankle holster. She tucked her backup pistol deep into the back of her underwear before picking up the rifle, patting Spot, and walking out from the shadow of the rock truck.
The Glasgow Gray: Spot and Smudge - Book 2 Page 38
