by Matt Roberts
Peering down from above were the remaining members of the assault squad. As one leaned over the edge to get a sight on Shaw, Anderson fired an explosive round into the side of his head. The bullet found the gap beneath his helmet, impacting with a part of his face covered only by a black fabric mask and showering the others with a burst of blood and jagged chunks of broken bone.
Miller had been knocked unconscious by the impact and his head had taken the most of it, although despite the odds he was still breathing. “Anderson!” Shaw yelled.
Judging to have adequately stunned his targets, Anderson answered his call, sprinting over and taking one of Miller’s arms to help haul him towards the tower. From around the corner at the front end of the mansion came another group of armed men. They opened fire, but fortunately could only strike the tower’s doorframe before Miller had been dropped inside and Shaw slammed shut the wooden door.
“That ain’t going to hold,” Anderson pointed out as he helped prop Miller up against the back wall. “Get those crates down and barricade the door. We’ve got time to buy yet.”
Shaw felt a little reluctant to shut off their main escape route but Anderson, unlike himself, was a squad leader. Squad leaders held that role for a reason; they had specialist training for taking charge in situations like this. He didn’t, meaning that despite his superior rank he was inclined to let the Sergeant take the lead. “Copy. Head up top and cover the balcony.”
“Two steps ahead of you, big man.”
While Anderson climbed Shaw grabbed hold of the top crate from a ground floor alcove and pushed it up against the door. Although they weren’t quite as weighty as he would have liked, their metal casings would no doubt prove an asset against the bullet showers that would soon begin the coming storm.
He activated his comms before taking hold of the next crate. “What’s our situation, Sullivan? How long until we can get an evac?”
“I can’t do it. There’s no way. It’s like a whole private army is coming down on you. Another wave of ground troops are coming in and they’ve got armed aircraft nearby. There’s nothing I can do against that sort of firepower.”
Shaw felt the frustration but kept his cool. This wasn’t the time to resort to anger. “What’s Carter’s status?”
“He and O’Brien are sealed inside Rodriguez’ safe room. From what I can tell there’s only one way in or out.”
Shaw slammed the wall with both fists. “Give me something, for fuck’s sake, Sullivan.” He sighed. “We’ll hold out here as long as we can. Work something out.” Shaw cut the line.
Having emptied all of the alcoves on his level he judged his time to be up and headed back over to Miller. Still showing no signs of consciousness Shaw carefully turned his head around to look for the impact wound. A narrow stream of blood was running from the base of his skull. Shaw gritted his teeth. The signs weren’t good. He checked for a pulse. It was there but was rapidly weakening. The bleeding was most likely internal as well as external, and that couldn’t go on for long before he was beyond saving.
“You all done down there?” Anderson called. “We’ve got two more squads inbound. One high one low. I’m going to guess these bastards aren’t about to play nice.”
“We’re set,” Shaw answered.
“Get the LT up here. If we don’t cut this ladder soon it ain’t going to be the last climb you make today.”
Doing his best to be delicate Shaw took hold of Miller by the arm and slung him over his shoulder. He didn’t know whether or not he’d be carrying anything more than dead weight by the time he reached the top but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying. Holding firmly onto the first rung he heaved both of them upwards.
Figures were moving across the roof and the ground squad had arrived at the base of the tower. The door splintered as a swarm of bullets pierced the wood and clanged against the crate casings. Some ricocheted and veered away but others made it through, shaving the soles of Shaw’s boots as they passed. A crunching thud then echoed up through the shaft as one of the men barrelled into the door, dislodging the top few crates.
“Put those quads to use and get the damn hell up here,” Anderson called to him.
Shaw took a deep breath and pushed on once again. Next came a second volley of shots, but by now he was safely clear of the line of fire. Anderson pulled Miller up allowing Shaw to clamber over the edge, then laid the Lieutenant down in the corner and retook his position beside the open balcony entrance. At least a dozen more armoured men were setting up a position behind the nearest peak of the roof, some carrying rifles and others equipped for close quarters combat. “Come on, Shaw. As much as I’d love to I can’t fight all of them on my own.”
“Your gun. Now,” Shaw shouted back at him. Anderson fell back and handed it over. Shaw used the explosive rounds to blow apart the two poles of the ladder and send it crashing to the ground.
Meanwhile, Anderson had his sights set on Shaw’s rifle, still lying out in the open at the far end of the balcony. He took another glance towards the roof. All of the soldiers were still in cover, preparing for the assault. What was the harm in taking his chances? He dived out, grasped hold of the rifle and ducked back inside. Just a split second after he was clear, a bullet whistled past and cracked against the wall behind him. He grinned widely to himself, buzzing with adrenaline pumping through his veins.
Now that the ladder had been dealt with Shaw handed back Anderson’s pistol and in return he received his sniper. “My pleasure,” Anderson said with smug satisfaction, still savouring his minor victory. “The LT?” he asked, looking over at the stricken Lieutenant, crumbled in a heap in the corner.
“Fractured skull. He won’t last long without medical attention,” Shaw answered gravely. “We’re on our own.”
“The lord demands a fair fight…” Anderson declared loudly, accentuating his Alabama twang. “…and a fair fight he shall receive.”
They heard a crash below them. Shaw’s barricade had finally given way. One by one the squadron moved inside, creeping around the walls and staying out of sight. Anderson tried a snapshot but it was never on. The bullet missed everyone and blasted apart against the wall. He took a deep breath and spat at the floor.
Although the tower had been breached, they were still succeeding in buying themselves time. The rooftop assault would need to wait until the ground team had decided upon a strategy for ascending to Shaw and Anderson’s position. Anything they could do to stall that would help their cause. That was the best they could do for now.
Shaw looked over as Miller, whose skin was beginning to pale as blood continued to seep through the fissure in his skull. “What the fuck were you doing, Cap’?” he said under his breath.
There had always been something suspicious about Miller’s sudden appearance – Shaw had never doubted that – but this just wasn’t right. He hadn’t intended to survive this mission. Everything about his actions suggested this was how the plan was always supposed to end. Why? He hadn’t a clue, and the chances were Miller himself wasn’t going to be able to tell them. What was certain was that whatever was going on was more than just a grudge match between Miller and Carter. This took it far beyond that.
Anderson noticed Shaw’s blank stare and needed to thump his shoulder to snap him back to reality. “Take the roof.” he instructed. “We’re keeping those motherfuckers the hell out of here.”
“If Sullivan doesn’t come up with something quickly we’ll be fucked either way.”
“Come on, big man. Have a little faith. We’re doing the lord’s work tonight.”
“What good has faith ever done?” Shaw muttered to himself.
The movement below had silenced. All was set for the assault. Shaw readied his rifle and crouched next to the opening. He took a deep breath.
***
The door opened to a luxury suite where two of Rodriguez’ henchmen were stood waiting. It continued the theme from inside the estate, decorated almost exclusively with wood and furni
shed with red cushioned seats and glass topped antique-styled tables. Rodriguez stepped out first. O’Brien still had her knife in hand, keeping the blade concealed inside the sleeve of her jacket. Owyn followed her lead, putting a hand on his handgun before he moved inside. As he did they were each greeted by a gun pressed against their skulls.
“I might believe what you told me, but that doesn’t mean I trust you,” Rodriguez said, now behind the defensive wall of his men. “Trust isn’t something I like to openly throw around. You should follow my example if you want to survive here. Escort these two to the landing bay if you would, gentlemen.”
He then turned and made his way towards the door, where another of his guards was waiting. However, instead of leading his employer out, the third man drew his weapon and, before the shocked expression could fully form on Rodriguez’ face, shot him dead. O’Brien immediately slashed the arm of the guard holding her, flinging his weapon from his grasp before he could shoot. Owyn made use of the distraction to dodge clear of his man, draw his pistol and finish off the pair of them. O’Brien then lunged forward and halted the advance of the third with a sharp jab in the gut to stun followed by a finishing stab to the heart.
She kicked the body to the floor and wiped the blood from her blade. Owyn walked over to Rodriguez’ stunned corpse. “He should have listened to his own advice.”
“He made the mistake of believing these men belonged to him.” O’Brien was searching one of the other men and had hold of his comms device. She threw it to Owyn and stepped back inside the safe room. “They had the whole place bugged.”
Her voice came out loud and clear through the device. “So much for privacy,” Owyn said. “They heard everything.”
“Assuming Rodriguez was telling the truth about being trapped inside his home then so did Bauer. He probably figured we’d given him a perfect opportunity to plot an escape, but it looks like Bauer had a tighter grip on him than he thought.”
“Fuck,” Owyn cursed.
“There’s no use crying over it yet. We need a way out of here.”
“Do you think we could recalibrate one of these things?” Owyn suggested. Their best bet of finding a way out was by contacting Sully.
“I don’t know about ‘we’, but I don’t see why not.”
Owyn handed the device back over and after a little fiddling O’Brien returned it. “Sully, do you read?” he said.
“O? Did you get the intel?” Sully’s answer was frantic. He was panicking.
“We got what we needed,” Owyn answered, knowing this wasn’t the time to start explaining.
“Where are you? It’s all gone to hell up top.”
“A few floors below the estate. Are you open for evac?
“I’m clear for now. Give me a spot to land and I’ll see what I can do.”
“There should be a landing bay near us, you see it?”
After a few seconds of tinkering with his controls Sully locked on to Owyn’s comms. “Got it, I’m setting you a route.”
“What’s Shaw’s status?”
“Shaw and Anderson are holed up in the eastern tower, but they’ve got a whole strike force coming down on their heads.”
“Miller?”
“He’s with them. He took a hit just after you two went in with Rodriguez but he’s still alive for now. Is Rodriguez still with you?”
“Rodriguez is gone. Just get me that route.”
After arriving at the landing bay to find Sully’s cruiser already in place Owyn and O’Brien headed straight for the armoury where Owyn was finally reunited with his suit and Gratia. As soon as they were suited up they headed to Operations.
“What’s the plan?” O’Brien asked as they joined Sully.
“First I need to know what we’re up against here,” Sully interrupted. “These guys are far better equipped than they should be. We weren’t prepared for this.”
“They’re DPD.” Owyn was blunt. “They’ve been monitoring the estate the whole time we’ve been here. Rodriguez tried to help us so they took him out.”
Sully took a deep breath. He shuffled his feet nervously. “The Tajari mission was DPD too, wasn’t it?” he asked.
Owyn nodded tentatively. “It was.” As he’d suspected, Sully had figured out a good chunk of it already.
Sully shook his head in denial of his own thoughts. “What’s going on, O? What did Ambrose say to you the night before that mission? It’s him. I know it is.” His words were becoming rapidly more frantic as though his voice was struggling to keep up with the outpouring of information and emotion from his brain.
Owyn was unsure what he was getting at. “He’s our best bet, yeah.”
All of a sudden Sully’s demeanour flipped. It wasn’t in his character to express his anger – he could rarely muster the courage – but this time he wasn’t holding anything back. “Quit it, O. You knew about this from the start. From the second you told me to fly into that desert I knew you were hiding something. You can fool Miller all you want, but not me. Not us.”
“Whoa, whoa, Sully, calm down. I don’t know anything more than you about this shit, okay?” Owyn assured, holding his hand up.
“Right, so why don’t you tell me what Ambrose said and stop avoiding the question?”
Owyn’s patience was up. He’d been pushed far enough already today. He no longer cared who it was he was talking to. He was fighting back. “Is that it? I tell you what he said and your mind will be at ease? If you’ve doubted me for so long then how is it that easy?”
“Because as much as I think you’ve been talking shit for the last three months I trust you, O. I trust you to do the right thing before half the team are dead because of you.”
Owyn took a breath to clear his head. He instantly regretted lashing out. “He told me he was leaving. That was it. He never gave me a straight reason why, however hard I tried. That’s it.”
“And about your promotion? What happened to that? You haven’t mentioned it since.”
“He told me he was testing me to see if I was ready to take his place.” Owyn shrugged. “But I wasn’t good enough. If I had been then maybe Miller would never have come. We might never have ended up in this mess.”
O’Brien was shaking her head. “It couldn’t have been that simple. Ambrose planned a lot more than just getting you into that DPD facility. Miller never set out to complete the mission. You saw him. Ambrose set him up to this. Without Miller we’d never have got to this point.” She turned to Sully. “We’ve all been duped. Owyn included.”
“So what? What’s Ambrose trying to achieve?” Owyn asked.
“That pendant – Rodriguez – it wasn’t a coincidence. Ambrose wants you to do exactly what Rodriguez told you to do. He wants you to track him down.”
“He’s really been playing us this whole time?” Sully had suspected something like this for months, but even now that the truth was out he couldn’t bring himself to believe it.
O’Brien brought him up to speed. “There isn’t any rebellion, there wasn’t any weapon, and Rodriguez isn’t a weapons manufacturer, he was a DPD scientist. Whether or not Ambrose is behind it, someone’s been playing us, and now we’re at war with the DPD. We’ve been fucked hard.”
“Can you find him, Sully? Can you find Ambrose?” Owyn’s mind was set.
“I might be able to, but not from here, and we aren’t leaving until we get Shaw and Anderson out of that tower.”
“There’s a whole damn DPD strike force raining down on their heads out there. How do you expect us to get them out? There’s three of us for fuck’s sake.”
“If they get taken then Colonel Bauer will have exactly what he needs to expose us and turn the whole planet against us,” O’Brien reminded him. “It’s bad enough having the DPD to deal with. Bauer’s probably issued a termination order already so what if he uses them to find HQ? Then we’ll have nowhere to hide.”
“You think he doesn’t already know how to find HQ? For all we know he’s already got warhe
ads aimed right at it. He knows everything. We’re a rogue military organisation that’s already destroyed one DPD facility. We’re dangerous. He’ll go to whatever lengths necessary to take us out. They’ll hunt us down eventually either way.”
Sully took up the reins once again. “So we’re just going to let them get taken and probably killed? Come on, O. What the hell’s gotten into you?”
Owyn wasn’t caving in, even with both O’Brien and Sully bearing down on him. “What point is there in saving them? Think, Sully. We’ve got nowhere to run. We’re all going to end up in the ground sooner or later. What does it matter if it happens today or tomorrow? All that matters now is tracking down Ambrose and getting answers. We can still make a difference.”
“Your grudge for Shaw is really enough for you to let him die? That’s cold, Carter, even for one of us. Like him or not, he’s covered both of our asses a hundred times. Your pretty head wouldn’t have stayed intact for a day without him.” Coming from O’Brien made those words cut deeper than ever.
“I owe a whole lot more to Shaw than my life, but that doesn’t change the situation.”
“No, standing here arguing isn’t going to change shit,” O’Brien agreed. “Do what you like. I’m getting to that tower, with or without you. Sully, can you bring us round to the side of the building?”
“On it.” Sully raced out and took his place in the cockpit.
“What are you planning to do? Storm in there and fend off a whole DPD army by yourself? There’s no use wasting another life, O’Brien.” Still Owyn refused to give in, in spite of the fact no one was listening to him.
“You said it yourself. They’ll get us all eventually. Why not today?”
“So what? You’d rather give up now than get answers?”
