“Is something wrong?” Jake asked Sirena.
“A lot of moving parts, Jake,” she said.
“I know. I don’t like it either. But we’ve gone in with much less experience before.”
“That one Swiss officer looks like he’s fresh out of high school.”
“Hans assured me Gregor is good at what he does. He was an Army sharpshooter. Yeah, he’s young. But we all did stuff in our youth that challenged us. Seems to me a certain woman was a chopper pilot in the Israeli Defense Forces when she was younger than Gregor.”
“Good point,” she said. Then she touched his arm affectionately. “We need to be careful. We’re supposed to be retired.”
“Semi-retired,” Jake assured her. “I won’t fully retire until the big sleep.”
“I’ve seen your scars. You are not bullet proof.”
“I know. And I seem to heal a lot slower now. Probably the loss of testosterone.”
She squeezed down on his arm. “You seep testosterone from your pours. You should think of bottling it and selling it to all those Europeans who wear skinny jeans and hair buns.”
“Sounds good. As long as I don’t have to do any commercials or interact with those assholes.”
“Deal.” Her eyes shifted toward the others in the living room, and then back to Jake. “I really want to kiss you right now. And more.”
“Down girl. We have a raid in a few hours.”
“I know. And you know what that does to me.”
Yeah, he did. But he also had a lot on his mind, and not just this raid. Jake knew that this man was not the end of the line. Everyone had a boss. The Italian had confirmed as much.
32
Axams, Austria
It was nearly midnight by the time Jake and Sirena parked more than a kilometer down the road from Jakov Koprivica’s compound. They didn’t want to drive any closer than that, or a watch would have picked up the unusual traffic at that time of night. The road that passed by the complex led up into the mountains, and nobody really had a reason to drive up there at this hour. In all, they had arrived in four cars, with Jake and Sirena in the rental Alfa Romeo, Anica riding in Johann’s car, the Swiss in their car, and the three other Austrian Polizei officers in their car.
Now, they sat in their cars doing a comm check, since the rain outside was still coming down in sheets. Jake wished he had one of his assault rifles for this mission, but his two handguns would have to be enough. Luckily, Sabine had acquired a couple of HK MP7s with multiple 30-round magazines of 4.6 x 30mm hollow points. Sabine gave these to Anica and Johann, while she would use her 9mm Glock. To minimize crossfire, Sabine, Johann and Anica would come in from the back to secure any possible counter attack from the two small bunkhouses on the property. Jake, Sirena and the two Swiss officers would come in from the front.
The plan secured in all of their minds, they got out into the rain and started the one-kilometer hike toward the large chalet-style house up the road. The two other Polizei officers would eventually close off the road with their car. The road was narrow enough with the other parked cars on either side that all they would have to do was pull their car into the center of the road and turn on their portable lights.
“Nice night for a walk,” Jake said over his comm.
“Maybe for a duck,” Sirena said.
As they got closer to the house, Jake said, “Final comm check, One.”
All the others spoke up by number, from two to nine.
“Here we go.”
Jake, Sirena and the two Swiss officers split off down a side road toward the entrance of the house, while Sabine took her young officers farther up the road. They would come in from the high ground. Jake wished he had a few more people to cover them from the road up high, but he had instead kept the two officers down the road. Besides, they would have been too exposed on the hill with very little natural cover.
The four of them rounded a corner and moved along a sidewalk. Here only a couple of other houses sat on large lots, their properties covered by fences with thick shrubs, allowing them to pass unnoticed. Sabine’s intel of the front had been good.
Jake could see the large house ahead. Jakov Koprivica believed in privacy and security. His fence was higher than his neighbors, and the shrubs and trees much thicker. He also had an electrically-controlled gate. But, according to Sabine, there was no security. At least not any connected to the Polizei system. Which didn’t mean that Jack-off didn’t have his own private system with motion detection. After all, the Italian had a system on his place in Switzerland. As did the Serb in Germany.
The only thing Jake and his crew could do was move as fast as possible. Private systems generally had a little lag, since they ran on wireless networks. Instead of crossing in front of the gate, which would more than likely have a camera, Jake and his crew stopped at a stone section of the wall. The four of them helped each other over the wall and they crouched down on the other side.
Jake whispered that they were over the wall and in place.
•
By the time Anica heard Jake say they had gotten over the wall, she was the first to make it to the edge of the compound. Their fence was only about chest high, which allowed for a nice mountain view from the back of the house. At this time, though, there were only a couple of small lights visible at the front entrance of the two smaller structures. The main house seemed completely dark.
Sabine and Johann caught up with Anica after crossing the fence.
Sabine said, “In place around back.”
Then the boss motioned for Anica and Johann to spread out on either side of the lawn. But they knew not to get too close, since there would likely be motion detectors.
Anica moved swiftly across an opening and took up a position along the far fence line. So far, no lights came on. She said she was in place, and Johann followed up also. Anica was a little concerned about Johann. He had frozen in the past under pressure. How would he hold up now?
•
Without vests, Jake knew that the Swiss officers should lead the way. But he didn’t always do the logical thing. He suspected his experience and reaction time would be more important to their mission.
Jake tapped the others and headed toward the front of the house, saying into the mic they were on the move.
In a straight line, Jake pushed toward the main house, keeping their signature as small as possible. All was going well until they got within a few feet of the house. A light didn’t go on, but Jake could hear an alarm sound inside the house.
“Move, move, move,” Jake said.
Instead of breaching the front door, Jake went to a set of French doors, not even hesitating to check if it was locked. He simply smashed his boot into the lock area, smashing glass and breaking the door frame, the doors swinging quickly inward.
Jake vectored to one side, allowing the older Swiss officer to move in while he covered them.
The outer door suddenly opened and back lighting allowed them to see a long gun.
The Swiss officer fired a three-round burst from his submachine gun, dropping the man.
Now the Swiss officer led the way into the main area of the house.
The alarm continued to sound loudly.
The Swiss officer hesitated, until Jake tapped the man on the shoulder to move forward as planned. They would methodically clear the first floor before moving on to the second level.
But the main level quickly became a shooting gallery as more men showed up with submachine guns and handguns, firing with abandon, as if they had a true target. But they made themselves targets with their muzzle flashes.
The four of them held tight cover and picked each shooter off as they moved along the edge of the living room.
Suddenly, a man appeared from the kitchen area and fired twice with his handgun, hitting the young Swiss officer and dropping him. Jake returned fire and dropped the man in his tracks.
Sirena checked on the Swiss officer, who was winded but not hurt seriously,
since the bullets struck his vest.
“I’m all right,” the Swiss officer said as Sirena helped him back to his feet.
“We have a problem out back,” came a woman’s voice over the comm, barely audible over the sound of the alarm going off. It sounded to Jake like Anica, but it could have been Sabine.
“What is it?” Jake asked.
No answer. Just gunfire from the back yard.
•
It took just a short while after the alarm sounded until the men started rushing out of the first small building out back.
Anica waited for a signal from her boss, knowing that Sabine Bauer would follow Polizei protocol from this point forward. While she waited, she said over the comm that they had a problem.
Sabine yelled that they were Polizei, but that only gave the men something to shoot at. Once they fired on Sabine’s position, Anica returned fire with a full auto spread, knocking down a couple of the men who were firing on her boss.
The other men approaching started to spread out across the open grassy area, moving swiftly to covered locations.
Finally, Johann got into the game, firing a sustained salvo toward those men seeking shelter.
Now, Anica felt pinned down. But so were the other men.
•
Jake nudged up to Sirena and said, “I’m heading upstairs after Jack-off.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No. You need to cover me from here.”
Jake swapped a partially used magazine for a full one, shoving the old one in his pocket in case he needed it later. Then he tapped the Swiss officers on the shoulder and said he was going upstairs. With one quick motion, Jake rushed around the corner and angled around the wrought iron banister. Bullets started flying in his direction, hitting the metal and the wall behind it.
The Swiss officers and Sirena returned fire, squelching the incoming gunfire toward Jake. By now, he was up the stairs and moving with purpose. Based on the layout of the house, the master suite would be up and to the right. He hugged the wall away from the open balcony. Somehow, over the noise, he either sensed movement or heard something. He turned just in time to see a man come out of another upstairs bedroom. Before the man could fire his weapon, Jake shot the man twice. The man crashed to the wooden floor.
Jake swiveled around now and approached the master bedroom. He suspected that Jakov Koprivica would be hunkered down inside, letting his men fight for him.
Swinging the door in quickly, Jake leaned back into the hallway as bullets struck the door and the wall behind him. Instinctively, Jake shot five times into the room before crouching low against the wall, hoping bullets would not penetrate. He knew the structure was plaster over brick, so bullets would not get through that. But the man didn’t return fire.
Now Jake was stuck. He needed this guy alive to move up the ladder. There was no way this guy was the top rung.
Suddenly the alarm that had been driving Jake crazy shut down. But gunfire still echoed from downstairs and outside.
“Time to give up, Jack-off,” Jake yelled in German.
The Serb yelled something back in his language. Jake only understood the part about fornicating himself.
Sticking with German, Jake said, “The entire Tirol Polizei is on your property. We know about all of your crimes.” A lie, of course, on more than one front.
“Then you know I will not come out of here alive,” the Serb said in German with a Slavic slur.
“You will get a fair trial.”
Koprivica laughed jovially. “Right. I will not survive in jail one night.”
More gunfire outside.
Then, over Jake’s comm, he heard Sabine order her men to call in for back-up. Jake knew he didn’t have long now. Once the uniformed force showed up in numbers, there would be no way to get this man alone. But why did the Serb think he wouldn’t survive in jail? Then it came to Jake. They had played around the edges on this since Jake came back to Austria. The Serb’s organization had pull within the Polizei. It was because of that possibility that he had turned over the Italian to Hans with Swiss intelligence instead of their Polizei.
Jake had to move. But first he turned off his comm unit and said, “You tell me what I need to know and I’ll let you go.”
Koprivica laughed. “Sure. And we can go out for a beer.”
“I’m not Polizei,” Jake said.
“Then what are you? The mystery man, I know.”
“A semi-retired private citizen.” The truth.
“Hard to believe, considering you came here with the Polizei.”
“Someone tried to kill my. . .niece. I couldn’t let that stand.”
“The undercover Serbian woman who went in the river? Yeah, we know about her.”
“How?”
Silence.
Jake needed to see this man up close to judge his facial expressions. “I’m coming in.”
“You are crazy. I will kill you.”
“No, you won’t. You need to know how I know what I know.” Jake checked his gun. He had only fired a few rounds from this fresh magazine.
Sporadic gunfire continued downstairs and out behind the main structure. But, since Jake had turned off his comm, he had no idea what was going on.
Jake peered around the door frame and saw only the man’s head on the far side of a large bed. His eyes scanned the room for anyone else, but Jake guessed the man was alone.
“You don’t look like Polizei,” Koprivica said. “Your hair is too long. Plus, you should be retired by your age.”
Ouch. “I told you. I’m just a concerned citizen. Nobody messes with my friends or family.” He brought his gun a little higher as he moved around the back of the bed.
“You have a lot of balls,” the Serb said.
Jake ignored him and said, “I have friends in high places. I could get you extradited to The Hague.”
Koprivica shook his head and smirked. “For war crimes? They are a joke. I did what every good soldier does. I followed orders.”
The oldest excuse in history, Jake thought.
“I just need you to name your boss.”
“What difference does it make? I’m dead either way.”
“So, you want your boss to go free? Why not stick it to the man?” Jake wondered if that translated properly into German, and decided it worked in any language.
The Serb seemed to be considering Jake’s plea. “I tell you and you let me go?”
“That’s right.” Jake moved around the end of the bed and noticed that the man was bleeding from a stomach wound. Jake had taken bullets to his gut in the past, and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
Finally, Koprivica said, “I don’t know his name. I know that he is probably a German man.”
“That narrows it down to about forty million people,” Jake mocked.
“But you mentioned The Hague,” the Serb said. “He works there.”
“At the world court?”
Koprivica shook his head. “The Euro Polizei.”
Crap! “Do you have a name?”
“We just call him The Consultant,” Koprivica said. By now the man’s words were coming out much more forced, and dark red blood appeared at the side of his lips.
A liver shot, Jake thought. This man wouldn’t last long.
“Is there anything more you can give me on the German?” Jake asked. “Have you seen him?”
Koprivica shook his head. “We have only talked on conference calls. Secure lines.”
“How do you know he works for the European Union?”
Gunfire downstairs seemed to be slowing. But now Jake could hear Polizei sirens in the distance. He didn’t have long.
The Serb could barely hold his body in a sitting position, his gun held loosely in his right hand. “You promise to put a bullet in my head?”
“Yes,” Jake lied.
“He has a noticeable stutter,” Koprivica said, his words more labored now. “It only comes out when he is concerned or pissed off.” H
e hesitated and looked Jake directly in the eye. “Now shoot me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“You promised.”
“It must be self-defense,” Jake said.
Koprivica grasped his gun with all his power and raised it toward Jake.
Without hesitation, Jake aimed and shot the man in the forehead, slamming the man onto his back and against the wall at the head of the bed.
Jake heard a gasp and he turned his gun toward the door. He immediately realized it was Anica, who had just watched him shoot Jakov Koprivica.
Anica moved into the room, her gun scanning for any problems. “Your comm isn’t working.”
He tapped on his comm and said, “It must have gotten turned off when I slammed against the wall outside. It’s working now.” Then he ran his hand across his throat and turned off his comm again.
She lowered her gun toward the floor and got the hint to turn off her comm as well. Then she said, “Did he tell you anything?”
Jake hated like hell to lie to Anica, but that’s exactly what he did. “I told him to put down the gun or I’d have to shoot him. He raised it toward me and I fired. I had no choice.”
“I saw that much,” Anica said. “I meant before that.”
Shaking his head, Jake said, “He was mumbling something in Serbian about screwing myself. At least that’s what I think he said.” He wasn’t sure she was buying his story. “What’s going on downstairs?”
“We rounded up a few men,” she said. “Most are Serbs. But we have a few others from other countries. Before I came into the house we found a number of migrants locked in the other small building.”
“Where are they from?”
“Not sure. Somewhere in the Middle East. They carried no papers or identification.”
That made sense, Jake thought. “That’s how Jack-off probably controlled them. He could strip them of their identity and then promise new IDs once they got to their final destination. Any idea where they were going?”
“Germany.”
Shadow Warrior Page 18
