Looking back at Ty, she shook her head. “Gone.”
They’d lost him.
Chapter Twenty Six
The helicopter flew fast and low, making time as the afternoon shadows lengthened. When Ty’s cell phone rang, he snatched it up. Buck hadn’t called in yet. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad sign.
“Special Agent Connor,” the voice on the other end said. “This is the Border Patrol. I was asked to inform you that someone has shot out two of the cameras mounted on the border wall.”
“Thank you,” he said. “It’s going down now then. Please ask your Commander to have your people ready to move out along the wall, with a concentration where those cameras went out. It could be a feint. They could come from anywhere.”
“Yes, sir,” the man on the other end said.
Ty looked at Niki, and the Rangers who’d come with them.
Reaching out, she flipped a finger against the open front of his shirt, ran it over the two bullet marks in his vest. “How does it feel?”
The impact sites still hurt, but he didn’t say that. He didn’t really need to.
He looked at the damaged shirt regretfully. “It wasn’t a cheap shirt either.”
Niki just looked at him and smiled.
Looking at the little halter top beneath the bulletproof vest and her leather pants he said with a smile. “You should consider buying a whole one.”
She laughed.
The Rangers were trying not to stare.
She’d changed into her working clothes in the ladies room while they fired up the helicopter. Somehow, a skirt hadn’t seemed a good idea for whatever was coming.
Amused, Niki said, “I didn’t think you minded.”
“I don’t.”
She looked at him, her eyes twinkling behind the yellow glasses. “Good.”
Smiling a little, Ty knew she was just trying to keep him from worrying about Buck, Mitch and the team, and that she was just as worried about them as he was. She looked out the open door of the helicopter as they flew over Texas landscape and into Manuel Ramirez’s jurisdiction.
Two black SUVs, small figures this high in the air, raced down the road below them, dust billowing behind them.
“Look!” she said, taking Ty’s arm and pointing.
Both SUVs were the type of vehicle SWAT teams liked, but without markings. Behind them came a black Dodge Ram.
Ty didn’t miss the implications.
He signaled the pilot. “We have to get there ahead of those SUVs, without them seeing us if possible.”
“Yes sir,” the man said.
The helicopter swooped up and sideways into the light of the setting sun so their shadow wouldn’t betray them and those below them would be blinded by the light.
Niki was already checking her weapons and reloading as Ty called Buck. Until then he hadn’t dared, not knowing the situation there and possibly risk betraying Buck’s position.
“Boss?”
“Company’s coming,” Ty said, “but we’ll get there first.”
“See you when you get here,” Buck said. “We’re prepared and staying low.”
Sheriff Ramirez’s house was a nice little white two-story clapboard farmhouse, carefully maintained. Children’s toys were scattered around the front yard, bleached by the sun and a little dusty. A swing set and jungle gym occupied the back yard. A low stone wall encircled all of it.
The pilot set them down quickly and then took the helicopter back up out of the range of fire and out of sight. He wasn’t armed, and the helicopter was too vulnerable to attack.
Weapons ready, Ty, Niki, and the Rangers ran to the house.
“Buck, Mitch, Sheriff Ramirez,” Ty called, his back against the back door.
“In the front room,” a voice called back.
“Everyone out,” Ty said, “Double time.”
As they raced out the back, Ty confirmed his guess. Their team was armed with assault rifles, as were the Rangers with them. The rest were armed with police issue handguns and shotguns. Against what those coming were likely to be carrying?
“These guys aren’t the ones with the meth labs. It’s a good chance they have military or paramilitary training,” he said. “When they’ve hit in Phoenix and elsewhere, they’ve come in fast and hard like cops or paramilitary. It’s a death trap to be inside that house. That’s where they’ll be expecting us to be. Find cover, let them start shooting to give us probable cause – sorry Manuel – and then I’d like to let them run if we can. See if they take us back to that land to give us cause to search…but lives come first. Everyone clear on that?”
He looked around, meeting every eye.
The sound of car tires on a gravel road, coming fast, was warning enough.
Everyone scrambled for cover on the opposite side of the low stone wall, keeping their heads down. Ty, Buck and Jake were on one side of Niki, Manuel Ramirez, Mitch and the team on the other, the other Rangers spread out on each side.
The big, black SUVs hit the yard. Kid’s toys scattered as doors popped open and men poured out with military precision, all dressed similar to police officers in combat gear. Except that they didn’t identify themselves. They simply opened fire on the house, sweeping bullets chest high through the lower floor and then spraying randomly through the second.
Then they advanced on the house.
“Federal agents,” Ty shouted from behind a stone pillar halfway along the wall, his weapon steadied by it as he leveled it at the intruders. “Identify yourselves, stand down, and lower your weapons.”
Startled, the men turned and opened fire.
Everyone ducked. Most flattened themselves against the wall before stretching their arms over the wall to respond to the intruders blindly.
Only Ty and one of the Rangers had good cover. Ty snapped off shots, picking targets while the Ranger sprayed bursts of automatic weapons fire.
All of the invaders wore body armor. Most just staggered with the impact of the bullets. If it hit right, ribs and sternums could be cracked by the impact. As Ty knew all too well, it hurt like a sonovabitch, but the Kevlar stopped most rounds. One of the men cried out as a bullet hit him in the arm.
Unexpectedly under fire, expecting a lightly armed and solitary sheriff, they scrambled back into their SUVs and ran.
“Let’s go,” Ty shouted, signaling as the helicopter came flying over the ridge, dropping into the yard.
The helo wasn’t large enough for everyone, but the Rangers who’d come with Jake had their own vehicles and Manuel had his truck.
“We’ll meet you there,” Manuel shouted.
Ty nodded in acknowledgement as his team scrambled into the helicopter.
“Let’s go,” he said to the pilot, gesturing up.
Up was precipitous, and then they were moving forward as well, following the flight of the SUVs from on high.
“Anyone got any extra rounds?” Niki asked.
Mitch tossed her a couple of clips, and she popped out the ones she’d been using, replaced them with the others and stuck the spare in her pocket.
Everyone else reloaded as well, gearing up for the next round.
The sun was setting, bathing everything in warm gilded light. They flew east and a little north, which put the blinding light of sunset somewhat behind them.
Like arrows, not expecting vehicular support to catch them or to know where they might be going, the SUVs headed straight for the suspect land.
It was another break.
Ty gestured to the pilot to set them down quickly and out of sight even as the SUVs came to a stop.
Not surprisingly, guards appeared out of the brush to greet the SUVs, and then waved the cars on. Ty just hoped they hadn’t been seen yet. Or they might have called in the alarm and be anticipating an attack.
“How are we going to get past the guards?” Buck asked.
This wasn’t a military operation, it was a police operation, they couldn’t just shoot them despite the circums
tances.
“That’s easy,” Niki said, sliding her guns into the holsters at her back. “You just walk up to them and ask.”
All of them stared at her as she grinned.
“If they don’t start shooting,” she said, “it’s all good. But I would bet that if they see a woman alone out here they’re not thinking about shooting.”
Ty was a little uneasy at the idea, but they would all be covering her.
Walking around a curve in the road, Niki saw only the gate in the fence. Then the two guards appeared out of the thin grass to stand before the rail and barbed wire fence.
The light was fading.
“Hey,” she said, limping a little. “Thank God. People! My car broke down…”
It was a pretty good guess that the guards saw a small attractive Anglo woman walking toward them. She could almost read their minds. All she wore was a pair of tight leather pants and a thin halter.
Americans.
Deliberately she looked nervously at their guns. To all appearances she was alone.
Their eyed glinted. Smiling, they lowered their guns.
“I could use a little help,” she said.
They came toward her together. She spun, one foot catching the one on her right in the head, and as she landed on that foot she pivoted to drive her other foot into the face of the other. He cried out, his hands going to his shattered nose as she drew and pointed her weapon at them.
“Police. Don’t,” she said as Ty and the others came out of the brush.
They didn’t.
“Nicely done,” Ty said.
“I’ve been practicing,” she said, grinning.
He smiled.
Warily, as the sound of vehicles approaching became clear, they all took cover, just in case, until they saw the marked vehicles. Sheriff and Rangers.
Ty stepped out and flagged them down.
“We need a perimeter,” Ty said and glanced at Mitch.
The big man nodded. “Gotcha covered, Ty, Niki. Let’s go. Andy, you’re with me. Brad, cover us. Give us a ten count, Ty, and then follow.”
Mitch and Andy slipped into the growing darkness. A second later, Brad followed. If Mitch and Andy were surprised, Brad would be there.
Giving them time, Ty waited, then gestured to the others to move out.
Staying alert, the team moved quickly down the dirt road leading into the property and came to the crest of the concealing rise.
Below was the faintly lit building. They could see the glow of at least one guard’s cigarette.
Ty signaled to the Rangers to circle around the structure and give the core group additional cover.
They moved out to find their way to good vantage points.
Jake stayed with them.
Mitch, Andy and Brad rejoined Ty, Buck and Niki near the closest open end of the structure. It looked as ramshackle as it had before. The SUVs were inside, as were a few trucks, a number of crates and barrels, but nothing else visible.
“All clear,” Mitch said. “Nobody is out there, but us. Niki, you’ve got point.”
She nodded.
For a moment Ty wanted to protest, but he stayed silent.
This was what Niki did and she did it well. As she had with Garcia. Every movement was swift and sure, oddly graceful.
There was no room for Niki here. It was Nike who moved forward quickly and quietly, keeping low and staying close to the outer wall. Every sense was alert, listening. The silence was nearly deafening. There was no sound, even from the single guard.
Quietly, she moved around the Quonset style structure. She caught the whiff of smoke. Not a cigarette, or at least, not solely tobacco.
Then she saw the glow as the guard inhaled.
A spinning kick sent him reeling. An arm around his throat rendered him silent. It took a second to bind him.
“Clear,” she whispered into the microphone.
Only then did she move inside the building.
She paused, frowning, as she looked down at the wood plank floor flush with the dirt around it. In the deeper shadows, she could see a faint tracery of light coming from beneath it. Her soft shoes made almost no sound, but the boots the team wore?
“Hold.” Pointing at the floor, she signaled for silence, knowing Mitch could see her in the dim light with his night vision goggles.
Making her way across the floor, she risked a quick look around some barrels – no one there – but it was too open beyond them, anyone on the other side would see her. A truck was parked nose in to the wall, waiting to be loaded or unloaded.
It was high enough off the ground.
She ducked her head to peer beneath it to see if there were feet on the other side, then rolled beneath it. A pair of feet walked into view. She looked quickly to see if there was another. No one.
Rolling out behind the guard, she drove a side kick into his back so hard it slammed his face into the side of the truck. He went down like a stone, and she quickly secured his hands behind his back, before pushing him beneath the truck.
No one else was around that she could see, but there were stairs that led down beneath the ground. Light came from there, along with a strong chemical smell and the herbal, slightly musty smell of marijuana.
Ducking back around the concealing crates, she signaled for the others.
Holding a finger to her lips for silence as Ty, Buck, Mitch and the others joined her, she pointed at the stairs. They nodded.
“Fast and dirty, people,” Ty said quietly.
“Niki,” Mitch said, “clear the stairs.”
She nodded in acknowledgment and holstered her guns.
Running lightly and nearly silently she leaped for the visible railing, vaulted over it to swing and land at the bottom of the stairs below the floor they were on, diving into a forward roll. She drew her guns even as the guards, clearly startled, reached for their weapons.
She was faster.
They froze.
Mitch and Ty ran lightly down the stairs after her to cover her, the others moving quickly behind them.
Beneath the desert was an enormous underground lab. Hydroponically grown marijuana plants were just beginning to reach harvest stage, while other sections, judging by the chemicals and whatnot, were for processing cocaine, cutting it, or processing methamphetamine. All of it was nearly operational. With the truck bay above, the cartels would have had a major, nearly invisible, distribution center.
Not anymore.
The rest was standard procedure for the team.
Nike raced forward, spinning, ducking and dodging, checking and clearing each section as the rest provided cover against those who tried to open fire on her. Their only job was that. If there were occupants in that area their shouldered weapons convinced them one way or another to remain silent. Ty silenced one man with a solid right to the jaw as he was about to shout a warning.
Niki gave him a look, clearly impressed, that almost made Ty laugh, if the situation hadn’t been so serious.
Then he ruined it by shaking his hand. It hurt.
She smiled.
Ty shook his head and smiled back at her.
It was going to be quite a haul, and now that they knew what to look for, it would be much easier to find the others. The counties where the sheriffs had died. A little pressure on the banks would make it even easier.
If there were others, they would find each and every one and shut them down. As it was, this would be one of the biggest drug hauls in the country.
He looked to Niki, standing in the middle of the lab, her head bowed a little as she talked to one of the workers, an undocumented woman who was clearly very frightened. She clung to Niki’s arm, obviously seeking reassurance. Niki patted her hand in consolation.
As if she felt his gaze on her, Niki turned her head. Seeing his expression, she nodded.
It had been a good night’s work.
Chapter Twenty Seven
It was their last night in Austin. Somehow the whole contingent, S
tate Patrol, Rangers, Border Patrol, Alpha team, Ty, Buck and Niki, all wound up at a honky-tonk somewhere in the back country of Texas. The place was a perfect example of a honky-tonk bar, a frame built building with wood plank floors, plank walls, dartboard, pool tables, the windows with beer signs in them.
It was even karaoke night.
In the midst of all the big, tall Texans, Ty himself, Buck and the others, Niki seemed a little dwarfed. She seemed… amused by it.
For the occasion, Niki had let her hair down. The reddish brown waves tumbled over the shoulders of her brown leather jacket. Beneath it, she wore one of her halter tops. It left a little bit of her belly showing, with the diamond ring in her navel. The halter and the little flippy skirt she wore were both moss green. She wore brown leather cowboy boots as if she’d been born to them and somehow she made it all look incredibly sexy.
Ty glanced at her. She grinned back.
He still hurt, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been.
Toby Keith played on the jukebox.
Ty shook his head. Country music wasn’t really his thing…, but the mood was infectious.
“My kind of bar,” Buck declared, clapping his hands and rubbing them together gleefully. “Set me up with a Bud or a Lone Star, somebody. Lone Star by preference.”
With a sigh, Jake Aragon draped an arm over Buck’s shoulder. “Where you been, Buck? Sorry, my man, but it’s as good as the same thing these days. They bought Lone Star out. And now somebody’s bought them out.”
“No, tell me it ain’t so,” Buck protested. “Damn. I’ve been gone too long.”
“That you have.”
Ty smiled while Niki shook her head at the lot of them.
As soon as they’d walked in, they knew it wouldn’t do. Tables were reshuffled and rearranged until they were spread out over several tables pushed together. Food and beers were ordered for everyone, and then the waitress showed up with shots of tequila.
“Courtesy of the gentleman,” she said, smiling
Sitting on a barstool, leaning back against the bar Sheriff Manuel Ramirez tipped his hat back, his booted feet stretched out in front of him. He lifted an eyebrow in challenge to the Yanks.
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