Both Ghost and Do-Right were carrying team-standard M4 select-fire rifles. They were both equipped with suppressers, which were designed to turn the loud roar of gunfire into a muted chatter. Do-Right was also equipped with his Glock 22 sidearm, riding in the tactical holster strapped to his thigh. Plenty of extra magazines for both firearms were secreted away in various pouches on his belt and armor.
Unlike Do-Right, Ghost carried an old Webley Mark VI revolver. The World War I-era revolver was a family heirloom and old friend from his monster hunting days. The old top-break revolver was not as fast as modern sidearms, but it was deadly in the monster hunters hands.
Heavy was behind the other two agents as they approached the house. Where Ghost and Do-Right carried modern assault rifles, the large black man carried a strange, almost futuristic cannon that had a huge muzzle and was fed from a large drum. This was the AA-12 full-auto shotgun, and was designed to clear a room within seconds, while inflicting maximum carnage. A Beretta M9 sidearm rested in his tactical thigh holster as backup.
The team leader motioned for Heavy to move out slightly and cover the house. He approached the front door and slung his rifle, motioning for Do-Right to step off to the side, out of sight of the main door. He knocked on the door and heard footsteps.
The door was opened by a middle-aged woman in a t-shirt and jeans. Her expression was one of disdain, and before she realized who was standing there, she groused, "I don't want any. I'm not buying any. And if you don't leave I'm calling the...."
Ghost flashed his badge and asked, "Cops?" He abruptly pulled her aside and opened the way for Do-Right. The former deputy pushed through the door, and into the living room. Ghost continued, "Homeland Security. Is there anyone in the house right now?"
The woman was speechless. She stared in horror at the man in the black leather duster and her eyes fixated on the badge he was holding up. The credentials flashed a greenish glow as Ghost willed more power into it. "I'm not going to ask again, is there anyone else in the house? We need to know so they won't get hurt."
The woman shook her head, her eyes still reflecting the green glow.
Ghost called softly, "She says it's clear. Verify it quickly. The clock is ticking."
"Got it, boss."
Two minutes later, Do-Right was back at the front of the house, standing just inside the door with Ghost and the woman. Her hands were zip-tied in her lap, and she was sitting on the overstuffed chair in front of the tv. She had recovered her voice and was cursing and threatening the federal agents with everything from kidnapping charges to civil rights lawsuits.
"The house is clear, sir." The former deputy looked at his boss. "Checked all three levels. Found some weed, but nothing worth worrying over."
Ghost nodded and keyed his mic, "Ghost to Gretchen. Send DHS to this location. One agent. One in custody."
"Affirmative," came the reply.
About a minute later, one of the DHS agents walked through the door. Ghost looked at the name tag on his vest. "Agent Verburg. This subject is temporarily detained. We will release her when it's over. You stand watch until then."
The man nodded, "Yessir. I'll babysit your detainee until you release her."
Ghost clapped him on the shoulder as he and Do-Right exited the house to rejoin Heavy outside on the lawn.
As one, the three agents moved around to the rear of the house. They moved up to a tree line and looked through the line at the property beyond their position. Directly to their east was a small shed with tools and yard equipment around it. North was the primary target and the main house. Not seeing a way to approach the shed without being seen, Ghost decided that they would have to leave that unchecked until the end of the raid. That left the property to the North.
Ghost pulled out binoculars and looked over the target from deep inside the tree line. He could see the two guards at the main entrance of ZT's headquarters. Both were cradling their rifles, and both men looked like they knew how to use them. He looked back toward the house and saw a child playing on a swing set in the back yard about forty feet from the guards.
Ghost cursed softly. He keyed his mic. "Ghost to Knightmare. Alert. There is a child approximately forty feet away from the guards, on the south side of the primary target. Bravo, check fire."
The team was too professional to curse on the radio, but Ghost knew that several colorful words were being said at that moment. He knew his snipers could not see the child from their vantage point, and the swing set was covered, so Spooky would not have seen the kid either.
Spooky broke into the radio chatter. "Ghost, this is Spooky. Be advised I just intercepted a landline call from the target location. The caller was giving a status update to someone I might assume was Miller. The caller said that "the vampire had not broken yet.' Those were the words they used."
The team leader looked at the two agents with him. That was the confirmation he needed. "Ghost to Bravo, be advised Alpha is two hundred feet from target. Bravo will initiate. Bravo, tangos are the two sentries. Alpha will break cover five seconds after tango down. Bravo remains on overwatch."
Two simple clicks told the team leader that his other fire team understood their orders. The team leader again touched his mic. "Ghost to Gretchen. I need the two fastest guys you have. DHS or sheriff, doesn't matter, but tell them to leave their rifles behind to have both hands free. They need to make their way to our position at the back of the secondary target, in the tree line."
Gretchen figured out what he was doing and sent a DHS agent and a TAC team member to meet the team. They were instructed to leave their rifles in their vehicles because they were on rescue duty. They quickly, but cautiously, made their way to meet up with Alpha. Ghost told them that their job was to go get that child and pull him back to the secondary target, inside with the other DHS agent. Both men nodded their understanding.
Ghost keyed his mic again, "Ghost to Bravo. DHS and sheriff will rescue kid. Watch fire." Again two clicks acknowledged the message.
Ghost pointed to Heavy, "You've got overwatch this side. Stop anyone coming out of the workshop." He now pointed at Do-Right, "You and I have the main house. Quick sweep. Then we take down the target." Both men nodded.
Again activating his radio, the monster hunter said, "Bravo, cleared to engage. Weapons free."
In the tree line to the north of the target, Scout sighted in on one of the guards. He knew that Little G would take the other one. He held his breath for a moment. On the exhale, he held once again, steadying his shot. As his finger moved on the trigger, the Navajo archer heard a soft "thwack" from the rifle beside him. He twitched his finger, and his rifle made the same soft sound.
The guard on the right dropped to his knees, clutching at his heart. There a red stain was spreading, even as he collapsed in a heap. His partner on the left was only starting to realize that there was something wrong before the 5.56mm round entered the back of his head and exited the front, taking most of his brains with it.
Ghost waited five long seconds, then he, Alpha, and the rescue team burst from the tree line. When they were halfway across the lawn, a woman walked out of the back porch and stopped. She saw the two figures laying in growing pools of blood and froze. Movement in the corner of her eye made her turn her head, and she watched as five armed men ran across the lawn to the south. She wailed, but it quickly turned into a piercing scream.
Ghost reached her in another second. He introduced himself as he ran past with a quick swing of his rifle butt to her head. Her cries cut off abruptly, and she dropped to the ground. The lanky monster hunter took the stairs two at a time, reaching the top of the back porch in mere steps. A momentary pause as he nodded to Do-Right, who was right behind him. Do-Right flung open the screen on the back porch and ran inside the house. Ghost followed on his heels.
The men cleared the main floor very quickly, as the modern, open floor plan made sight-lines a breeze. The team leader pointed up the stairs and the former deputy raised his rifle and crept sl
owly, carefully up the stairs. Checking every bedroom and bathroom on the floor, they finished clearing the house in one minute.
As they were walking back down the stairs, Ghost heard the sound of a rifle firing. It was answered by the unmistakable thunder from Heavy's shotgun. He looked at Do-Right, nodded, and they both scrambled for the door. The former deputy led his boss out the door.
There was a small covered walkway that led from the house to the outbuilding. A man crouched in the walkway behind a column and fired a Russian-style rifle at their teammate. Heavy's return fire was slowly chipping away at the column where the man was hiding.
Do-Right raised his rifle and took careful aim. As the crosshairs settled over the man's head, he gently squeezed the trigger. The muted sounds of his rifle were lost in the cacophony from the shotgun. The man's head disappeared, and the headless corpse fell out from behind the column.
Heavy smiled and nodded at the two agents on the porch. As he started to join his companions, another rifle opened up from the club's outbuilding. The big man immediately dropped to the ground, rolling away from the bullets.
Ghost and Do-Right both knelt, raised their red-dot reticles to their eyes, and pulled the triggers. Six rounds hit the gunman targeting their comrade. Three of the 5.56mm bullets impacted the face of the gunman and exited out of the back of his skull. The other three rounds hit the already-dead gunman square in the chest, as the body fell to the ground.
Heavy rumbled, "Thanks," as he stood to his feet. With his two teammates already covering his approach, the big gunner approached the door cautiously, stopping to the right of the main door with his back against the wall,
Ghost tapped Do-Right on the shoulder, and the former deputy advanced to the other side of the door while Ghost covered the entrance. As the former deputy was moving, the team leader activated his microphone, "Ghost to Gretchen—shots fired. We're all ok. Remind DHS and SWAT to hold position unless called."
He heard Gretchen acknowledge his transmission, but the team leader was already preparing to move for the door. He waited to make sure that Do-Right was safely to the entry point, and then he followed.
Ghost and Do-Right covered the entryway from opposite sides. Heavy stepped back and slammed his foot into the door. The frame shook, and the door moved a little. Ghost nodded at Heavy and he slammed his size fifteen boot into the door again, right beside the knob. The frame shook again, and the door bowed inward, but did not give.
"Little G to Ghost. Suspects rabbiting from door in rear of building. Engaging."
Before the team leader could respond, a small hidden door swung open about five feet off the ground, about a foot in front of the agent. The eight-inch square opening was filled with the muzzle of a pistol. Ghost shoved the muzzle of his carbine into the opening and fired a burst. A scream of pain sounded, and the pistol fell from the opening.
Heavy saw the opening and his leader's attack and quickly yanked a grenade from his belt. Pulling the pin with his teeth, the big man reached into the hole and dropped the now-live grenade. Shouts and curses sounded thru the opening and were cut off by a loud "bang" and a brilliant white light.
Heavy returned to concentrate on the front door and gave one more solid kick to the battered portal. This time the door seemed to explode inward, bouncing off one dazed ZT member before slamming into the wall. There the knob stuck in the drywall, preventing a rebound. Heavy went through the door, followed by Ghost. Do-Right stayed outside to watch the compound.
Immediately to the right of the door lay a man writhing in a pool of blood. Ghost took a brief moment to look and realized that he had hit the man in the chest with his burst. The man might survive if he could get help soon enough. Heavy took one look and ignored the man.
As he followed the team leader, Heavy clubbed the dazed ZT member standing to the left of the doorway with the butt of his shotgun. The second blow dropped the man to the ground, out cold. Both he and his team leader scanned around the open building, looking for any armed resistance. Ghost motioned for Heavy to split left while he walked up the right side of the building.
Thirty seconds later, the duo had cleared the entire floor, including the small bathroom. Ghost looked for a door to a basement in earnest. As he did so, Heavy took up a station by the open back door, and said to his boss, "I've got three tangos out the back door. One is still moving."
Ghost nodded as he walked into the lounge area. He was carefully pacing off distances and realized that the lounge was about five feet shorter. He walked over to the wall of bookshelves. His eyes ran across the titles of the books. Fiction and nonfiction, they were haphazardly arranged, with a few surprising titles among them. He found one that caught his eye. Secret Passages by S. Terces was a large hardback volume that had a moderate amount of wear on the top of the spine.
The federal agent grinned and called out, "Heavy. Found our door. Back me up."
The big agent thundered over and pointed his fully automatic shotgun at the door. Heavy nodded at his boss, and Ghost pulled the spine of the book. There was a click as the book levered forward. Ghost pulled on the shelf next to the book, and the center section of the bookshelf levered open, showing steps leading down into gloom.
"Federal agents. Come out with your hands up."
WHEN SHE HAD HEARD the rattle of the automatic shotgun, Boomer had known that she would only get one opening. As the two torturers had turned toward the door, she had focused all her of anger at being kidnapped, all her rage at being tortured, and all of her fury at their torture of Hannah into a key that unlocked the demon living inside her.
The wooden arms and legs of the chair shattered as she strained to raise her arms. The young demolitions specialist did not feel the slivers of wood slice into her flesh. She did not feel her left radius snap like a twig. Boomer could feel nothing except for the rage and hunger that drove her demon.
The twin brutes realized how much trouble they were in when they both heard the wood snap like kindling. The blond man was a bit faster than his brother and turned to see the vampire that they had been torturing all day leaping at his throat.
Even as her demon demanded to be fed, Boomer was thinking about the tactical situation. Cripple one, kill the other, then feed on both. As she prepared to leap at the men, she saw the blond turn his head back first. First target. One moment she was crouched to jump, then she was in the air, and landing on the blond bruiser's chest. Her momentum caused the man to stagger back and crash to the ground. A quick blow to the man's exposed throat with the side of her hand incapacitated the man. She looked at her next target.
The brunette was stunned, slack-jawed as his brother was taken to the ground by the small vampire. He tried to recover and began to paw at his belt holster. The creature leapt at him.
Boomer watched the man reach for his gun. He would never make it. With a mighty scream and a powerful surge, she was airborne and crashed into the man's chest. This time, distance and momentum worked in her favor and the man was knocked several feet back, landing on his back and knocking the breath out of him. He would never be able to breathe easy again.
Boomer bent down and bit, ripping a large chunk of the man's throat out, and drinking all the warm lifeblood. Her third bite scraped along the man's spinal column in the back of his throat. Swallowing the large chunk of meat, she decided the rest could wait.
The vampire agent looked up as the blond man was trying to rise to his feet. She watched him get to his knees and then get one leg underneath him. She grinned. Springing forward, she swept through the man's legs, taking them out from underneath him and hearing both of his femurs shatters as she hit them.
The man landed on his face with a sickening crunch. Muted howls rose from his wounded throat, and the vampire agent grabbed the man's shoulders, rolling him over to face her.
"I told you I would make you pay," she hissed. Her black eyes were cold. She bent to whisper in his ear, "I'm going to enjoy this, a lot."
The man's eyes were wide in
fear as Boomer took the first hunk out of his ruined throat. She was finishing off the man's throat when Ghost and Do-Right appeared in the doorway.
19
EVIDENCE
GERALD R. FORD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
"And how is Miss Callahan now?" Concern showed on Agent Smith's face and in his tone. "Is she still mission capable? What about Miss Sedano? Is she going to make it through the mission?"
Ghost and Gretchen sat in front of the camera and monitor in the conference room while the rest of the team was sitting in the lounge area inside the MCC. Both Ghost and Gretchen decided that it was too dangerous to stay at the hotel that night and had asked the local SAC to provide two extra perimeter guards. Ghost did not think that Zero Tolerance would attempt anything else, but it was better to take the precautions.
"Boomer seems to be fine." Ghost responded to his boss, "According to Dancer, she held onto her temper and her creature until we were making the assault on the compound. Then she used it to break free and kill their tormenters. When we got there, Boomer recognized Do-right and myself right away. She slowly stood and stepped back away from the corpses. She wiped her face and neck off on her shirt until we could get a canteen and some towels down to her."
Gretchen chimed in, "I would consider both of them still mission capable. Agent Sedano may have a few nightmares, but Agent Callahan took most of the torture. I think she purged most of it by... eating the problems."
Agent Smith winced, "Keep an eye on Miss Callahan. Both of you. Watch to make sure her creature isn't winning control."
Smith paused to look at the monitor in front of him. "What about Zero Tolerance? Are they going to cause more problems?"
INCURSION: Faeblade (Knight's Bane Trilogy Book 2) Page 15
