Scourge: V Plague Book 14

by Dirk Patton

  “Think that will do it?” Rachel asked, moving to the open door.

  “Where the hell are you going?” I called.

  “Stinks in here,” she said, then ran out of the room with a laugh.

  Lucas and I stared at the door.

  “Well, mate. I can certainly see why you picked that one,” Lucas said drily, trying not to gag.

  It took us close to a minute to work up the courage to make a dash for the door. Dog ran with us and I’ve probably never been so happy to breathe fresh air in my life. Rachel, Wellington and Schmidt stood in the hall, each of them grinning like idiots.

  “You didn’t need two cases of that shite,” Lucas gasped. “One can should send the Russians running!”

  Rachel started to say something, most likely sarcastic, but we were interrupted as Tanner burst out of another room.

  “We’ve got a problem,” he shouted, dashing away from us down the hallway.

  No one hesitated, just charged after him. We caught up with the Chief Inspector in a cramped office. Several PCs sat on the floor, feeding monitors that were piled on a folding table amongst a bird’s nest of wiring.

  “Tanner?” Wellington asked as we all squeezed in.

  “There,” he said, pointing at a screen displaying an image of the main entrance into the compound.

  Two men in dark clothing stood outside the rolling gate, rifles in their hands. Tanner pointed to two other monitors, both showing more identically dressed and armed men standing outside the perimeter fence.

  “Russians?” I asked rhetorically, assuming the worst. “Wellington, you have an armory?”

  “Follow me!”

  He pushed through the crush of bodies and took off at a dead run. We did as instructed, running close on his heels. After a couple of turns, he stopped at a door labeled as Custodian, a large wad of keys already in hand. It hid a slate grey vault door and he tugged it open after entering a long series of digits into the keypad.

  Lights popped on as he stepped in and immediately reached for a rack of American M4 rifles. They were quickly passed down the line until everyone was armed, then he grabbed a large ammo can off a shelf.

  “Loaded mags, and there’s a radio in each can,” he said. “Everyone take one!”

  Brillard arrived, slightly winded from sprinting to the armory. I tossed him the rifle I was holding and grabbed another.

  “Going to the roof,” Wellington said, picking up a very long sniper rifle with a high-powered scope. “The Senior Sergeant knows the terrain and will direct you to defensive positions.”

  He slipped out of the vault and disappeared at a run.

  “Fuck that,” I said before Brillard could open his mouth. “I’m going outside. We need a little offense.”

  I’d spotted a shelf that held night vision goggles and reached for one. Brillard started to protest, but Lucas cut him off and snatched another pair of NVGs for himself.

  “He’s right, and I’m going with him,” he said.

  “Stay here and keep Dog close,” I said to Rachel.

  She slapped a loaded mag into her rifle and nodded as I stepped into the hall.

  “This way,” Lucas said, taking off to our right.

  We passed the classroom and turned down a narrow hall that led to the rear of the building. At the end was a steel fire door and I knew where we were. Just outside, there was a small smoking area that had been set up for the trainees, and I’d ducked out there for a cigarette a couple of times.

  Lucas paused before opening the exterior door, glancing up at the light over our heads. I reversed the rifle in my grip and used the butt to smash the bulb, plunging the hallway into darkness. Dog’s nose bumped my leg and I spun around in surprise. Rachel was right behind him.

  “He wanted to come with you,” she whispered, shrugging.

  I shook my head, but didn’t have time to argue. Slipping the night vision goggles into place, I activated them and followed Lucas out into the dark. We were on a concrete pad that extended from the rear of the structure, surrounded by a grassy field with occasional clumps of bushes.

  Lucas scanned quickly before leading the way to the closest shrub. We took up positions on opposite sides and I hand directed Rachel to the third area. Dog settled in at my side and I could feel the tension in his body.

  “Clear,” I said after a full thirty seconds of scanning.

  “Clear,” Lucas and Rachel both echoed a moment later.

  Lucas raised the radio to check what Tanner could see on the security monitors, but paused when the sound of a heavy helicopter rotor reached us. It quickly grew in volume, approaching fast.

  “That’s a Black Hawk,” I said when I recognized the unique sound signature.

  “Has to be ADF,” Lucas said, meaning the Australian Defense Force. “Russians brought their own.”

  “What the fuck?” I muttered.

  “Don’t know,” he said.

  By now we could see the helicopter’s navigation lights approaching from the south. It was coming fast, but wasn’t low or blacked out. At least it wasn’t on an attack run. Not trusting it wasn’t a decoy, I carefully scanned the night sky in the opposite direction. Nothing was airborne.

  The Black Hawk lost altitude and slowed until it was in a stable hover above the large parking lot for the classroom building. Lucas had already pulled around close to me so we were all concealed by the thick bushes. We watched as the helo descended and came to rest on the asphalt.

  Side door sliding open, half a dozen men in body armor with rifles jumped to the ground and spread out in a defensive perimeter. When they were in place, an older man with a star on his uniform collar stepped out into the night. He was ramrod straight with a profile straight out of central casting when they wanted a hard as nails military commander. He stayed by the helo for a moment, surveying the area, iron grey, brush cut hair not even twitching in the fierce downdraft from the rotor.

  “Fuck,” Lucas breathed.

  “Know him?”

  “Recognize him,” he said. “Brigadier Stonebridge. Right bloody prick. He’s a political puppet and whenever the PM farts it clears out his sinuses.”

  “What the hell is he doing here?” Rachel asked.

  “Nothing good. That’s for sure,” Lucas said. “This means the PM has gotten wind of our plans, or at least that we’re making some, and the Brigadier is here to shut us down.”

  “We need to get the hell out of here,” I said, turning and surveying the distant fence line.

  “Aye, we do,” Lucas said, then turned to face me. “But if the Brigadier is here, that means it’s not Russians surrounding the perimeter. We aren’t here to start killing soldiers who are simply doing their job. If we get caught, we get caught.”

  “Fuck that,” I growled. “Where were these bastards when Barinov was executing a squad of American SEALs? They made their choice, and they’ve got to live, or die, with the consequences!”

  Lucas glared at me, then shook his head.

  “You know better than that,” he said, not breaking eye contact.

  “Look, Lucas. You know the score. Know what’s coming if we don’t remove Barinov. I understand your concern for your fellow soldiers, but do you think they’d hesitate to fire on us? I promise I’ll do everything I can not to kill one of them, but I will not let them stop me!”

  “Look!” Rachel said.

  She was staring at the idling Black Hawk and Lucas and I turned to see what had caught her attention. Another man in uniform had stepped out and was standing next to the Brigadier, only this one wasn’t a member of the Australian military. I raised the rifle to use the scope for a better view and gritted my teeth.

  “Goddamn Russian Colonel General,” I said, lowering the rifle and looking at Lucas. “Don’t know about Australia, mate, but I know what we do to traitors in my country.”

  “Fuck ‘em,” Lucas growled, lowering his weapon. “Let’s get out of here.”

  38

  I stood to lead th
e way to the rear fence and nearly tripped over a bush. It was to my left and I didn’t see it until I’d already stuck a foot into a tangle of trailing vines growing from it. Without a word, Lucas moved past me and headed for the perimeter. With Rachel following him, Dog and I brought up the rear.

  Wellington’s compound was several acres and it took us a few minutes to cover the open ground. Dog wasn’t alerting, but I wasn’t sure that he would in the absence of an infected. We came to a stop and dropped to the ground when Lucas held up a clenched fist. Looking in the direction he was facing, I could see a pair of men patrolling the outside of the fence.

  The first thing that struck me was how sloppy they were. Walking side by side with their rifles held casually in one hand, they were having a conversation as one of them smoked. There was no effort to remain quiet or unseen, and they seemed to be unconcerned that they could come under attack from within the compound.

  This told me volumes about the men the Brigadier had brought with him. These weren’t elite troops. Far from it. In fact, I suspected these two hadn’t received any training beyond what would have been provided in Basic. This also told me that Australia had probably lost all their special operations troops, which wasn’t terribly surprising.

  Sure, we’re all part of similar military hierarchies, but operators are cut from an entirely different cloth. Yes, our selection and training is a brutal process, but it’s every bit as much mental as physical. That means that almost every person who enters the Spec Ops world is a cut above in intelligence. Why does that matter? Because we’re actually able to think for ourselves and not just blindly fall back on following orders. Sometimes that’s served me well, but on more than a few occasions it’s gotten my ass in a sling with a superior officer.

  But my point is, when something as dramatically wrong as their PM bowing to the Russians happens, it’s not surprising when men like Lucas walk away and start sharpening their knives. It’s also not surprising that there will be some soldiers who will take the easy way out and continue to do as they’re told by their commanders. I was pretty sure these two were a prime example of that.

  It took them several minutes to pass out of sight. Once they were gone, Lucas leapt to his feet and ran to the six-foot chain link fence that formed the perimeter of the compound. Without breaking stride, he jumped, placed a hand on the top rail and vaulted over. Rachel, who had probably never run an obstacle course in her life, came to a stop before climbing over. I crossed in the same manner as Lucas and Dog cleared the barrier in a seemingly effortless bound.

  Lucas was looking to our left, making sure the two soldiers hadn’t heard the soft jingle of the fence as we crossed. I scanned right, something catching my attention. A man was standing behind a sedan parked on the side of a narrow road. He was bringing a rifle around to target us and I’d caught a brief glint of light from a streetlight reflecting off the scope’s glass.

  There was no time to shout a warning and I threw myself at Rachel and Lucas who were only a few feet apart. As we tumbled to the ground, there was a faint report from the direction of our attacker, telling me he was using a suppressed weapon. I heard and felt the shockwave of a heavy bullet, passing just above my back.

  “Shooter!” I called, twisting around to face the threat.

  I didn’t take time to aim. Wasn’t even sure there wasn’t already a bullet on its way towards my head. Instead, I pointed my rifle in the general direction of the sedan, pulled and held the trigger. The M4 was unsuppressed and shockingly loud in the still night. Rachel joined me an instant later and we thoroughly hosed down the car, shattering glass, flattening tires and riddling the sheet metal with bullet holes.

  “Move!”

  I jumped to my feet and ran for the protection of a squat warehouse on the far side of the street. Rachel was at my side, Dog sprinting ahead. We skidded to a stop behind a large delivery van and I looked around for Lucas. He still lay on the ground near the fence, unmoving.

  My first instinct was to run to him, but I had no idea if the shooter was down, had left or was waiting to put a round into me the instant I came out of cover. As I hesitated, staring hard at Lucas, there were shouts in the night as the two soldiers who’d passed by earlier responded to the gunfire.

  “Lucas,” Rachel said, distress in her voice.

  “Nothing we can do. If he’s alive, they’ll call an ambulance,” I said.

  I took a second to look around, then grabbed her arm and headed for the far side of the warehouse. We were screened from the shooter’s location by the van, but I still pushed her to a flat out run. Full auto firing is notoriously inaccurate and I wasn’t about to bet our lives on our attacker being out of the game.

  As we approached the side of the building, I pushed Rachel ahead, Dog sticking close. As I rounded the corner, a chunk of concrete was blasted out of the wall only inches to the right of my head, sending tiny pieces of shrapnel into my face. The shooter was coming after us!

  Pulling to a stop, I dropped to a knee and stuck my head back around the corner for half a second, then pulled it back as another round struck the wall. Shoving my rifle around the edge, but keeping my head back, I blindly ripped off another long burst before jumping back to my feet. I pushed Rachel and she broke into a run along the back side of the building with me right behind her.

  The warehouse was larger than I’d thought, and it was too far to the next corner. There wasn’t enough time to make it before the shooter would reach the area and pick us off.

  “To your left!” I hissed, gesturing down a grassy slope when Rachel glanced over her shoulder.

  She didn’t hesitate to change directions, turning and flying down the small hill. We crashed through a narrow strip of trees, then into another parking lot for a commercial business complex. It was little more than a strip mall with office doors spaced regularly across the front, and the parking lot was well lit.

  “There!”

  I tugged on Rachel’s arm to get her moving in the right direction. Along the back edge of the parking lot was a water control channel that disappeared into a culvert that ran beneath a broad thoroughfare. We leapt over the curb and into the concrete ditch, running into the concealing darkness of the duct beneath the road before coming to a stop. Ahead of us, I could see the channel continue on the opposite side of the street.

  “Keep watch,” I said to Rachel, pointing towards the far opening.

  She circled her arm around Dog’s neck, pulling him close before raising her rifle and steadying its aim. I turned and watched for our pursuer, making sure I was far enough back into the culvert to be concealed from view. Hopefully. Unless he had some really good night vision that could handle the contrast in lighting between the bright parking lot and the deep darkness of where I waited.

  “Hear that?”

  Rachel mumbled the question at the same time I began hearing the distant wail of approaching sirens.

  “Shhhh,” I whispered as softly as I could.

  I’d just seen movement. Nothing definitive, but on the far side of the stand of trees we’d run through, something had moved in a way that wasn’t in sync with the branches that were swaying in a night breeze. My rifle was tight to my shoulder as I concentrated on what I could see with the night vision goggles.

  The sirens were growing closer when I saw another flash of movement. This time, I was certain I’d seen the shape of a man and I concentrated on the spot behind the trees that had drawn my attention. He was moving slowly, frequently pausing to scan the open parking lot. Now, I could make out the shape of his weapon and carefully raised the NVGs to the top of my head and looked through my rifle scope.

  Whoever this guy was, he didn’t seem concerned in the least over the approaching police cars. That meant he was either Australian military, or Russian. Either way, he’d started shooting the instant he had a line on us and I wasn’t going to hesitate to return the favor.

  He paused again, still visible despite being mostly screened by the trees. Another
two steps and I’d have a clear, unobstructed shot. Standing there, he kept his rifle up and ready, scanning his surroundings through its scope.

  “C’mon you fucker,” I muttered under my breath.

  Time stood still as he scanned and I kept mentally encouraging him to step into the open so I could kill him. But he didn’t move. He was a cagey bastard, and it bothered him that we’d disappeared so fast. I was willing to bet this wasn’t the first time he’d chased an armed man, and he wasn’t going to charge headlong into a trap.

  The wail of sirens reached a crescendo as three police cars passed directly overhead. Again, the man hunting us didn’t even flinch. I grudgingly acknowledged to myself that this guy must have nerves of steel. Even if he was immune to arrest or prosecution, it’s still risky as hell to be standing around the scene of reported gunfire with a rifle in your hands when the police arrive. Being official doesn’t protect you from being shot by a nervous cop who has no idea who you are, and isn’t about to wait to find out if you’re going to do him harm.

  More sirens were coming and I began to hear the beat of a helicopter. Not the heavy pounding of a Black Hawk, but the lighter sound of a smaller helo. The kind that’s used by police departments. And the kind that has spotlights and thermal imagers for tracking suspects at night. This wasn’t good news. Time for us to make it out of the area before the cops completely locked it down was almost gone.

  39

  Anna watched intently as the dust cloud continued to approach. It was too dark and the vehicle was still too far away for her to spot it. If not for the hazy patch of air that marked its passage, she wouldn’t even be aware of its presence.

  Lying on the cold, hard desert sand, she wished for a sniper rifle with a high-powered scope. As soon as she had the thought, she shook her head. That was something she’d never done and didn’t have the first idea of how to go about engaging a moving target at long distances. All she knew for sure was that it wasn’t as easy as the professionals made it look.