Daniel knew she would make her move quickly, so he hustled out of the car as soon as Melendez dropped the guard standing next to the door on the platform. He had timed the shot perfectly with Wilkins' entrance. The old man had been out of sight when the contents of the guard's head painted the wall. Wilkins was already nervous enough, and his actions could affect the outcome in that room. Daniel sprinted up the stairs and listened to the voice-activated feed sent from a microphone hidden inside Jessica's jacket collar to their earpieces. Once he heard Jessica's greeting, he mentally counted to two and opened the door. Jessica planned to grab Anne Renee if she took the handshake or pounce on her within a few seconds if she refused. Either way, his mission was the same: fire controlled bursts from the P90 into anyone except for Jessica or Anne Renee.
Tucked into the P90, he immediately assessed the situation and chose his targets. The closest guard had drawn his pistol, but was pretty far from pointing it in a useful direction. Primary threat. The second guard had raised both hands to his neck in response to Jessica's knife. Secondary threat. He didn't see any firearms involved in the melee between Jessica and Anne Renee. Under control. He placed the closest guard's head in the center of the P90's integrated Ring Sight and pulled the trigger back for a controlled burst. The P90's unusually high rate of fire sent six 5.7X28mm SS190 full metal-jacketed rounds into the man's head, which was overkill for this armor-piercing caliber. He shifted the sight to the other man and applied less pressure to the trigger, firing one round, which had the same effect. The P90 had a double trigger action, instead of a selector switch. Pulling the trigger back past a certain point activated its fully automatic action. By the time he had finished clearing the room, Jessica had disappeared through the open doorway leading deeper into the facility, chasing after their high-value target.
"Jessica's in pursuit. Move around the back," he said out loud, hoping that Munoz was already driving the Cherokee toward the loading bay side of the building.
Daniel didn't wait. He rushed through the room, pushing aside Bob Wilkins and leaping over the guard with the blade embedded in his neck. When he reached the doorway, he didn't burst through like his wife. He leaned inside, aiming the P90, and formed an image. The loading bay connected to the office contained several pallets of Crystal Source water bottles piled along the wall closest to the opening. A forklift driver, oblivious to the drama behind him, backed his yellow machine from the rear of the semi-trailer. He could see the far end of the loading bay complex through large openings at the back of each bay, designed to allow the forklifts to move from bay to bay with ease. Jessica was in the middle of the second bay, sprinting toward the next opening, ignoring everything but Anne Renee Paulson, who was wrestling an M4 rifle from one of her guards.
One of the men Jessica had passed on her way to the second bay drew a pistol and started to run in her direction. Daniel placed the man's upper torso at the top of the T-shaped reticle and pulled the trigger, firing a burst. He immediately switched to Anne Renee, who had grabbed the M4 and had swung its barrel in Jessica's direction. He didn't weigh his options with Jessica at risk. Jessica was in the open, with little hope of getting behind cover in time. He depressed the trigger, firing a short burst that mostly hit Anne Renee in the upper chest and neck. His next burst struck the guard next to her, who had barely recognized the threat to their facility before several armor-piercing bullets punctured his face and eliminated any future possibility of forming thoughts. The guard's body collapsed to the concrete floor next to Anne Renee, who had fallen to her knees with a confused look on her face. She wasn't dead, but it was clear that her body wasn't sending commands to her limbs. She had already released the rifle's pistol grip, dropping the M4 to the dull concrete.
Jessica reached the wall separating bays one and two, kneeling behind it. She glanced up at him and cursed. They had lost their high-value target, which could be a problem. The sound of yelling started to increase from the bays further down the long access corridor in front of Daniel. All along the back of the complex, members of True America started to realize that something was wrong. A woman peeked around the same corner hiding Jessica and fired some kind of submachine gun on full automatic at his position in the doorway. The bullets slammed into the doorframe and flew through the opening, puncturing the opposite wall and shredding an empty bookcase.
Daniel leaned in with the P90, just in time to see the woman's head disappear behind the wall. He signaled for Jessica to lie flat. Once she cleared the spot where he had calculated the shooter to be located, he depressed the trigger and held it back, perforating the wall above Jessica with the magazine's remaining rounds. At a rate of 900 rounds per minute, the fifty-round magazine could be expended within three seconds, with little loss of control. His weapon fired for roughly two seconds, each armor-piercing round passing easily through the cinderblock and showering Jessica with chunks of the powder-covered debris.
Through the soccer-ball-sized hole blown through the cinderblock, he saw a body lurch forward. A bloodied hand flopped into view past the corner. Before reloading, he drew his USP Compact and slid it to Jessica. He noticed that she didn't attempt to stand up. After what he had just done to the woman behind the wall, he didn't blame her. If the woman past Jessica had been using similar ammunition, Daniel would be lying on the floor bleeding from multiple holes. Her 9mm rounds severely damaged the cinderblock barrier in front of Daniel, but failed to penetrate with the needed velocity to do more than spray cinderblock pieces into his face. He suspected that the True America operatives were using hollow-point ammunition, which would mushroom upon impact and impart their energy over a wider area, further reducing their penetration power. Still, there were no guarantees in the world of projectile ballistics. He'd seen and caused his share of anomalies.
He replaced the P90's fifty-round magazine and sprinted across the bay to Jessica. Gunfire erupted when he left the doorway, but most of the fire was directed at his previous position. He heard the snap and hiss of several near misses, as less experienced shooters poured rounds behind him. By the time they decided to adjust their fire, he had already cleared the open area between bays. When he reached Jessica, she was lying prone, covering the three men who stood with their hands in the air near the forklift. A massive gunfight erupted deeper within the loading complex.
Melendez climbed back into the passenger seat of the Cherokee and slammed the door shut. He had just pulled off a headshot with a single, suppressed 5.7X28mm round, at a range of 42 meters using the P90's unmagnified Ring Sight. Given the fact that he had limited experience with the weapon, he was rightfully proud of the accomplishment. They had parked the SUV just out of sight around the next loading bay complex, in a position that allowed Melendez to open the door and brace the P90 against its outer edge. Munoz had parked the vehicle perfectly. The P90's reticle barely cleared the corner of the building, but gave him an unobstructed line of fire to the guard. Munoz had stood behind him to make the determination regarding Wilkins' position. A light tap on the shoulder indicated that Wilkins had entered the building and would not see the man's head splatter the wall. The 5.7 round performed as advertised.
The SUV lurched forward before the door closed, slamming Melendez against the headrest. Munoz drove across the wide expanse of crumbling asphalt that separated the two loading complexes. The large space between buildings was designed to accommodate the semi-trailers that would be navigated into position along the multiple loading bays behind the building. He drove diagonally across the asphalt, ignoring the faint markings indicating a proposed traffic flow. They needed to be in position at the corner of the building within seconds in order to effectively support Jessica and Daniel. Melendez could see the cab of the first semi-rig beyond the corner and hoped that the driver was inside the building. They had no idea how far the conspiracy penetrated, but they assumed the drivers would be heavily armed.