“We made it.”
No answer.
A bullet whizzed past his head. Kinimaka barely noticed, but quickly took Smyth’s testy advice and ducked.
“Hay?”
Her lips moved. “I’m okay. Just… resting.”
Kinimaka breathed a heavy sigh and took the opportunity to ease out the muscles of his arms. He might not get another chance for a while.
“They need your help,” Smyth hissed through the corner of his mouth. Kinimaka turned. Komodo was kneeling, firing steadily at the steel door, its surface already peppered with holes. Two attackers lay half-in half-out the door, weapons discarded, unmoving. Blood had splashed the rusty frames. Karin had taken cover behind the big man’s back, two feet behind, and was aiming her revolver around the side of his head.
Kinimaka sucked in a breath. Shit, he thought. They’re confident.
“Gotcha covered!” he yelled, and Komodo waved a hand, ordering Karin away. The young woman shouted back at him, clearly agitated, and Komodo immediately began to edge away with her. Kinimaka spotted a man’s head sneaking around the far doorframe and fired a couple of rounds to keep him at bay. They were lucky the access was small and impossible to protect, but he had no doubt that pretty soon the freak of an albino would come up with some kind of gnarly plan.
Karin balanced on the scaffold plank and fairly skipped across. Komodo jumped on straight after, and then the night exploded. The little access door bloomed outward, chased by shrapnel and fire. Its surrounds shattered under the detonation, spinning and skimming off into the night. Komodo paused before he negotiated the plank, unsure what would come next.
But Smyth knew. “Run!” he cried.
Too late. The enemy swarmed up through the widened gap, firing as they came. Smyth and Kinimaka ducked beneath the brick parapet as bullets thudded all around them. Karin remained kneeling, shooting hard, hitting one man’s arm and sending his gun soaring, kneecapping another and sending him down hard. Komodo charged across the plank, at the last minute leaping for the edge of the other building as the deformed wood rolled. His hands caught the edge, scrabbling for purchase. Bullets struck brick all around and between his flailing legs.
“Fuck me!”
Smyth and Kinimaka popped up and laid down covering fire. Komodo heaved his bulk up over the edge, landing hard. Once safe, the team wasted no time in retreat, first upending the scaffolding plank and letting it fall to the ground far below.
Kinimaka, staying low, scanned the roof. “I hate to say it, but this roof ain’t any better than the one we just almost died on.”
“Sure it is.” Smyth crawled past him at speed. “The bad guys aren’t on it.”
Kinimaka scooped up Hayden’s body, feeling the shallow breaths she was taking vibrate up his arms, and scrambled after Smyth. Komodo and Karin thwarted their assailants by discharging a measured, slow and steady stream of bullets.
Kinimaka reached the far end of the roof. More scaffold poles poked up over the edge and, beyond them, a bright yellow crane. When Smyth glanced over the parapet he gave out a loud cheer.
“There’s a ladder. Double wide, so even you should fit, big man.”
Kinimaka stared at him. It was clear that, if they survived tonight, the ex-Delta soldier and he were going to have to talk. Hawaiian hula girls and surfer chicks had previously gotten away with calling him ‘big man’. Dudes did not.
This time Smyth motioned Karin and Komodo to go first. Without pause they jumped down onto the scaffolding, feeling the whole structure rock, and headed for the ladder. Kinimaka went next, securing Hayden tightly and with great care, then leaping and landing on two feet. The planks groaned under his weight, the metal poles whining under the pressure, but the construction held.
“No fuckin’ about,” Smyth yelled. “They’re coming across now!”
He picked off the first few as they laid a fresh plank, but the hail of covering fire he withstood soon sent him scrambling over the edge of the building. Nevertheless he tarried, still firing, mindful that their attackers carried grenades and could quite easily and happily blow the scaffolding apart before the team reached the bottom.
The sound of Komodo’s clattering came to an end, then Karin’s. Kinimaka was understandably slower. Smyth fired a last volley as the enemy leapt onto the roof, then turned and sprinted for the ladder. It was wide, with platforms at every level, and switch-backed, so provided a decent amount of protection. Smyth saw Kinimaka’s bulk hammering at the stairs far below, then a shout came from above.
“Say hi to your little friend!”
Smyth glanced up through the gaps. Faster than him, quicker than even the Special Forces man could calculate, the vicious albino had raced to the parapet and now perched there like some nightmarish gargoyle.
In one hand he held a pineapple-shaped grenade.
Smyth put his head down and ran hard. In less than a second, he heard the clatter as the metal object hit wooden planks and knew he had no chance of outrunning the explosion. No chance at all. But he had managed to cover his team’s escape.
In that last second he ran faster than ever before.
The grenade exploded with an ear-splitting clap of thunder, sending out a supercharged blast of fire and energy. Part of the brick wall of the building crumbled inward. The scaffolding all around was blown away, poles and planks shooting like arrows into the darkness, causing the whole structure to collapse.
Smyth felt the entire configuration shifting beneath his feet, swaying away from the wall and crumbling into oblivion. He flew, fleet of foot, with a fire at his heels.
One more second… one more step…
The scaffold collapsed in on itself with a clang and a roar. The albino’s cackle sounded above it all. Smyth took one more step, then launched his body away from the disintegrating structure and out into empty space.
Sheer blackness and a drop of almost thirty meters lay directly below him.
He hit the bright-yellow crane hard. His forehead smashed into an upright, making him see stars, but his hands found purchase on a cross support, arresting his fall. Smyth stared up, meeting the shocked eyes of the albino.
“Mother—”
The rest was lost as the albino opened fire. Smyth placed his feet to either side of the stanchion he was clutching and let himself freefall, using his thickly-clothed arms and legs to control the descent.
He landed hard, crumpling and groaning, thankful that at least he had landed on grass and not the concrete.
Komodo held out a hand, looking impressed. “Nicely done. Thought you were a goner.”
Smyth managed a rare grin. “Yeah. I bet even Mai Kitano couldn’t have pulled that off.”
Komodo led him away at a jog. “Mai? Are you kidding? She’d have caught the grenade in her teeth and spat it right back into the bastard’s face.”
Smyth acceded gracefully. “Good point.”
“I mean, crap,” Komodo went on. “Torsten Dahl would probably have just chewed it up and spit it out. This ain’t Delta anymore, Smyth. These fuckers are the meanest, most expensively trained fighting machines on earth. They ain’t normal warriors.”
“I get it, I get it,” Smyth grumped. “Where the hell are we going?”
“We’re getting the fuck outta here.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Kinimaka ducked his head and shoulders as low across Hayden’s body as he dared. Any lower and he would lose his balance and go sprawling. Smyth and Komodo were ahead, tearing across the parking area toward an old but still sleek black Camaro.