For the first time, Sean could actually hear the watchers. Although he was unable to make out what they were saying, he could hear a very low murmur as they talked to one another which obviously meant there was more than one. Why were things never simple he thought to himself.
With no time like the present and pretty much no other option, Sean crept across to the doorway and worked his way along the hallway until he was just out of sight of the watchers. As their murmuring never ceased, he assumed they were unaware of his presence. He readied himself and scratched his foot gently against the wall. The murmuring didn’t stop, so he tried again a little harder. The murmuring stopped and footsteps began to move across the floor. Just one set, as Sean had hoped. As the watcher approached the doorway, his focus was on the staircase ahead of him not on the doorway to his left. Sean wasted no time and grabbed the watcher by the throat and pulled him in close and marched him into the room, catching the watcher’s hand as he desperately grasped for his pistol which Sean extracted and was pointing at the watcher’s colleague before he had a chance to realize what was happening.
As Sean’s hand crushed the first watcher’s windpipe, the second stood like a rabbit caught in headlights about to receive a bullet through his temple. It was just as he had envisioned, right up until the muzzle of the third watcher’s gun pressed against the back of Sean’s head. There had been another watcher in the bedroom opposite.
Sean relaxed the grip on the first watcher’s throat but not so as to let him go. It was probably the only thing stopping number three shooting, the likelihood of the bullet killing both Sean and Number One were pretty much a given.
“Sean Fox?” asked Number Three, his accent was perfect East Coast American.
Sean nodded, perhaps they were on his side after all.
The muzzle was not removed. Round 2 to the watchers, they knew they had their man.
The sound of a digital code being dialed was the next thing Sean heard. He heard a gruff voice bark something on the other end before Number Three replied.
“Da!” and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 46
Arriving late at night, the CIA team had opted to bed down at the Naval Air Station where they had landed as a result of their last minute rerouting. None were overly impressed with their subsequent 5 a.m. start following the call from Jane, V’s assistant. However, with a former Seal in their team, a ride was quickly arranged for the team on one of the Coastguard’s Dauphin choppers. What was going to be a two-hour drive cross-country became a 50-minute hop. By 6.30 a.m., they were landing at Laredo and 'borrowing’ an unsecured airfield truck, they were on site less than fifteen minutes later. Not knowing what lay ahead, they had ditched the truck in favor of a silent approach from a couple of streets away. As they made their way through a number of gardens, their night vision goggles began to pick up a number of heat sources near the target property. Not knowing whether they were friend or foe, the Team Leader indicated towards the property diagonally opposite the house and it was in fact the CIA team that had slit the sheeting on the Patio door. As they worked their way through the house, they had regrouped in the upstairs bedroom and as sunlight began to break, they were about to report in to V.
The front door being opened downstairs deterred them from any such call and had them scampering for cover. The only cover they could find was the loft hatch and as the watchers who were obviously keen to hide in the daylight trooped up the stairs, the CIA team was silently slipping into the loft. It was only a matter of luck that they managed to secure the hatch before the first watcher had mounted the staircase.
Hearing the low murmur of the voices from below and with none of the insulation in place, the Team could do nothing but remain still and silent and certainly had no chance to make a call. The Team Leader reached for his phone, he could always send a text but it wasn’t in his pocket, it was in his pack which had been slung across the floor of the loft, with all the others, as they scrambled out of sight. He tried to reach out but the wood beneath him began to squeak. He signaled to his team. They all shook their heads, none could get to a phone without alerting the watchers below. They then had an added concern. What if somebody called them?
As the sun rose, the heat began to build. The un-insulated loft space was not where you wanted to be in the Texan sun. After less than half an hour, the temperature was easily touching a hundred in the confined and airless space and it wasn’t even 8.00 a.m. There was no way they could spend the day there, certainly not without water which was in their packs. Just as he was considering their next move, a noise from below had them all looking at one another. A scuffle followed by feet scrambling across the floor had them looking towards the hatch. Had they been detected?
The American accent saying Sean Fox had the nearest team member to the hatchway lifting it. As far as he was concerned, friendlies were below. After all, it was Sean Fox they were there to assist. As the hatch rose, he saw Sean with one man by the throat and a gun pointing at another. As he inched the hatch higher, a man with a phone to his ear and a gun firmly pressed against Sean’s head came into view.
“Hostiles!” muttered the hatch opener. He couldn’t do anything, both hands were holding the hatch and his body blocked the view for the others. He leaned back offering the second team member a view.
“Shit!” said team member two struggling to get his MP5 raised in the confined space.
“Only shoot if he’s in imminent danger,” warned the team leader as number two depressed his trigger. He was very certain he was.
Sean caught sight of the hatch opening just as he realized the guy was saying yes in Russian. More Russians, he thought.
The putt of an MP5 was unmistakable as was the wetness that hit Sean’s head. With Watcher Three dead, Sean squeezed Watcher One’s neck, snapping at least two vertebrae as he pulled the trigger that sent Watcher Two to an early grave. Three down in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, all weapons were silenced and nobody outside of the house were any the wiser, although as the CIA team with some relief climbed from the loft space, Sean suddenly remembered the phone.
“Shit!” he spun to the lifeless body that had threatened to kill him. The phone was half implanted in its head. The bullet had gone straight through the phone before killing him instantly. A bullet hole in the floor was testament to the fact that he had managed to pull the trigger to kill Sean before he died.
As the hot and extremely sweaty CIA team high fived Sean, the Team Leader looked at the two watchers killed by Sean.
“Was that really necessary?” he asked.
Sean kicked Watcher One over with his foot, a nine-inch blade was in his hand. From its positioning, it would have been pressed against Sean’s gut. He stepped over to Watcher Two and kicked him over revealing a KEDR B silenced submachine gun in his hand. The Russian equivalent of a Mac 10, its rate of fire and firepower would have killed Sean and the CIA team with one sweep of fire up and into the ceiling.
“Fair enough!” he replied. “So what’s happening?”
“I have absolutely no idea,” replied Sean sincerely, looking at the dead Russians. “There were a couple of Russians here yesterday but when they spotted me, they did everything they could not to kill me. These guys it seemed were absolutely intent on killing me!”