“Artillery strike incoming!”
Two 155mm HE rounds reduced MG nests and their operators to dust. John stood up.
“What the hell? I was just about to kill them.”
“There will be plenty of others.” Cole said.
“We could’ve spared artillery support for later. Now the whole goddamn city knows we’re here.”
“RPG!”
Before John could do anything it exploded few feet in front of him.
John woke up in his chair. His heart was beating so fast he was afraid it might jump out of his chest.
“What happened next?” Caroline asked when he later told her about it.
John came back to himself being dragged behind a rock by a medic. Long piece of metal was sticking out of John’s arm.
“I’ll just carefully take this out buddy. It will hurt.” The medic said.
“Oh, screw you! I’m a warrior not a pussy!” John grabbed it, tore it out and threw it on the ground. As he said building was enemy hard point with machine guns and RPGs. John took cover next to soldier with rocket launcher.
“Can this thing make a big enough hole in the wall?” John asked.
“Of course, sir!”
“Then wait for my go and send it!”
Soldier looked confused, he looked at his commander.
“Do as the man says!” Was commanders response.
“Someone get me two primed mortar shells!” John yelled at others.
When everything was provided John put down all his weapons except pistol and grenades on the ground. He took mortar shells in hands. Cole came to him.
“Whatever you want to do, there will be another artillery strike in ten minutes.”
“There is still intel we need in there. I’m going in.”
John set up a timer on his HUD and then he gave the nod, missile launched forward and so did he. All enemies shot at him at once. But he ran anyway, with two primed mortar shells in hands. Any other soldier would shout some battle cry, but John didn’t. He just carried out orders, there was no honor in it, no glory, just another mission, another order. He jumped inside tossing mortar shells aside letting them explode on each side of room. After he hit the floor he pulled his pistol and knife out of their sheaths. Everyone on first floor was dead so he ascended to the second. Right when John set foot on second floor a man came charging at him across the hallway. John stepped aside and let him hit the wall behind and stabbed his neck from behind. First room. A man standing in front of a window didn’t notice John. John kicked him out and killed the other one with two shots. He kicked down door to last room. Immediately guy right behind door wanted to punch him with AK-47, but John was faster. He cut open man’s abdomen. Another charged at him, there was no time to react so they crashed together and fell to the ground. The man was a top of John. John fired few shots hoping to hit something and he did. He hit another one who emerged from smoke while the other one was trying to choke John. John hit him with his left fist, again and again until he crushed man’s ribcage. Then he shot him.
“How did you get out?”
“I took the intel and jumped out of the window.”
“That’s insane.” Caroline said while chewing her toast.
“Yeah, that insanity let me live long enough to kill few more dozens of people.”
After breakfast John went for a walk around town. He liked this place, people were so friendly, trees and plants everywhere and fresh air unlike the filtered one in his cell back at facility. It all seemed so peaceful he couldn’t believe they trained them to fight in such places. All fighting was on Middle east. Of course they trained them to fight there as well, but not so much. But most of all they trained them to never fear the enemy. And John never feared, sometimes because he was brave, sometimes because there was nothing to fear or when there was no time for fear. His fellow soldiers described his actions with words like insane or crazy.
John could sense stress in people’s voices. The word about house blown up has spread all over the town. Some people have seen him drive away from there, he was new here so nobody recognized him and fortunately none of them bothered to remember his registration plate.
He decided to wear sunglasses at all times after Emily pointed out that his eyes “look strange”.
Chapter 11 – The call
John was making his way home from hiking trip with Emily. Over time she became his best friend, of course he had more friends. The day was cloudy, that’s why they went hiking. Nobody had any suspicions about John, his magnetic cannon was ready for testing, he wanted to test it while was away for two weeks. John could do whatever he wanted and that was the best feeling he had in a long time. He found himself a quiet place in the hills where no one could hear him and he built a shooting range there.
Emily was just talking about some rare animals which live around in the forest when John’s phone rang. John figured it would be Caroline, she called often because she was afraid he might burn down the house or the town. But it was Hudson, from time to time he came to check in on John but he never called.
“Hold on a second, please.” John told Emily.
John cleared his throat and pressed the green button.
“What’s up Hudson?”
Hudson sounded stressed and John could hear voices behind him.
“John! It’s good to hear you.”
“What is it?” John knew some shit is about to happen.
“We have a situation here. I wanted to call you before you read the email they sent everyone involved.”
John opened his inbox using HUD. There was an email.
“I see. Kim again.” John said.
“They fired missiles from shore. We shot most of them down but one penetrated our defenses and took down one of our patrol ships. We manage to keep it secret but it won’t take long before Korea goes public with it.”
“What do you need me to do?” John knew what Hudson wanted.
“We are assembling a strike force to sabotage missile facility. It wouldn’t be so hard but a bunch of people insists that you should go in with them.”
“What if I don’t want to?” That wasn’t an option.
“John, we have presidential order. You have to.”
“Fine. But I want something in return.” Why not to gain something? John thought.
“What do you want? We’ll get it, just not too much.”
“You know who I want.” John was getting closer.
“I’ll make some phone calls. Maybe I’ll get you to see her but no promises.”
“Agreed. Send someone to pick me up ASAP!” John ended the call.
“Who was that?” Emily asked confused.
“Just a friend. I need to hurry home.” With that he started running. When he came home he found the biggest bag he could and put weapons and equipment in there. Meanwhile he heard a car pull over in front of the house. Few seconds after Hudson stormed through garage door yelling. “Move! Damn it, they fired more missiles. We’re waiting for you. Take the armor they’ll never know what hit them.”
Then he noticed the cannon. “What is this thing?”
John carried his stuff to the car.
“Mk-1 Magnetic cannon. It’s not tested.”