The man sensed him, withdrew a gun whilst facing the front and then whirled quickly with it clasped in one hand. The shot blasted past Drake’s shoulder, thudding into a tree branch. Drake jumped onto a tangle of brush and used its spring to launch himself at the other man. The impact sent the gun flying and another shot zinging upward at the canopy. Drake throat-punched his man and took an elbow to the eye. Grunting, he flinched away but still managed to throw an extra-debilitating set of knuckles to his opponent’s own eye socket. With the man clutching at his head, Drake finished him off.
“Hurry up, for fuck’s sake,” Alicia growled from up ahead. “Bitch is getting away.”
Drake chased her further into the thick mass just as it began to thin out. Ahead he spied a clearing, a stream running through the middle and a set of dark huddled shapes. Alicia quickly flung herself headlong as Kenzie and her boys whirled and unleashed lead.
Drake hugged a tree. Dahl crouched at its base, prepping his handgun as splinters whizzed by his head. After a moment he glanced up at Drake. “Ready?”
“Just waiting for you.”
Dahl returned fire, sending the mercs scrambling for cover. Drake took a moment to survey the clearing, seeing now that the set of dark shapes were long thatched huts with ragged holes for doors and no windows. Drab gray in color they appeared run down, overgrown and abandoned. Kenzie, it seemed, had known about them.
Drake called loud enough for his team to hear. “Move in carefully. She may have some kind of a stash here.”
Dahl and Alicia laid a little covering fire as the team maneuvered to a more advantageous position. As he moved to the far side of the huts, Drake began to see a much larger picture. What had appeared to be a small clearing was actually a larger encampment. Two separate rutted tracks led away into the jungle with two old Jeeps and a rusted, multi-colored bus to one side. A more modern, timber-built building stood with its back to the high trees. Drake even saw a bright yellow prop plane at the far side of the clearing, though how it had arrived was a mystery. The trail was just too narrow. As they watched, Kenzie and her men broke across the large encampment, skirted a small lake and made for the building. Drake and Alicia picked off one man between them and the others scattered.
“Move!”
Dahl and Kinimaka crab-walked to the side of the hut, flattening their bodies to the leafy wall. The team closed in fast before their enemies could establish valuable positions, harassing them all the way. Drake ducked two bullets, realized his luck wouldn’t last much longer, and jumped headlong into one of the Jeeps. More bullets clanged off the hood and one ricocheted around the interior. Alicia was crouched at the rear and now crawled into the open bed.
“Let’s go!”
“I can’t…” Drake clammed up as he raised his head and spied the keys dangling in the ignition. So this had been Kenzie’s way in and way out — an old meth station probably that she’d commandeered for the day. He turned the key, cranking the engine as Dahl and Kinimaka ducked around the back. The windshield exploded in a hail of glass. Drake squirmed into the footwell, depressed the gas pedal and aimed the Jeep in as straight a direction as he could manage without lifting his head above the steering wheel. Lead zipped and popped off the paintwork as the vehicle closed in on the mercs. Alicia groaned as she unbalanced in the back, slamming her shoulders against the rear window which exploded into jagged splinters.
A moment later Drake saw the edge of a roof block out the green leafery.
“Brace!”
The Jeep smashed into the wooden structure, luck sending it against a load-bearing support. When the thick member splintered, the entire construction creaked and the guns suddenly went quiet.
Drake slipped backwards out of the car. The vision ahead was utter chaos. The roof came down fast, the walls buckling as three men disseminated as fast as their legs could go. A jagged portion of roof sliced down on top of one, the blood fountain causing Drake to avert his eyes. The other two stumbled into the roadway, one tripping over the deep ruts. Then, the edge of the roof smashed onto the Jeep and Drake was struck. Throwing up a hand he warded off the lighter chunks but a heavier piece sent him to his knees.
Alicia pulled him aside. “Legs,” she said. “Put there for a reason.”
Drake wrenched his body upright. Ahead, Dahl and Kinimaka were already pursuing the two fleeing mercs. Beyond that, Kenzie and one other man were attempting to climb aboard the second Jeep. Drake stopped, raised his gun and sighted on the tires.
One burst should do it…
The fourth or fifth bullet destroyed one of the tires and then Drake was changing mags.
Kenzie shouted out, enraged. Drake saw a glimpse of her character as she lashed out at the man at her side, sending him out of the Jeep and backwards into the dirt. Then the woman was jumping out herself, and Drake saw the gun held at her side and the sword strapped to her back. Dahl pounded one escaping merc as Kinimaka dealt with another, then both men ran hard at Kenzie. Drake followed, eyes wary and Alicia approached from the far side. Kenzie didn’t wait around to chat, running for the broken-down bus. Drake adjusted his course and then paused as Dahl took his breath away.
What the…
One minute the Swede was loping after the last remaining merc, the next his body was flailing in the air with a rope looped around his ankle. Dahl swung head-down in a wide arc, shouting and cursing his bad luck.
Drake followed the rope to its source, an overhanging tree branch. In many ways he wished he could leave his friend swinging there… dangling… at least for twenty minutes or so, but the Swede would make easy target practice for their enemies.
Kinimaka lifted Dahl as Alicia unlooped the rope. Kenzie jumped into the bus. The last merc took aim but Drake was faster, knocking him off his feet with three to the chest and one to the middle of the forehead.
To his credit, Dahl hit the ground running, having kept a bead on Kenzie the whole time. Drake struggled to catch up to him, an entire book of wisecracks desperately hovering on the tip of his tongue.
“Hold up, Kenzie,” Alicia called out. “You’re on your own.”
“Yeah,” came a reply. “Just how I like it, bitch.”
Drake reflected that these two were probably not compatible as they all neared the bus. It took him a second to realize something else.
“Back!” he cried. “Get back now!”
No way would this woman, whom Alicia respected, corner herself this way. And if there was one trap…
The team reacted to his instruction, stopping and then diving for nearby trees. Drake hauled at Alicia’s jacket and thrust her down as she chanced one last glance toward their prey.
The bus shuddered and jigged in a set of mini-explosions, nothing major. More like a string of small charges, timed to burst as Kenzie’s pursuers ran down the length of the bus. Shit, this woman’s deadly.
Alicia took off immediately, snubbing the explosions and flying glass and metal in her attempt to chase Kenzie down. Drake saw a figure leap from the front of the bus followed by legs pumping into the undergrowth, Alicia in hot pursuit.
The bus split in half, both sides sliding away from each other with tortured shrieks of metal. One of the halves smashed to the thick earth with a massive soil and leaf displacement, filling the air with a cloud of vegetation.