“Bastards are aiming at the other guys,” Collins barked. “Even after I wounded two of them.”
“I know one way to help.” Hayden hastened down the staircase, finding it led to the rear of the property. On cracking the door she had a side view of the enemy. Quickly she turned back.
“Ready?”
Many weapons were raised in answer. Then Komodo said: “Wait. Where’s Smyth?”
The irascible Delta soldier muttered only three words in repetition as he pulled up in the line of fire.
“Comin’ for ya. Comin’ for ya.”
The room number jumped out at him, the sight of her lying so vulnerable, so drained it would be forever seared into his mind. Bullets sprayed the wall above, stitching a new line there. He smashed in the door with a kick as his comrades sprinted out of sight.
“Comin’ for ya.”
Lauren lay helpless, connected to tubes, with nurses hovering and looking scared out of their wits.
“Does she have a chance, any chance at all, without these damn tubes?”
“Not long,” one of them responded. “But then she doesn’t have long anyway. Take this.” She held out a long syringe filled with a clear mixture.
“What the hell is it?”
“A little something to slow her metabolic rate. Drastically. It should give you a few extra minutes.”
“Why not give it to her now?”
“Because if you do, when she wakes, everything will speed up and she’ll die faster.”
Smyth understood. “I’m all for Hail Mary passes,” he said. Damn, he knew exactly where all this was coming from.
Romero. That ass!
Goddamn Romero had gone and got himself killed whilst running from the Blood King’s men. Smyth had loved that overgrown ass and would gladly have taken the bullet. Now — Lauren had gone down under his watch — not in actual fact but since when did that matter? — and now he would give everything to save her.
Smyth scooped her up, the lifelessness of her body causing his mouth to draw into a thin white line, and pocketed the syringe. “Lie low,” he said. “They’re not here for you. We’ll be luring them away soon.”
Outside, he sprinted after his group.
Hayden moved out soundlessly, slowly, not wanting to draw any attention. The first merc to see her died with a shot to the forehead. As the rest turned her team opened fire, sending them cartwheeling and dropping desperately to the ground.
“No time to waste.” Hayden swiveled and raced for the side of the building, the parking lot ahead. To her right, Crouch’s team were already in fast motion and far beyond them Drake’s team.
Choppers lifted off the roof above, their guns rattling, and dozens of mercs surged from the hotel behind Crouch. Hayden dropped to one knee.
“Cover them!” she cried.
Her team knelt beside her.
“Fire!”
Mercs collapsed as they converged on Crouch’s team.
Behind her, Smyth placed Lauren in the center of their defensive guard and faced the other way. “Rear guard,” he barked. “Fire!”
More assailants dropped behind the hotel.
Hayden dropped a raised fist. “Fire!”
CHAPTER FORTY
Drake darted ahead with Dahl a step behind. He saw Hayden’s team drop and cover Crouch’s escape with bursts of gunfire, then watched the choppers lift off the roof. Now beyond the hotel’s property, he skidded to a halt on the gravel drive that led to the front door of a wedding chapel. Further down the wide road he spotted a large TGI Friday’s and, beyond that, the soaring Tower Hotel, wider at the top and bristling with windows that gave as good a view of the city as they gave of the falls themselves.
With no access to comms or a radio — the raid had happened before they could be deployed — he signaled to Crouch that he should continue. Then he shrugged at the others. “Let’s make it tough for those choppers.”
As the birds swooped down, Drake and Dahl with Trent alongside filled the air they flew through with lead. Alicia and Mai deterred the mercs atop the hotel roof from trying any potshots. Crouch’s team ran ahead, spilling out onto the road and then stopping and turning. The chopper veered up and away, then came down in the hotel’s parking lot, finally grudgingly accepting they offered no advantage and disgorging the rest of their men onto the ground.
Drake and the others ran hard toward Crouch. His old boss met them in the middle of the road.
“Keep running!” he cried. “Hayden needs your help. We’ll head toward that restaurant. We need transport fast.”
Drake accepted the orders without question. He sprinted on, arcing around Crouch’s position and swinging toward Hayden’s. She was already in motion, sensing the backup, and urging her comrades onward. Drake stopped at the side of the road and fired at the mercs behind and to the side of Hayden’s position, making the already traumatized mercs lurch away in surprise.
Hayden and her team raced past them. Drake covered their run, then he turned to Dahl. “Our turn. Let’s go.”
The five whirled and ran hard. Ahead, Crouch and Russo, Healey, Silk and Radford stood in the center of the road, picking any mercs off who tried moving forward. Three more times they swept as separate teams in rough semi-circles, each team covering another as they opened up space between themselves and their enemies, following a curve to left and right, kneeling and standing, firing in ranks to keep up a steady hail of bullets.
The lesser force pinned their enemy down.
“Who says there ain’t safety in numbers?” Alicia grinned as they all finally merged with their comrades.
With soldiers guarding their flanks, the sirens wailing ever closer and flashing lights now almost upon them, the company’s leaders came together. Hayden took point as Caitlyn and Karin handed out working comms.
“We need two teams. One to hold these assholes off and stop them destroying any more of the city. The other to hit the facility before they move the friggin’ aerosols again.”
“And the antidote,” Smyth said, still with Lauren over his shoulder. Komodo had already volunteered to take her for a while but Smyth held on as if she were the Holy Grail. Hayden gave him a wan smile.
“Yes. The antidote. It must be at the facility, Smyth. Where else would it be?”
“Those fuckin’ Pythians would keep it all for themselves. Make no mistake.”
“You’re probably right.” Hayden glanced toward Drake. “Soon as we get a locale let’s split into a third team.”
Drake nodded. “Let’s make this quick. Those wankers are regrouping.”
Hayden fielded a call. “All right,” she said when she’d finished. “We have some sort of major activity at one of the warehouses where Dudley was spotted. Could be that this ongoing failure here has sparked something over there.”
“Panic.” Alicia rubbed her hands. “Oh, let’s hope so.”
“Failure?” Dahl breathed toward the now moving choppers. “Not exactly.”
“I have the FBI and the Canadians patched into my comms now,” Hayden said, then glanced at Collins. “One of the station chiefs says hi.”
Collins all but blushed and looked anywhere except at Trent.