Direct Action - 03 (19 page)

Steady.

He held his position and shot between the two buildings. He lost track of Bill, fixating completely on his target. The Aquino building was dead in his sights. Then, he was over Velasquez Park. Deckard pulled his chute.

He had walked through the maneuvers so many times that, by now, it was impossible for him not to do it right. The parachute caught in the air. Deckard swept in and landed alongside the rooftop pool, touching down on both feet.

A Filipino security guard wearing a black polo shirt turned to Deckard as his parachute collapsed behind him. A Glock pistol was holstered on his hip and an unlit cigarette dangled from his lips. Deckard shrugged out of the wing suit sleeves, slapped for the MAC-10 hanging from his chest, snapped the rubber band, and leveled the sub-machine gun. Flicking the safety off, Deckard zapped the guard with a suppressed burst that tore across his chest. The security guard was dead before he hit the ground.

Just then, someone splashed into the pool like an elephant. Nadeesha hit the roof right behind Deckard and stumbled into him as he was unzipping his legs from the wing suit flap.

Deckard pulled his cutaway pillow to jettison his main parachute. He stepped over the guard's body, heading straight for the pent house door. Bill was on the other side of the pool where he had put down. He took long strides, heading for the same doorway.

Zach had cut away his chute and was clawing his way out of the pool. No sign of Paul. He hadn't made it.

They were ready to blow the door, but Bill wisely tried the knob first. He turned to Deckard and nodded. It was unlocked. He was up.

Bill flung the door open and Deckard stepped through. A half dozen guards sat at the dining room table playing cards. Deckard had the wire stock of the MAC-10 extended and tucked into his shoulder as he walked his bursts from left to right across the security crew. Bill was at his side a second later, working them from right to left. They met somewhere in the middle as the corpses slid to the floor.

That was when the other heavies rushed in from a side room. Bill and Deckard dove to the ground as pistol and sub-machine gun fire tore up the living room. A flashbang exploded, shattering one of the windows. Deckard rolled behind a couch that would offer concealment if not cover. Bill got behind a billiard table. It was one large open party space for De Jesus to entertain his guests with a dining area, hot tub, pool tables, and couches around a wide-screen TV. Zach knelt down next to Bill. Nadeesha fired a few suppressive bursts as she slid in next to Deckard.

9mm bullets zipped through the couch and ricocheted off the tile floor. De Jesus' security detachment had better cover from behind the bar on the other side of the room. Deckard had the whole rest of his life to figure this one out. That gave him about half a second.

One of the card players at the dining room table had slipped out of his chair and sprawled out on the floor. He had been sitting on an office chair with roller wheels on the bottom. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bill and Zach try to pop up and return fire only to be driven back down as the gunmen sprayed them down with autofire.

They were pinned down with nowhere to break contact to and were about to be shot to pieces in the blink of an eye.

Deckard broke cover and jumped onto the chair, rolling across the tile floor towards the bar. Holding down the trigger on the MAC-10, he fired right into the faces of the security guards as he raced up to meet them. They were so stunned by the unexpected move that the Filipinos were unable to react fast enough. He walked a line of .45 caliber rounds across them until the back of his chair collided with the far wall.

Dropping his empty magazine, Deckard rammed a fresh stick into the pistol grip to reload. The gunfire had ceased for the moment, gun smoke lingering in the air. Five security guards lay behind the bar, dead or dying. Deckard fired several mercy shots.

Bill ran for the bedroom and kicked in the door. Zach and Nadeesha were on his heels.

Deckard heard several stunted suppressed shots as he entered the bedroom.

De Jesus lay on his shag carpet, bleeding out.

His chest heaved as the terrorist financier struggled to breath. Bill's shots had collapsed his lungs. Zach stepped up and fired a couple bullets into his crotch, causing him to shake and moan as blood bubbled around his lips.

Straight-arming his MAC-10, Bill fired on full auto. He cycled through the entire magazine, blowing off the top of their target's skull and splattering his brains all over the carpet.

“Cocksucker,” someone in the group remarked.

Bill reloaded his MAC-10.

“Let's get the fuck out of here.”

Back in the living area, Deckard saw numbers on the display next to the penthouse elevator, ticking up.

“We're about to have company,” Deckard warned.

“Stay here and slow them down,” Bill ordered. “Nadeesha, you cover him. I don't want these assholes shooting us on the way down to the park.”

“Got it.”

Bill and Zach walked out onto the patio next to the pool and continued to the edge of the building. Deckard reached for a frag grenade in his kit and yanked the pin out while holding the spoon down. He looked to Nedeesha.

“You shoot, I'll frag.”

“All right,” she said as she shouldered the sub-machine gun.

When the elevator doors pinged open, she raked the inside of the elevator with .45 caliber fire. Security personnel backed up into the back of the elevator, trying to hide from the gunfire. Deckard overhanded the grenade. It bounced once, then rolled into the elevator and detonated as the two Liquid Sky commandos hit the ground.

The elevator bulged out on the sides from the overpressure. Flaming pieces of insulation or foam tiling floated through the air. It was a slaughterhouse of torn limbs and torsos. The stench of burned flesh stung their noses.

Nadeesha stumbled over some debris. Deckard took her by the elbow and led her towards the door. Just as he was about to step outside he heard some banging behind him. Even over the ringing in his ears he could hear shouts and then gunshots. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a metal door near the elevator shake as security guards on the other side fired their guns right through it.

The door shook as the guards began kicking it in, the lock barely holding.

“Shit,” Nadeesha cursed.

Deckard turned back around just in time to see Bill and Zach jump off the roof and disappear below the lip the building.

“They left us,” she said, exasperated.

He pushed Nadeesha outside as the door was kicked in. Deckard leaned back and fired one handed. The chatter box rattled in his hand as the bolt slid back and forth. The suppressor slowed the already low-velocity rounds as he serviced the first target that bolted through the door. This was the security quick reaction force. They wore black uniforms and carried M4 rifles.

“I'm black!” Deckard yelled as he ran onto the patio and took cover behind a concrete planter.

Nadeesha picked up the rate of fire from a kneeling position next to him.

Deckard loaded his last magazine. They were only carrying enough gear to last them for a five-minute surgical operation. Now they were in combat and running low on ammo fast. Letting the Ingram MAC-10 hang by the elastic bungee cord, he went back into his kit and quick-attached the initiation system to the half block of C4 he carried. Pulling the time fuse, he stuck the charge in the planter.

Sixty seconds of time fuse.

It was to be used in case De Jesus retreated into a safe room they had missed during recon. Now, the charge would cover their withdrawal.

Nadeesha went empty on her sub gun. Now it was Deckard's turn to fire.

“Bound back,” he ordered Nadeesha between bursts.

The return fire was getting intense as a couple dozen guns for hire wearing full SWAT team get ups stormed the pent house. 5.56 rounds zinged and popped around him, many chipping into the planter he was taking cover behind. The kitchen windows exploded outwards as gunmen inside found new firing positions.

Nadeesha reloaded on the move and took a position next to a large heating and air conditioning unit on the roof near the pool. Deckard threw his last hand grenade at the open door as a couple of security guards attempted a break out. Ducking behind the planter, the explosion stopped them dead in their tracks. At least for a few more seconds. As Nadeesha fired, Deckard ran back to her position.

“Jump!” He yelled in her ear over the gunfire. “I'll cover you.”

She looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Okay.”

Deckard popped around the corner of the HVAC unit and took single well-placed shots with the MAC-10. He was almost out of the ammo and by his estimation, only 30 seconds of time fuse remained. He caught another muzzle flash in the kitchen window so he fired a shot there and the muzzle flash went away.

Nadeesha turned to run for the edge of the building. She let out a scream as enemy gunfire hit her from behind. She stumbled and fell to the ground alongside the pool. Sensing wounded prey, the gunmen inside the penthouse fired on her, bullets chiseling the tile next to her and making splashes of water in the pool to her flank.

Deckard ran out into the open and laid down suppressive fire with what he had left in the MAC-10. The gun cycled empty and Deckard dropped it in the pool. Without slowing down, he scooped Nadeesha up and dragged her forward. He propelled both of them back behind another concrete planter. It was their last piece of cover; they were all out of building. A few feet away was a fifty-five story fall to the streets below.

He tore her MAC-10 off her kit and shot a burst over the planter without sighting in on anyone specific. The guards were bounding out of the doorway and moving towards them. He could hear them trying to coordinate their movements in Tagalog.

Deckard looked over his partner. The rounds had torn apart her second parachute, the reserve she would need to get off the building.

“Fuck,” he cursed.

“Go,” she mumbled. “Just go.”

It was time to go.

Deckard grabbed her hands and put them around the main lift web on his own parachute.

“Don't let go for anything.”

Wrapping an arm around her, he dropped the MAC-10 and grabbed the ball on his parachute that pulled free the pilot chute.

He heard the enemy shouts as he stood up. Two steps forward and he was off the ledge and into the night.

Nadeesha's scream died in her throat.

Deckard released the pilot chute as they fell.

The C4 detonated as his parachute caught in the wind, clearing off the top of the Aquino building. The parachute popped open while they flashed by still-lit offices in the building under the penthouse. Nadeesha hung on to his parachute harness, her legs kicking in the empty air.

“Don't let go!” she screamed.

“I have to!”

They were tracking forward and were seconds away from impacting the adjacent building. Deckard could see the desks and swivel chairs inside the offices as they were about to slam into the window.

Releasing his hold around Nadeesha, he reached up and grabbed the parachute toggles while she clung to the parachute harness. Yanking down hard on his right toggle, they cut a hard turn. The two of them dangling under the parachute, they nearly brushed up against the office building.

Nadeesha looked like she was about to panic. She pulled herself up as she held on to the harness and wrapped her legs around him.

Deckard knew they were burning altitude fast. The street lights below swirled like a kaleidoscope as he twisted and turned the parachute, angling towards the Ayala Gardens.