Direct Action - 03 (45 page)

Deckard pretended to walk towards the building where the Liquid Sky team was getting some rest, but then ducked behind the flatbed trucks and tanks in the Nusra motorpool. Turning sideways, he side stepped his way between two of the tanks and then rolled under one of the Mazda flatbed trucks. He wanted to disable them first so the chemical weapons could not be driven away when the attack kicked off.

Laying on his back, he wormed his way forward until he was under the engine compartment. Finding the firewall, he was able to trace his way up and find the wires, that ran from the transmission to the computer. He carried a Grayman Duo folder knife on his kit that would do the job. Opening the knife silently with his thumb and forefinger, he locked the blade open and began slashing the wires which would prevent the engine from starting.

He froze as a pair of boots kicked up dust alongside the truck. One of the Nusra fighters stopped next to the flatbed and was loading something on the back. While he was busy, Deckard rolled over onto his stomach and crawled hand over hand until he was under the second flatbed. He repeated the same procedure once he was under the engine, and then slashed the serpentine belt just to make sure.

Making sure the coast was clear, he crawled out from under the truck and walked over to the closest T-72 tank. At one point in time, it had been the fiercest main battle tank in the Soviet arsenal. Today, variants and surplus T-72's were sold all over the world, including countries like Syria and Iraq. Crawling up the front of the tank, he lowered himself into the driver's seat and went to work on the wiring behind the panels. None of his impromptu sabotage would take long for a mechanic to fix, but that was fine. He just had to disable the vehicles for the duration of Samruk's attack on the compound.

Another Nusra fighter came walking by with a crate of AK-47 ammunition slung on his shoulder. Deckard ducked down inside the tank until he had passed. Climbing off the now-disabled T-72, he moved on to the next tank and repeated the procedure. He was about to sabotage the third tank when four Nusra fighters heaved two crates over to the motor pool. The crates were filled with tank shells, which they began loading on the vehicles.

Playing it off, Deckard just faded away as if nothing was out of place. There wasn't much else he could do without exposing himself. Still, taking out two tanks and ensuring that the chemical weapons could not be easily moved was adequate. It was unlikely that the remaining two T-72's would play any role in the close-in urban fighting that was about occur.

Now he just had to go find a quiet corner of the compound to go hunker down in and wait until the attack commenced. He would feed real-time intel back to Pat until then.

Climbing through the rubble, Deckard skipped up a half-demolished concrete staircase and onto the second floor. Metal rebar poked through the walls where the damage was bad; cracks sheared their way down the walls as if the building had been through an earthquake.

Looking out the empty window, he watched the Nusra fighters continuing to prepare for their latest martyr operation, one that in this case would include the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Deckard took a deep breath.

He was now operating on an accelerated failure time model and his time was almost up.

Heads up
, the text message read.

Deckard ducked down behind the window sill.

He heard metal meet flesh with a thwack. The sound of the body hitting the ground was muffled as the gunshot rang out like a thunder clap. It was a sniper initiated raid. Firing the .300 Win Mag, a closed bolt weapon, Nikita would be working over the guards posted around the perimeter of the staging area.

A narrow street had been barricaded over with scrap wood, sheet metal, and razor wire. It was the back door into the Nusra fortress. Samruk International opened it by firing several TP rounds into the barricade with the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle. The 84mm Training Purpose rounds were inert: they were filled with concrete instead of high explosives. For that reason, they were great for breaching an objective from a stand-off position when you didn't necessarily want to kill everyone inside, like Deckard for instance. Or maybe Pat just didn't want to blast open a couple bombs filled with mustard gas.

The first TP round sent wooden splinters flying and scrap metal spinning through the air. Before the Gustav gunner could reload and fire his second round, Nikita had taken out two more guards with his sniper rifle and Samruk's support by fire line had opened up. Deckard couldn't see outside the compound and could only visualize how it was all playing out in his mind's eye.

When the second TP round slammed into the barricade, Deckard stole a glance out the window. The barricade was demolished to the point that the Samruk commandos would be able to start putting men through the fatal funnel once they bounded up. Deckard decided to help them out a little and stayed low as he moved towards the sound of Nusra gunmen who were returning fire.

Pausing to peer through a crack in the wall, Deckard saw the Nusra fighters trying to start up the flatbeds to no avail. Two of the four tank drivers were also frustrated. Just then the Liquid Sky mercenaries burst out of the building they had been racked out in.

The Operator manhandled one of the Nusra fighters out of the cab of the truck and got behind the wheel but he wasn't getting any love either. Deckard could hear Bill cursing a storm even in the middle of the firefight.

Deckard moved like a ghost through the compound, slipping over debris and sticking to the walls as he went looking for the Nusra fighters that had run to the walls to join the fight. He found the first one leaning out one of the windows and firing down on the Samruk positions outside. Deckard took a knee, aimed, and put a bullet in the back of his head from ten feet away. The terrorist slumped forward and rolled right out the window.

Turning a corner, Deckard found two more terrorists attempting to beat back the Samruk mercenaries. He shot both of them in the back with his AK. War was an ugly thing, and this was probably the ugliest he had seen. Chivalry would get him and a lot of other good people killed.

He continued to move at a crouch, staying low and not even daring to glance outside to see where his men were. That was all it would take for Nikita to mistake him for the enemy and take his head off.

Another Nusra fighter leaped up from the stairwell with a RPG-7 launcher over his shoulder. He held the rocket launcher canted upwards so that the anti-tank rocket didn't slide out and blow up at his feet. Moving to a window, he began aiming through the iron sights until Deckard cut him down.

Back inside the compound the two operational T-72 tanks had rumbled to life. The Samruk mercenaries had to get inside and disable them before Nusra could get them into action. Heading downstairs, Deckard was just in time to see the treads on one of the tanks start spinning as it blasted through what was left of the barricade. Two seconds later, an anti-tank round fired from the Carl Gustav slammed into it. Fire belched out of the open hatch on the top and then curled into a plume of oily black smoke.

The driver in the second tank stopped near where the barricade had been as he watched his buddy get wasted. Throwing the tank into reverse, he backed right into a wall which partially collapsed onto the turret. The treads began to spin until they gain purchase and yanked the vehicle out of the debris.

“Fucking god damn pole smoking-!”

Bill was still irate at the turn of events.

Peeking around a corner, he saw the Liquid Sky team with the two mustard gas bombs up on the stretchers again. With the flatbeds disabled, they were running them back out the way they had come in. Several Nusra fighters were already opening the gate. It was clear that whoever was attacking them knew what the fuck they were doing and that Nusra would not be able to hold onto the compound.

It was Deckard's turn to curse.

With only one platoon at his disposal, Pat was unable to have Samruk contain the objective. There would be no black side security element to cut off the enemy's escape. They had relied on speed, surprise, and violence of action. The shock and awe would have worked on the Nusra fighters but Liquid Sky was composed of former Special Operations soldiers who had seen countless battles.

Even with Deckard's sabotage slowing them down, Bill had quickly sized up the situation and made a decision. He was going to squirt off the objective and live to fight another day.

He looked back at the tank, which was partially blocking the back entrance that Samruk was suppressing with automatic gunfire, then back towards Liquid Sky as they heaved the two weapons of mass destruction onto their shoulders and marched toward the gate.

“Where the fuck is Deckard?” he heard Paul ask between gunshots.

“Probably dead,” Rick answered without a shred of remorse in his voice.

“Deckard!” Bill yelled.

Fuck
.

He had to stay with those weapons.

Breaking cover, he ran over to the Liquid Sky mercenaries as the remaining T-72 fired its main gun. The blast shook the entire compound.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Nadi screamed over the noise.

“Laying down some fire,” he answered. “Those fucks are right on top of us.”

“Who are they?” The Operator asked as they cleared the gate.

Deckard shook his head.

“No idea.”

“Coordinated. Must be Syrian Army.”

“15
^th
Special Forces,” Ramon grunted as they moved out. As the short man on bomb duty, he was getting the short end of the stick. “Hardcore regime loyalists.”

Tiger, the Chechen Nusra leader was up front and attempting to wave down a passing car. The Chechen wasn't going to be separated from the bombs either. They were his one way ticket to entering the Jihad Hall of Fame with Bin Laden and Zarqawi. Maybe glorious martyrdom as well.

A burst from his Kalashnikov stopped a passing car. He flung open the door and dragged the driver out. His wife started screaming so he fired another long burst into the air to shut her up. Liquid Sky quickly loaded one bomb into the trunk and the other in the back seat. A second car rolled up behind the first just in time for Rick to commandeer it as well. Tiger and the Liquid Sky mercenaries piled inside the two cars, leaving Deckard as the odd man out.

Bill slammed the passenger side door on Deckard.

“Jump on the roof and hang on.”

Suddenly Tiger stepped out from behind the driver's seat and let off a few more rounds from his AK. The bullets plunged into a passing civilian riding a motor scooter. The limp body tumbled off the back and rolled on the pavement.

Tiger looked at Deckard while pointing to the scooter with a smile on his face. Murdered for a Vespa. The Chechen got back into the sedan and took the wheel. Stepping on the gas, he led the two car convoy deeper into Homs.

Deckard looked at the corpse. He had been a young kid, callously gunned down by a foreign fighter looking to make a name for himself in some kind of bogus holy war. He lifted the scooter back onto its wheels and started it as he took a seat, knowing full well that there wasn't enough soap in the world to wash off the blood that was on his hands.

All he could do was hope to hide the blood stains under a dirty pair of shooting gloves.

Peeling off after the two cars, Deckard looked over his shoulder back at the compound. Clouds of thick black smoke rose above the Nusra staging ground. They were out of business, but Samruk had been unable to close the net fast enough. All Deckard could do was try to keep up with Liquid Sky and try to walk Samruk back into the target.

Deep down, he knew that he couldn't take down Liquid Sky on his own.

Tiger led the convoy through the streets of Homs, crisscrossing through the maze of streets and navigating toward the Nusra frontlines where they battled the Syrian Army. With their rear area being overrun by Samruk International, they now had to push deeper into the city to join forces with the frontline jihadist troops.

Deckard sped after the cars, the whine of the engine sounding like a lawn mower as he buzzed down the street. Shattered car hulks sat on the sides of the road covered in a layer of cement dust created by the crumbling buildings. They were mostly four or five story structures, once apartment buildings, now hollowed out lifeless shells. This was what the world would look like after all the human beings finished killing each other and no one was left.