Authors: Craig Reed Jr
Red Ice (9 page)
Liam pulled back as bullets pinged off the side of the dumpster. He took time to switch magazines, then picked up his radio. “Watchdog, we’re a bit pressed here!”
“Striker is three minutes out,” Danielle returned.
Liam leaned out long enough to fire a cloud of bursts at the Triad gunners, then pulled back. “We don’t have three minutes!”
The dozen Triad gunners were stymied in their first attempt to enter the warehouse through the loading dock, and Liam saw the dead 49s on and around the dock to prove it. He and Dante had each fired a CS round at the Black Dao gunners, but a light wind dissipated the tear gas faster than Liam had hoped for. Each side had stalemated the other, but there were too many 49s and more than one way to get into the warehouse.
As if she could read his mind, Danielle said, “Watchdog to Able and Bravo. I have half a dozen Tangos heading for the front of the warehouse.”
Liam muttered a curse, then said, “Watchdog, drop some flash-bangs and CS on them! That should slow them up!”
“Copy,” Danielle replied. “Repositioning Cobra.”
Liam leaned out from the dumpster just enough to see a 49 step into the open. He fired a short burst with his Commando and smiled grimly when he saw the gunman drop his rifle, spin and fall.
“Bravo to Able. You guys playing games in there?”
#
Tanner grinned mirthlessly. The walls muffled the gun battle outside, but they still could hear it. The three moved down a corridor created by the lab’s plastic walls and the warehouse walls. Tanner was at point, Naomi behind him and Stephen trailing, guarding their rear.
“Yeah, we’re playing a game called ‘find the chemist.’ Status?”
“Tangos are blocked for the moment, but there’s a lot of them. Some are headed for the front door. Watchdog’s playing strong safety with them.”
Tanner heard a couple of loud bangs over the radio. “Flash-bangs and CS canisters away,” Danielle said. “It’s slowing them, but not for long.”
“Copy,” Tanner said. “If—”
A thin Asian in a cheap suit, carrying a Daewoo K2 assault rifle, leaned into view around a support pillar twenty feet ahead of Tanner. “Down!” Tanner snapped, dropping to one knee and triggering the 203. Another blast of lethal lead slammed into the support pillar and 49 behind it, leaving scars in the pillar’s concrete and the gunman’s left arm and right hand a bloody mess. He screamed and pulled back behind the pillar.
Tanner ran forward, covering the distance in five strides. Just as he reached the pillar, the gangster stepped out, his face a mix of pain and fury. Before he could bring his rifle up, the OUTCAST leader slammed into him with his shoulder, knocking the smaller man off his feet. As the combatant hit the ground, Tanner’s foot lashed out and the steel-toe boot caught the Triad gunner under the chin. The 49’s head snapped back, striking the floor with enough force to make a loud cracking sound. The thug went limp.
“Able to Bravo: Status?”
“We’ve got their attention for now, but we’re burning ammo quickly. Don’t dawdle.”
“Copy.” Tanner looked ahead and saw a freezer curtain, thick strips of plastic used in commercial walk-in freezers and refrigerators to keep cold in. Tanner dropped his Colt so it dangled from his sling and pulled his pistol.
“Naomi: with me. Stephen, stay here and cover our backs. If there’s trouble, call out.”
“Right.”
Naomi pulled her own pistol and followed Tanner through the curtain. The first room was contained a few bare steel tables, the type used in commercial kitchens. In one corner were stacked a couple of blue barrels like the ones in the storage area. Another set of freezer curtains led to the next room. Naomi glided to the barrels and took the top off of one. “Empty,” she mouthed to Tanner.
Tanner nodded and pointed to the next chamber. The heavy plastic made it difficult to see what waited beyond. The crept toward it, their SIGs pointed at the entrance. Using hand signals, Tanner counted down from three, then burst through the curtain.
Tanner went high and to the right, while Naomi went low and left. Another empty room greeted them. Unlike the first room, the tables weren’t empty, but full of chemical equipment — burners, flasks, flexible tubes, and stands. It reminded Tanner of a high school chemistry class. Another set of freezer curtains on the other side of the workspace led to still another room.
A thump from the far side of the lab alerted the pair. Tanner signaled Naomi to go left, while he went right. The moved through the tables, eyes scanning for trouble. There was a scuffling noise and someone in a lab coat stood and ran for the other exit. Tanner intercepted the figure, a gaunt Asian man with thinning hair and glasses. His eyes widened and he squawked in fear. He tried backpedaling, but his feet went out from under him and he landed on his back.
Tanner pointed his pistol at him.
“No shoot! No shoot!” the man cried out in accented English, his hands up in a gesture of surrender. Tanner noticed that under the lab coat, his clothes were same rough fabric of the prisoners downstairs.
“Who are you?” Tanner demanded.
“I am Lo Jun. No shoot!”
“What are you doing here?”
Jun’s words were rapid-fire from fear. “Triad force me to work here. My wife, my son, downstairs. Others downstairs.” He tapped his chest. “I teach Chemistry in China. I say wrong thing at wrong time, and decide to leave China with family. But I and family Triad prisoners, force me to work here, making drugs.”
“Any other workers here?”
“No. Lab shutting down. I am alone to make sure things are safe.”
“We’re looking for Dr. Mori. Do you know where she is?”
The chemist nodded. “Yes she was here, but not now. Koreans take her — five, six hours ago. Said they were moving her to new, safer place.”
Tanner looked at Naomi, then back down at the fearful chemist. “Did they say where?”
Lo Jun shook his head, then his eyes widened. “Wait! One say he hoped Dr. Mori like the smell of horses. That help?”
“How many guards are there on this floor?”
Lo Jun frowned. “Two outside.” He motioned toward the wall. “Three in there.”
Tanner felt the attack more than heard it. He dropped to one knee, Naomi half a second behind him as the wall exploded in a swarm of bullets. For the next few seconds there was nothing but the sound of breaking plastic and glass as the lab equipment was wrecked by a torrent of lead.
They waited until the gunfire died away, then rose, their pistols aimed at the ruined wall. Tanner saw movement in the next room and fired twice. Both slugs punched through the wall and into a 49 who was trying to reload his AK-47. The gunman dropped.
Naomi fired, her rounds flying through one of the large holes in the plastic walls and finding the chest of a second Triad thug. The man dropped his AR-15, took a step back, then collapsed.
Tanner spun and dropped to one knee as the third Triad gunman came storming through the freezer curtain, an Uzi in his hands. Tanner fired first, three .40 rounds slamming into the 49’s chest and neck, changing the man’s direction of movement and sending him stumbling into a table. He tried raising his Uzi, but Tanner fired again, the last shot striking the 49 in the right eye and blowing out the back of his head.
For several seconds there was silence, then Lo Jun asked in a quivering voice, “Who are you?”
“The good guys,” Tanner replied. He motioned to the shattered wall. “What’s over there?”
“Packing and storage rooms for the finished drugs. But not much there. Koreans take most when they take Dr. Mori.”
“Stay there.” Tanner moved into the next room, checked the bodies, then swept both it and the storage room beyond. He returned after a minute. “He’s right,” he said to Naomi. “Only a couple of Red Ice crates left in the storage area. Assuming the empty pallets were the same size, they could have taken upwards of five hundred kilos.”
“We have to get out of here.” Naomi motioned to Lo Jun. “What about him?”
“I stay,” the Chinese chemist said. “Family is here. I stay with them.”
“All right,” Tanner said. “Find a place to hide for now. There’s a police team coming in to seize the warehouse. When they get here, surrender and ask to speak to Agent Vessler. Tell her everything you can remember about the setup in here, about Dr. Mori, and the drugs. Okay?”
“I do that.”
“Don’t touch any guns.”
“I won’t. I am good chemist, bad soldier.”
#
Tanner and Naomi raced back to the entrance, where Stephen crouched behind the support pillar. “No luck?” Shah asked.
Naomi shook her head. “Missed her by a few hours.”
Tanner spoke into his radio. “Able to Bravo: We have a strikeout, repeat, strikeout. Retreat now.”
“Better hurry, Able. Striker is thirty seconds out. We’ll make sure the back door is open.”
Tanner holstered his pistol, slipped another buckshot round into his Commando’s grenade launcher and started running, Stephen and Naomi right behind him.
As they reached the top of the stairs the freight elevator doors opened and four 49s came charging out. Stephen fired first, followed by Naomi and Tanner. Three of the enforcers went down in bloody heaps, while the fourth quickly changed course and threw himself back into the elevator.
Tanner turned back to the stairs, but a storm of bullets slammed into the staircase, setting off enough sparks to remind Tanner of a Fourth of July fireworks show. A ricochet grazed his cheek, the hot metal burning his skin.
“That way’s out.” Naomi looked around. “So is the elevator, and there’s no place to hide up here.”
“Able to Bravo, we have a problem.”
Liam pulled back behind the dumpster. Bravo Team’s marksmanship had whittled down the Triad numbers, but the bullet-riddled dumpster was now only being held together only by rust. Not to mention the smell was no reason to hang out, either. “What now?”
“Stairs are covered and the only other way down is elevator.”
“We’re still playing Tango Tag.”
“Watchdog, does Cobra have any venom left?”
“Affirmative. Do you want them crying, blind or confused?”
“Crying and confused. Dump everything but the smoke on Bravo’s playmates. Bravo, once your playmates are busy, I want you to make a door for us and hold it.”
Liam frowned. “Doesn’t sound like a good idea.”
“No time for good ideas. Striker’s coming in and I don’t want to tangle with friendlies. Watchdog, when we’re clear of the building, drop the smoke between us and the warehouse and recall Cobra and Wasp.”
“Copy Able,” Danielle said. “Striker is coming down the street now. Dazed and crying in five, four, three, two…one!”
Explosions lit up the area over the Triad gunmen, some loud and bright, others releasing clouds of thick white smoke. Shouts and screams replaced gunfire as those who weren’t stunned by the flash-bangs were hit by CS gas.
Liam grinned. “Five, stay where you are and cover me. Once I’m inside, move to my current location and cover our exit.”
“Copy, Two,” Dante returned.
“Bravo to Able. Okay to use an M406 on the truck doors?”
“Go ahead. The prisoners are behind crates and pallets.”
Liam slipped an HE round into his grenade launcher.
“Fire in the hole!”
He raised his Commando, sighted on the middle truck door and fired. The grenade slammed into the door at an angle, ripping it apart. Liam removed the spent round, loaded a CS round and raced for the still-smoking door.
#
The truck door disintegrating took the defenders inside by surprise. A group of 49s who had been working their way to the bottom of the stairs were in front of the door when it exploded, the pieces of steel and wood acting like a massive shotgun blast that left them as grisly corpses. The shooting stopped as the remaining gunmen tried to comprehend what had happened.
Tanner launched himself down the stairs, landing on the fourth step and grabbing the rail with one hand long enough to steady himself. He raised his Colt and directed quick bursts into distracted 49s. Naomi and Stephen ran past him. Naomi stopped half a dozen steps below Tanner and raised her submachine gun. As soon as she opened fire, Tanner started down the stairs and passed her. In the meantime, Stephen had reached the landing and added his fire to Naomi’s.
Tanner leapt the last three steps, landed on the ground floor with both feet, spun and pointed his Commando in the cages’ direction. No targets were in sight, but he didn’t relax. The prisoners were huddled in the furthest corner of their cages.
“Bravo to Able,” Liam said over the radio. “I’m at the door. Get a move on!”
Two Triad gunmen appeared twenty yards in front of Tanner. He fired multiple bursts, driving them back into cover. Naomi and Stephen ran past him, heading for the door.
Naomi stopped at the corner, spun around and pointed her Commando in Tanner’s direction. “Go!”
Tanner whirled and ran for the door. He raced past Naomi, past Stephen who was covering the next row over, and headed for the truck door. Liam was there, covering the outside. The sounds of shouts and gunfire could be heard from the far side of the warehouse.
“Striker to OUTCAST!” Vessler’s tone was urgent. “We’re making entry!”
“Copy! We’re extracting and using smoke!” Tanner hopped over the side of the loading dock, landing on the ground. He pointed his submachine gun back into the warehouse. “Three and Four, go! Five, head for the extraction point! Watchdog, drop the smoke!”
Naomi and Stephen followed Tanner out the truck door, leapt off the dock and ran for the fence. Liam followed them a few seconds later. Out of the night sky, smoke canisters fell, filling the area between the team and the far side of the warehouse with thick white smoke. Tanner ran after them.
Dante was already at the hole he and Liam had cut in the fence. Five minutes later, the team was through the fence and running into the darkness. Behind them, the gunfire at the warehouse had ceased.
Danielle was waiting for them outside of the vans. “DEA is securing the building right now.”
Tanner issued commands over his mic. “Dante, Stephen: get the drones into the vans. Nay, Liam: you’re driving. Dani, monitor the police bands.”
Two minutes later, both vans merged into the light nighttime traffic on the main road.