Tiger by the Tail (30 page)

“No radios.” Jace jerked a thumb at his whore. “She’s coming with.”

“Yeah, so’s mine. Hopefully Adams kept his mind on why we’re here, and isn’t knocking boots right now,” Mike replied.

“Hey, where the hell is everybody?” Adams asked over their short-range comms.

“In Jace’s room,” Mike answered.

The master chief burst in a moment later, brandishing a chrome-plated .357 Magnum revolver. “Check this shit out!”

“Damn, guess you win the arms race. Where in the hell did you get that?” Jace asked.

“Bitch tried to get the drop on me, can you imagine that shit?” Adams asked. “She could barely hold the damn thing. Stole it from a john on the street and smuggled it inside. I did
not
ask where she hid it. She was just staying here ’til she could squirrel away enough to get out for good. I took it and told her she’s leaving tonight with us.”

“All right, now we take out the front hall guards while Lasko hits the doormen and Jayne rounds up anyone still outside. Try to avoid shooting until you have to—” Mike glanced toward the main entry room. “Although the music might cover it, so do what you have to do. When the shit goes down, Jace, tell the whores to stay in their rooms. Jayne and Inara, move on my signal. Let’s go.” Mike walked out of the room and headed down the hallway, with Adams and Jace right behind him.

* * *

When he heard the prelaunch signal, Oleg made sure his team was ready to go. He checked his HK416C, then turned back to his tablet as a blaring engine could be heard getting louder.

“What is—Blue Hand, do you have visual on what is coming?”

“Yes,” Lasko answered. “And you are not going to like it.”

* * *

The pickup truck’s engine glowed like a white-hot incendiary as Lasko watched it turn onto the block and roar down the street. It was packed with men, at least a dozen of them in the bed and three more in the cab, all shouting and waving fists, machetes, and a few pistols in the air.

“Looks like they got the news,” he said.

Mike had also asked Chal to have his men spread the word that he was dead, so the gang would lower their guard, thinking they had accomplished their mission.

“The bad news is that they have returned here to celebrate,” Oleg said in his ear.

“Bad for you, perhaps,” Lasko replied as he watched the pick-up screech to a halt outside the doors and the men pile out. He smiled as he surveyed his suddenly more target-rich environment. “Is looking very good from where I am sitting.”

* * *

On the
Big Fish
, Vanner was coordinating every aspect of this op, working with Chal’s people and their own.

“The traffic accident has just occurred at main intersection in Phuket City—every street is backed up for four blocks in all directions, and chickens are going everywhere,” Xatia reported.

“All police units in area have been called in to secure the area, direct traffic, and assist with recovery of escaped animals,” Greznya said.

“Nice,” Vanner replied.

“Teams Jayne and Inara are in place and ready to begin operation,” Martya reported.

“Kildar, Master Chief, and Captain Morgan have reached their first objective, and are ready to execute second phase,” Irina said.

“All right, we are ready to go. All teams stand by—”

“Team Jayne to Firefly,” Oleg’s voice rang loud over the comm.

“Go for Firefly,” Vanner said.

“At least twelve more tangos have just arrived at target area, and are entering the building now.”

“Kildar, what are your orders?” Vanner asked, making sure the vital answer would be transmitted to all teams.

* * *

“All teams execute NOW!” Mike said, brushing aside the beaded curtain and putting a round into the head of each guard as they started to turn and see who was yelling. He pushed forward, covering the left, with Adams taking the right side of the room.

Meanwhile, Jace covered their backside while grabbing the pistols from each of the dead guards and shouting orders to the hookers in Thai, Chinese, and Korean. The dragon lady opened her mouth to scream, but Adams crossed to her with one giant step and laid her out cold with the barrel of his Magnum across her skull.

The whores and customers hadn’t even registered what was really going on. For all intents and purposes, the heads of both guards had just exploded, splattering everyone in the room with blood, bone fragments, and brains.

The nearest drenched whore let out a piercing scream just as the first group of gang members crowded inside, laughing and bragging about how they were going to expand their territory. They walked right into Mike’s and Adams’ blazing pistols, which cut down the first three before anyone else even knew what was happening.

At the same time, muffled detonations and automatic weapons fire erupted outside, audible even over the blaring rock music.

* * *

The charge was set, and Yosif had made sure every Inara member had their cold packs out and secured to their helmets before he blew the door.

The lock disintegrated, but the door didn’t move. “All Father’s Sight!” Yosif cursed as he reached forward with two other team members to pry the rusted door open. Forcing it ajar with a loud screech, they began sweeping the old, dusty stairwell leading down to the third floor of the building.

When they reached the small hallway that ended in a warped, wooden door, Yosif held up his clenched fist to halt his team. Shouts and screams, along with the thud of what sounded like many running feet, could be heard from the other side.

Finger on the trigger, Yosif nodded for their point man to open the door. Marko pulled on it, and the rest of the team spilled out, weapons tracking everywhere—

—Only to find themselves facing a charging horde of prostitutes and half-dressed johns stampeding toward the staircase across the way. Yosif immediately activated the plan they’d worked out in case they encountered innocents along the way.

“Block the stairs! Blue Hand, do not shoot at third floor, repeat, do not shoot at three!” Shoving his way to the front, Yosif reinforced his men there, funneling the people in the corridor into their hallway and the stairs leading to the roof. “This way, up, everyone, go go go!”

Although he didn’t speak the native tongue, the sight of a half-dozen black-clad men in full face helmets and masks and carrying automatic rifles was enough to get the point across to the frightened herd, which immediately followed Yosif’s motions and began heading to the roof.

* * *

Lasko was in his element. His first two rounds cored the guards on either side of the door, making the whores outside run for cover as the guards dropped.

Many of the newly arrived gang members tried to take cover behind the truck, but to no avail. The frangible rounds Lasko was using gave him plenty of penetration power, even through the stamped metal of the truck, while minimizing the risk of fragments hitting unintended targets. Add the thermal scope to the mix, which let him spot anyone who wasn’t hiding near the engine, and every time he squeezed the trigger, a gang member died.

After the fifth man’s chest was shattered by a .50 caliber round, the rest tried to dash into the building, thinking they would be safe there. At the door, they met the remaining survivors of the bloodbath inside, who were just as desperately trying to get out. The two sides hit in a frantic collision that resulted in at least two men getting shot by their fellow gang members.

Leaving that mess for Jayne and the Kildar to mop up, Lasko turned his attention to a fleet-footed guy who had taken off from behind the engine, zigging and zagging in the desperate hope of outrunning a bullet. The Keldara sniper ended that idea and the rest of his life with a shot that tore through his chest, knocking him into the wall just before he reached the corner of the building.

Reloading the Barrett, Lasko turned to the second floor, pleasantly surprised to discover that Vanner’s idea about the cold packs was working perfectly. Each member of the Keldara team had a large, blue-black spot on their helmets from the freezing pack. The packs would last at least ten to fifteen minutes, and clearly designated each team member as a friendly. Although Lasko was under strict orders not to engage any targets on a floor that also had Keldara on it, they had decided to use the cold packs, just to be sure.

Anyone else was fair game unless otherwise directed from the boots on the ground. Seeing that none of the Keldara had reached the second floor yet, Lasko sighted in on a group of scrambling figures there and went to work.

At the rate he was knocking them down, he would be finished long before those packs grew warm.

* * *

“GO GO GO!” Oleg shouted the moment they got the word.

Team Jayne burst out of their hiding place and leapfrogged toward the target area. As they covered the block, they could hear shots fired from inside, along with the loud
crack
of Lasko’s Barrett steadily going off in the distance.

By the time they had reached their first staging point, the group in front of the building had been whittled down to less than a third of their original number. Oleg counted at least four bodies with missing chests or heads lying in the street. One took off running away from them. He sighted in, but before he could pull the trigger, blood exploded from the runner’s chest and he crashed to the ground.

“Damn it, Blue Hand, leave some for us!” he radioed.

“Move faster,” came the laconic reply.

“Securing the front entrance,” Oleg said.

“Roger that. Acquiring targets on second floor.”

Waving his team forward, Oleg’s men cut down the remainder before they knew what hit them. They took the backside of the truck, which now sported several holes in its body. Its windows were shattered, both driver’s side tires were flat, and it was leaking radiator fluid and oil all over the street.

“Sweep forward!” Oleg ordered. His point men leaped to the stairs and kicked in the door, about to toss in two flash-bang grenades.

“Hold on front door!” A familiar voice shouted from inside. A moment later, Mike poked his head out. “Get in here and sweep forward past the beaded curtain at the back!”

Oleg’s team pounded inside and headed through the room to the doorway just as the first wave of hookers and johns came barreling down the stairs and into the hallway. Givi and the rest of the men had their weapons online, but held their fire as the panicked men, boys, and girls ran through them to the front door.

Through all the panic and confusion, Oleg heard the Kildar shouting, “Women to the right, men to the left. Keep moving! Two lines now!”

* * *

Vanel watched the parade of naked women and half-dressed men and boys stream past and bolt up the stairs. When the flood slowed to a trickle, he received the go signal from Yosif and headed down the hallway to the end, which faced the street.

Setting his shaped Semtex charge on the wall, Vanel double-timed it back to the center of the room. There he joined with Marko and Edvin, both of whom had planted their charges on this floor as well. Getting a boost from his teammates, Edvin stuck one more on the ceiling. Then they moved to regroup with their team at the back stairwell leading to the second floor.

Yosif motioned for Vanel and Marko to head down first, with the rest providing cover. With their element of surprise gone, the stairwell could turn into a death trap in moments. Adding the impossibility of hearing what was going on below due to the gunfire everywhere, Team Inara could walk into an ambush before they knew it. While all team members were wearing Type III rifle body armor with trauma plates, neither Vanel nor Marko had any desire to get caught in hail of bullets.

“Blue Hand, can you give us a sitrep on the second floor, over?” Vanel whispered.

“Yes.” Lasko’s voice was interrupted by the suppressed
crack
of his rifle. “I am killing many of them.”

The Barrett cracked again in Vanel’s ear and outside. He looked at Marko and nodded. “Let’s go.”

The two men crept down the stairs as quietly as they could, hearing shouts and screams from the level when they reached the ground.

“Inaras Three and Four, be aware that Blue Hand has engaged the enemy on Floor Two,” Vanel heard. “Tangos may be coming your way.”

“Roger,” Marko said. “Tell us something we don’t know,” he muttered to Vanel, not into the radio. Meanwhile, Vanel pulled a flash-bang off his LBE harness and grabbed the pin with his teeth when the door was yanked open. A blood-spattered gangmember appeared in the doorway, and was shredded by two short bursts from the Inara members.

The man behind him scrambled sideways while bringing up a sawed-off hunting rifle and firing wildly into the stairwell. Vanel tracked him through the wall and let off two three-round bursts, hoping to wound him, or at least make him stop shooting. Right after, he pulled the pin on his M84.

“Fire in the hole!” He shouted as Marko readied his own flash-bang. They tossed both grenades outside the stairwell and pulled the door shut. The one-million-candlepower bursts of light and 170-decibel reports, intensified by detonating in an enclosed space, brought a new chorus of screams and
thuds
of bodies hitting the floor outside.

By the time the grenades stopped, the rest of the team had advanced to join Vanel and Marko. They pushed the door open and hit the room, spreading out and killing anyone still alive and holding a weapon. A flurry of single shots rang out. In less than a minute, Team Inara was surrounded by dead bodies. They had not taken a single casualty themselves.

“Second floor clear,” Yosif said just as Oleg and Team Jayne emerged from the stairs to the first floor. “Sorry, guys,” he said, his wide smile indicating he wasn’t sorry at all.

“Plant the rest of your charges,” Oleg grunted.

“Oleg, since you’re here, and we do have to set our charges,” Yosif said with an even wider smile. “There is a matter up on the roof you could handle for us.”

“Yes, about forty of them,” Edvin said with a matching grin.

With a frown, Oleg took his team up to the roof. They returned a minute later, escorting the rest of the whores and customers through the second floor down to the first. Oleg brought up the rear, his face impassive, except for the glower he threw at Yosif and the rest of his team.