Chapter 196: Staying Alive (at Least Some of Us)

We met at the same parking lot where we had taken down Fang and his crew. I explained my plan which was improved greatly by Damien's input. Before I sent the, far too young, Sniper off ahead of us, I planned to give him my hand me down Barrett, except that he had his own. He and the Barrett amounted to our only heavy fire power.

"You do know they have to make a clearly threatening gesture, before you can fire that monster?" I asked.

"Yes Ma'am, but I also know that if I wait too long, you are likely going to be dead, That Miss Maxine is completely unacceptable on all levels," he said. I could only nod my head. I didn't trust myself to speak.

The sniper and Earl got a ten minute head start, then we all piled into the SUV. "Damien is this thing going to provide any protection at all," I asked. Our plan was to use it as a ram. Then drive it quickly across the parking lot, in order to get someone into the building.

"Bullet proof polymer windshield and side windows. The same Kevlar panels in the doors. under the floor, and overhead that you had in Iraq," he said.

"I hope it works better here," I said.

"Me too," he agreed.

The plan was for Damien to cut the power as soon as Earl and the sniper were in place. He was then going to drive the bullet resistant SUV through the gate and right up to the door. With a little luck he would be at the door before they could get an RPG in play. If not it would be up to my marine sniper buddy to neutralize the man with the RPG before he fired it.

"Show time," Damien said over our private radio net. I heard the sound of Damien hitting the gate with the SUV while Abra was halfway up the fire escape stairs. The power was off so most likely the people inside had no idea, we were on the way up. At least I hoped they weren't waiting for us to step into the doorway. If so, we were likely to get our bodies riddled with bullets.

The frontal attack was the faint and we were the kill team. The fact that the kill team was two women might have been an accident, but most any man, worth a damn, will tell you that we are the deadlier of the sexes. Damien had insisted that Abra rush up the stairs, while I covered her from the ground. Once she was on the metal landing she wedged the door closed so that there would be no surprises while I rushed to join her.

When we were both on the landing the wedge went over the side. I knocked the door handle off while Abra got the self contained metal hole saw ready. With it she cut a circle around the missing door handle mechanism and the dead bolt. We could only hope that the noise coming from the front would keep them from hearing our sawing. Explosives would have been nice, but we could not have safely been on the landing when they went boom. We would have had to climb the metal stairs while the bad guys had time to rush to the door and ambush us. It was a damned if you do, damned if you don't, kind of thing. I was glad that we had the option.

Abra pulled the door open, and I rushed in with the shotgun at the ready. No one fired at us as we made our way to the open metal catwalk, which surrounded and connected the second floor rooms.

Looking out through the hallway opening, we saw that there were only two men firing and they were on our side of the building firing at the front doors of the building. They were laying down a withering fire while carefully avoiding exposing themselves to the Barrett.

Since we were on the same wall as the gunman, we did not have an angle. What I could do was crawl along the catwalk below the window level. When I got close enough, I could lob a stun grenade into the already broken window. It wasn't a good option, but it was the only thing I could come up with.

I got on our radio net and spoke to the sniper. "Sweetie put a round where you think the guys are and I'll give you corrections. When we get close you keep up the fire until Abby tells you to stop."

"Okay Maxine," he said. The murderous round came through the window on the front door side, then it traveled across the open space to the front wall of the back offices. It went in about ten feet to the left of the room.

"You want to come over about ten feet," I said. His answer was another heavy .50 cal through the window almost center of the room and about belt high. "Elevate that about a foot and then fire a pattern about two feet on either side of that spot."

The rounds began coming in. "Now Abra when I toss in that grenade you tell him to cease fire. Cause I'm going to stand up and go through the door hot. You got it?" I asked.

"Yes, but I should be the one to do it," she said.

"You would have to be crazy to want to do this." I smiled then added, "And I am."

I quickly crawled to the spot under the window. I heard six round go over my head while I crawled. How far they were over my head I couldn't tell. I tossed the grenade into the broken window, then looked away, and covered my ears.

"I sure as hell hopes this works," I said as I stood and kicked the door. I'm so light in the ass I had to kick it twice, but it finally opened. I went in with the shotgun at the ready. Neither of the men was Ling Po. They both threw down their rifles and stretched out of the floor.

"Come on in but do it carefully we are missing Ling Po. He has got to be in here somewhere.," I said.

"Max, he is on the first floor behind some boxes." Lucas said from his spot in our office where he had watched it all on TV.