Chapter 14

We did a communication check and moved into position.

Nathan's team entered the Eastside without being noticed. They found a staircase immediately on the left and informed me they were moving up to the second floor to ensure that there were no surprises from any of the floors above us.

My team entered the Westside and was greeted by two surprised goons. Neither of them made a sound as they were lowered to the ground. Six bullets each was overkill but we had not set an order of fire, so when the goons turned as we entered all three of us pulled a silenced pistol and put a controlled pair in each target. The strange thing is that it only sounded like one pistol had fired twice. We quickly defined fields of fire and rotation of fire, with Sonny being #1 forward and everything left; me being #2 forward and everything right; O'Kei #3 forward and anything to our rear. If there were more than three targets it was open to whoever had and took the shot.

Ken-Gi's team went in the south entrance and found three goons sitting at a table. The goons didn't even notice Ken-Gi's team. Ken-Gi took two of the goons with his katana easily removing their heads Randle just cut the last goons throat leaving him in his chair.

Ken-Gi and his team walked to the double doors leading to the main conference room as my team and I made our way to the side door of the same conference room. Nathan called to say the second floor was clear and they were checking out the next floor.

Ken-Gi and I timed entering the conference room at the same time. When we went in I went right Sonny went left and O'Kei stayed at the door. Randle went right, Kammie went left, Ken-Gi went straight up the center and Sue stayed at the door.

Tia was right in front of us on a raised dais, about 18" above the floor. She was strapped to some pipe framework naked and looked like she had been whipped.

There were three goons standing near her talking and they looked shocked to see all of us enter as hard and fast as we did carrying the firepower we were. One turned toward Tia pulling a pistol and was shot by several people one being me! The goon was just about cut in half; in the hail of bullets one of the other goons took several hits most likely well aimed rounds. The third goon had gracefully dropped and rolled away from the gunfire coming to his feet he brazenly walked in an arc away from our two teams.

That is when the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I quickly scanned the room and yelled "OH SHIT!" Out of just about every shadow came a gunman, it looked like there were at least fifteen but not more than twenty, each of them firing two pistols. Both 203 gunners fired flash bang grenades. I emptied the shotgun then dropped it and pulled both pistols. I know three rounds hit my vest because it felt like someone hit me with a sledgehammer each time.

The shooting lasted maybe three minutes but seemed to take forever. I had fired all 15 rounds from both pistols as I moved toward Tia and did not have time to reload as a goon jumped me. We rolled across the floor and I dropped both pistols as we began to grapple with each other. I caught him with a knee and was able to grab my knife on my left, cutting him under his right armpit with my upward motion. The downward motion turned just slightly allowing the blade to catch and cut across the right side of his neck, starting just behind his ear and going down to his collarbone. He was trying to stop the blood with his left hand since he could not move his right arm due to the fact that I had almost cut it off. I kicked his right knee shattering it and forcing him to the ground. He would be dead soon and had no weapon so I quickly turned back toward Tia. She was still in the pipe framework and no threat around her, so I scanned the scene to see if anyone needed help.

Sonny was on the ground behind a goon with his legs wrapped around the goon's waist and a choke hold on the goon's throat.

O'Kei was holding her arm with her back to the conference room obviously taking care of some late arrivals. She looked ok.

Randle was about to pile drive the goon he had in a body lock.

Sue also had her back to the conference room watching the side O'Kei was facing.

Kammie was untangling herself from the goon she had just killed or maybe someone else killed before he could kill her, I was not too sure.