Chapter 18

John's smile faded as he noticed Donna's Glock sitting on the table, beside the weapon was a full clip and beside that was an extra bullet. It was obvious that Donna had been in the process of conducting a preemptive strike against Tony.

It was a good thing that Eric cared so much for Donna. Because of that love he was aware of the woman's moods and, therefore, knew to stop her before she blew Tony away.

"It's starting already," thought John with the shake of his head. "Tony has two strikes against him already, do I give him a chance for strike three or do I just take him out now? That's the question."

At that moment Aaron came into the room followed by Ann.

"John, may we have a minute of your time, in private?" Aaron asked.

"Sure." John said knowing, or at least thinking he knew, what they wanted to talk about. "Let's go into my office."

Once settled, the two people sat uncomfortably.

Finally John pushed the issue. "Ok, what's up?"

Aaron just looked at his feet and Ann spoke up. "We've been talking on the porch about the Tony thing. Aaron is loyal to you and your team and feels that ... well, he feels reticent on the issue. While I, on the other hand, feel that something has to be done about Tony, there is something really wrong with him."

Ann paused, not knowing how to continue considering the history of the team members.

"Go on Ann," John said softly.

She looked up thankfully and continued, "I think that Tony is unstable and wishes to create a situation that will threaten all of our safety. He has already gotten Donna to throw her beer mug at him. I just had to put fifteen stitches in the wound on Tony's fore head."

John, who had been leaning back in his office chair, snapped forward and asked, "Is that true Aaron?"

The younger man just nodded miserably. It was now obvious that this meeting was not his idea.

"Aaron, tell me everything that happened after I left."

Aaron looked his leader in the eye and told John all that had transpired.

John's face darkened as he said, more to himself than to the others, "He's gotten worse then." John looked up at Ann and continued, "You've been with him for awhile now, do you feel that he's a danger to the Unit?" He had slipped back into military jargon under the stress.

"Look, John, for whatever reason I have a terrible track record with men, but I'm learning. I think that Tony is in a twisted way, suicidal. He will do everything in his power to destroy happiness, where and when he finds it, until it kills him and those around him. The death of his daughter and the divorce from his wife has rotted his mind. He might even betray us. I've seen him with a SAT phone. Who knows who he's called on that thing?"

"That Sat phone is strike three! Go get your weapons and meet me in the living room in five," said John as he opened a drawer and pulled out his .40 caliber S&W.

Tony was sitting on the couch as they came out of John's office. Seeing the weapon in John's hand he said with a twisted smile, "You're too late boss. They're on their way."

"Don't have the guts to do it yourself, do you? You coward!" said John.

That got a rise out of the man, "I'm not afraid to die! Why should all of you be happy when my Alice is dead? Why?"

It was obvious now that Tony was totally insane.

"I'll see all of you dead and buried! None of you add up to anything near the worth of my Alice! You're one of them, Ann. One of those medical people that said that she would be ok. You're all fucking liars!" Tony yelled as he lifted a side arm, that until then, had been hidden from view. He pointed it at Ann.

John was too quick for him and put a bullet between Tony's eyes. Still the timing was too close and Tony did manage to fire his weapon. His aim was off though and the bullet only grazed Ann's shoulder.

As John put pressure on Ann's wound he told Aaron to raise the alarm. By the time that all were assembled John had bound Ann's wound and was back in his office opening the safe.

Everyone was milling around the body as John returned to the living room.

"Listen up everyone! Tony has betrayed us! Go grab your emergency bags and get to the planes, I don't know how much time we have before the enemy gets here. You all know the drill so get moving."

All rushed away except Aaron and Eric. John had not briefed the members of his old team on the exit strategy because of that famous gut of his. There had been that unknown tingle when he had brought the three remaining team members back from below. However as he looked into the eyes of the two remaining members there was no tingle. What he saw was expectation and anticipation as the two awaited their orders.

"You two are with me."

Within the hour all of the planes, save one, were in the air—each heading in a different direction. The little Helio Stallion was the only plane left on the ground. Aaron and Eric were refitting her from the two to four seat configuration as John went about turning on the detonation receivers. Five minutes after the last receiver was turned on they were in the air skimming the lake.

John was not so much sad as he was pissed that he had let this happen. Eric could see the seething anger roiling within John and said, "I should have capped the bastard that day he let Joey get killed! I'm really sorry boss."

Shocked, John glanced at the man; they were flying under the radar and he could not take his eyes off of the terrain for long.

"It's not your fault Eric. He got by all of us."

"No, boss, it is! You didn't see his face that day. I think he planned on getting someone killed. It was just Joey's bad luck to get paired with him."

"Why didn't you say something, then?"

"Well, hind sight and all ... At the time I wasn't quite sure what was going on, just that something wasn't right. Ya know?"

"I know exactly what you mean. I've had the same feeling growing over the last couple of months."

They had only been airborne for a few minutes and now John set the plane down in a small meadow on the side of a mountain just across the lake from the compound.

John taxied the little plane under a camouflage net and shut down the engine.

"I should have known that you'd have a plan in place, but why have we landed so close to the compound?" asked Aaron.

John didn't say a thing. Instead he exited the aircraft and went to a spot hidden by a stand of bushes. He then opened a crate and pulled out a set of powerful binoculars. He then closed the crate and sat down.

As if just realizing that he was not alone he looked up and told the two men to drop the front curtain on the netting. He didn't want any reflections giving their position away.

The men complied and then sat quietly. Automatically falling into the routines of many years of missions.

After three plus hours of sitting they heard the characteristic thump of helicopter rotors in the distance.

There were three of them. They came in fast and low. After circling the compound once, two choppers settled down and disgorged their payload, troops. The third chopper acted as a gunship and it orbited the site to provide cover fire if needed.

John raised the glasses to his eyes and studied the faces of the men on the ground then moved to try to see who was in the gunship. An evil twisted smile, a smile filled with malice and hate came to his face as he recognized one of the men in the rear of the orbiting chopper.

Without a word he handed the glasses off to Eric.

"Well I'll be damned," said Eric as he passed the glasses on to Aaron.

"That FUCKER? I hope you have a nice surprise for him boss."

"That I do my lads, that I do," said John in a voice that was an octave lower than normal and was dripping with hate.

John walked over to a second crate and opened it. He removed several small control boxes that were quite similar to those used to operate radio-controlled models. He handed one to each man and said, "Ok boys, the box that you have Aaron is the controller for the explosive charges. I want you to hold off detonation until I give the word. I want to catch as many men inside of the buildings as is humanly possible. The green box that you have Eric is the 'lawn mower'. I want you to mow down any survivors with those Miniguns. This blue box that I have is for the stingers.

"I'm going to be the one that takes out Vezza's son. Now let's see if we can get them all. Oh, Eric start with the birds that are on the ground. I only have two stingers and I don't want any word to get back to Vezza. Ok?"

"Yeah boss."

The men studied the labels for each switch to familiarize themselves then powered up their controllers. All waited for the right moment to start the mayhem.

The troops from the first chopper went for the hangars as the second group of mercenaries moved into the main lodge.

"Hangars clear sir. No planes or personnel," radioed the first team leader.

The second team leader radioed to Bobby Vezza, "Sir the building is clear except for Tony. Sir he's dead."

"Shit! Get out of there!" yelled Bobby.

As John saw the first man retreat from the lodge he calmly said, "Now would be a good time Aaron."

Aaron triggered the lodge then the hangars and then continued until all of the structures were leveled. Seeing that the two birds on the ground were beginning to lift off, Eric opened up with the Miniguns. The stream of bullets cut the choppers into pieces and the tracers ignited both into great orange balls of fire. Eric then trained his weapons on the remaining men as they tried to flee.