Desmoterion, page 23
“You did well asking for this lot for the mission.” Trent smiled and opened the other side of the closet. “But tell me, is this enough?”
Girish gaped at the boxes of bullets, grenades, and guns.
“Leave it to a top-quality terrorist to load up on the good stuff. I checked the dates, and they’re all still good for now. We might have to cannibalize the gear used by the guys tracking us, but for now, we’re set.”
A knock sounded downstairs.
Trent glanced over at Girish. “Time for the fun to begin.”
* * *
Kipper and the others watched a field operative approach the front door. He had to wonder if Trent booby-trapped that as well. The yard was full of random things that killed one of the operatives from this team. He stepped on a bear trap and fell forward to impale on spikes covered by dead leaves. He had to give it to Trent; he sure kept it interesting to see if he’d be outsmarted or not.
A field operative turned the doorknob, and it opened with little effort. He nodded at his team to follow him.
Gunshots sounded inside, and the first man dropped to the ground, dead.
Stevenson rolled his eyes. “This is getting old. How can you be that stupid to just waltz in and get very far without Dupont noticing?”
The leader radioed to the man behind him. “They’re armed, so proceed with caution. Remember, both are trained former operatives.”
The man was about to report back when a rifle bullet picked him off. He tumbled to the ground, and the other four men dodged back for cover.
A man near the door took out his radio and told the forest team to come to the house.
Kipper glanced over at the forest feed, which gave the correct data, thanks to Benjamin. He’d put it back with no one noticing and with no sign from Kipper. Now they knew Trent was inside the house. There was no point in the deception.
Ward winced as he watched each member of the forest team get picked off as they exited the forest. “So much for backup.”
Stevenson radioed to a field operative outside. “They’re shooting from the top-floor window. Take them out now before your team gets decimated!”
The operative lined up a shot and readied his finger on the trigger, but the window closed before he could get off a shot. He swore and radioed back. “They closed the window, sir. I’ll monitor it to make sure they don’t try it again.”
Ward shook his head. “That doesn’t matter now. The forest team is dead. Only five men went in there, and they picked each off before the other operative could get a shot.”
Stevenson stared at the monitor in confusion. “I thought we sent twenty men to this position. Where are the others?”
As if on cue, a man radioed in. “We’ll be there within the hour. Hopefully, the first team is holding down the fort until we arrive.”
Stevenson tapped the switch. “Get there faster than that. They’re being picked off like flies.”
“Understood. We’ll speed it up without alerting the local forces.”
* * *
Trent went back inside to stand beside Girish and whispered, “Have they appeared yet?”
“No, I think they’re hiding behind the couch. Did you stop the ones in the forest?”
“Yep.” Trent shouldered the rifle. “I took them out one by one as they exited. And these are supposed to be the more advanced forces.”
Girish thought for a moment. “Pack up the gear while I take care of these idiots. It’s too bad we can’t get to the kitchen or we could grab some food on the way out.”
“Oh, we will; we just need to get rid of them first. I’ll leave you to it; just holler if you’re having trouble.”
Girish inched closer to the stairs, aiming for the couch. He fired several rounds and heard at least one man make a choking sound.
Bullets came at Girish’s position, but he dodged them with little effort. They were aiming blindly.
Girish moved out for another round on the couch, this time going for the end. Another choked scream sounded, but this time, the one hiding off to the side rose and took aim. Girish saw it and ducked in time, noting they were getting smart to his attack. He needed to change up his pattern, or he’d end up getting himself shot.
Trent appeared in the hallway and shuffled toward him with a full bag of ammunition and grenades. “Have you got them all?”
“Not yet. They’ve figured out my pattern.”
Trent took out his handgun and flicked off the safety. “Then let’s give them another one.”
Girish fired at the couch again and waited. The man off to the side rose to take a shot at Girish and was taken out by Trent before he had the chance.
Trent called out to them. “All right, get the fuck out of my house, or I will kill all of you.”
No one moved.
Girish quietly stepped down the steps and motioned for Trent to keep talking.
Trent spoke to the room, “I’m going to give you the count of ten to surrender. You’re outmatched and pretty much easy pickings at this point.”
Girish crouched after the last step to look through the bullet holes on the couch.
“10. 9. 8. 7....”
Girish spotted the dead man on the right side and a severely wounded man bleeding out with his eyes wide open to the ceiling.
“6. 5. 4....”
Inching to the left, Girish looked through another hole to spot two more dead men. With another scoot, he spotted the last man gritting his teeth at Trent’s counting. He turned and pointed at where the man was to Trent.
Trent moved down the stairs and kept counting. “3. 2....”
The man got up from his place, intent on taking out Trent, when he realized two guns were pointing into his chest. He stared at both of them in surprise.
Trent laughed. “I can’t believe you fell for that. Even the worst kind of operative knows better than to do it on the one count. You should have moved faster to pick off Girish, but you waited like a fool.”
The man sneered at Trent. “You won’t get out of here alive. Men surround this place.”
“You mean the ones I picked off as they walked out of the forest?” Trent grinned, and the man gaped back at him.
“Or maybe the idiots like yourself trying to come in the front that got picked off by Girish? Where exactly is this large army you profess?”
The man held his ground. “There’s more on the way. I’d imagine they’re arriving about now.”
Trent laughed. “Thank you for that.”
The man didn’t have time to respond as Trent put a bullet through his head. Instead, he slumped to the ground in a heap.
Trent leaned down to retrieve the radio from the man’s jacket and switched it on. “Catch me if you can.”
* * *
Stevenson swore. “Why don’t we have any competent men? These are idiots.”
The leader pressed a button on the console. “Get me Mike Winston. We need his tracker.”
Ward spoke up. “Trent and Girish are leaving the house with what appears to be gear.”
Stevenson scoffed. “Yeah, the gear they stole from us!”
“Actually, sir, not all of it is. It appears there were some hidden in this house. They now have detonators and bombs.”
Kipper nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from a former terrorist target of ours. I’d imagine that gear goes back to when the house belonged to Morris Lynn. They probably sold the house as is instead of searching it for stuff.”
The leader shook his head. “We didn’t even know about this house, or we would have cleaned it out of gear. It can’t have been in any of the mission files.”
A voice sounded from the comm. “This is Mike Winston.”
The leader leaned forward to speak. “We need your expert tracker. It seems our forces aren’t good enough to reclaim two rogue operatives.”
“Which two operatives?”
The leader hesitated and then said, “Trent Dupont and Girish Kannan.”
“You’re going to need a lot more than my tracker. Dupont is one of the best, if not the best operative you’ve ever had. Any ideas why he went rogue?”
The leader’s jaw clenched. “He’s wanted out, and now he has that chance. I want him returned to us as soon as possible.”
“Very well. I’ll notify Matteo to gather his crew. Do you have a lock on him at the moment?”
The leader looked over at Kipper. “Are you still tracking him?”
Kipper pointed at the monitor. “They’re headed to the east from the house.”
“I’ll forward you the data we have. Currently, he’s heading east, and I’d imagine trying to avoid our second unit, which is twenty minutes away.”
“You don’t have confidence in your men?”
The leader looked at the display. “Not at the moment.”
* * *
Traipsing through the forest, Trent and Girish made their way from the house. When they came to the edge, it was open farmland. “We don’t have much cover out here. All they have to do is get a helicopter and capture us.”
Trent dug into his pocket. “I can fix that.”
Girish watched Trent press a button on the unit. “How?”
“It’s jamming your signal now.”
“They can still find us via cameras.” Girish gave Trent a pained look.
“Actually, they can’t right now,” Trent said, while putting his device away. “I mean, yes, they were able to a few seconds ago, but not anymore. That’s why we’re going to take a detour to throw them off.”
“And then what?”
“Then we find a place to rest once we’re far away. It depends on the field operatives they’re sending our way. As you heard from the guy in the house, the next group is twenty minutes away, which means they’re on our trail.”
Girish pointed to a thick forest. “How about going through there? It will shield us from helicopters.”
Trent pulled out his gadget again and looked at it. “That would work. It’s got defined trails so we don’t land in some ravine with the wrong step.”
* * *
Stevenson stared at the monitor. “Where the hell did they go?”
Kipper sighed. “Trent has turned on his jammer again. I assume they’re still going southward as I doubt they can magically transport to somewhere else.”
Stevenson patched into the field commander’s radio. “We’ve lost a lock on them. They were processing southward from the house.”
“Got it. I assume you’ll want to launch the helicopters as well.”
Stevenson turned to the leader.
The leader spoke up, “How long until they’re in the air?”
“I’d imagine they can launch immediately because it’s daybreak now, and there’s no foul weather to deal with.”
The leader patched into the helicopter radio. “I need two helicopters canvassing the area south of the coordinates I’m providing. Two rogue operatives must be captured and brought back alive.”
There was silence, and then a man spoke up, “Understood, we’ll be leaving within the next ten minutes. Let us know if the direction changes before then.”
The leader turned back to Stevenson and said, “They may jam our signal, but they can’t escape being seen from the air.”
* * *
Trent stopped to lean against a tree to get air back into his lungs.
“You’re exhausted.”
“No, it’s the unfamiliar plants triggering an allergic reaction. These are all alien to me. I can push past it, but it’s pretty thick in this forest, so I guess we’re going to be limited to a fast walk until we get out of it.”
Girish watched Trent push off from the tree to resume his walking. “You’re going to need to rest, Trent. I know they’re tracking us now, but once we get to a safe place, then I’m ordering you to sleep.”
Trent turned with a raised eyebrow. “You’re ordering me? I thought I was your boss.”
“Technically, the leader is my boss. Or he was. I guess not anymore. Look, I don’t want to defend us both alone while you’re incapacitated.”
“Fair enough, but it’s going to be several kilometers to the next safe place, assuming it still exists.”
“It’s not another house?”
Trent shook his head. “No, it’s an abandoned gas station. It was there a year ago, but it might have been demolished by now. I can’t see that far ahead while masking your tag. If I push it too hard, they’re going to find us again.”
* * *
Kipper watched the field operatives move across the southern fields in search of Trent and Girish. They hadn’t found them yet, and with forests on all sides, they likely dashed into one of those.
Trent would avoid being in the middle of fields because of helicopters, and Kipper assumed the field team would lose them. If there was one thing Trent was smart at, it was outsmarting people who thought too linearly. He was always several steps ahead of most people and tried to anticipate any variables, much to their leader’s dismay.
His missions were elaborate and extensive. While others just put the basic mission plans, Trent went the extra mile and outlined every step of the way so the operatives would know where they were supposed to be.
Kipper used to argue with Trent over the lengths he went about making the missions and carrying them out. Trent assumed the operatives were competent and would react to whatever was thrown at them.
Too bad for him, a good chunk of them weren’t and ended up being killed on the missions. It’s why they started sending Arden out with them to clean up any messes later.
Kipper frowned, wondering why the leader hadn’t called in Arden to take both of them out. He could have easily done so without all of this hunting around by the field operatives.
The leader saw the frown. “What is it?”
“I was just wondering why you haven’t used Arden for any of this. I mean, yes, he’s not needed for tracking people down, but he could have beaten them in the first forest.”
“I believe you know the answer to that. He trusts Trent and, therefore, corrupted into joining Trent’s side. The last thing I need is for them to also have a sharpshooter on their side. Trent is bad enough since he taught Michel how to do it.”
Kipper’s eyebrow rose. “How do you figure that? I mean, he was trained by Trent, but I’ve never seen them hanging out like Mike does.”
“I don’t want to take the chance. I’d rather use others who haven’t worked with Trent over the years. I’ll use Michael if I have to, but he’s a last resort.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Reaching the edge of the forest at the far end, Trent and Girish peered out from the trees in time to see the next bunch of field operatives heading into it far from them.
All was quiet overhead, but they still looked for the helicopters in the clear sky.
“What is that?” Girish motioned to a one-story building in the distance.
With a shrug, Trent checked his electronic guide. “Looks to be abandoned. My maps are coming up with nothing to identify it. It’s not a surprise since we’re close to the international border, and most of the land out here isn’t inhabited much. Hence, they set up our headquarters out here. Even if a recruit escaped, he’d have nothing to survive on and no chance of getting to civilization.”
“Well, except us, that is.”
“Indeed. Let’s check that building out; we might be able to use it as a shelter until the secondary forces come for us. If not, we continue on to the gas station as planned.”
They made the dash for the building in the distance and A helicopter roared overhead while they were exposed on the open ground between the shelter and the forest.
* * *
The helicopter operator radioed in. “We have a lock on their position. They’re heading for a building in the distance. I don’t recognize it, so I don’t know what might be inside.”
Kipper tapped Ward’s chair. “Info?”
“I’m looking now, but I think it’s been abandoned. Nothing is coming up. It used to be some kind of forestry service station judging by the old posters on the inside. The rest is empty floor space, and some shelves built into the walls.”
“So, in other words, not much by way of hiding space.”
Stevenson radioed to the field operatives in the forest, “They’ve been sighted south of the forest and heading for an abandoned building.”
As soon as Trent and Girish got into the building, gunfire sounded immediately.
Kipper looked over at their leader. “Who gave the order to shoot them?”
Stevenson patched into the helicopter. “What the hell are you doing? We’re not trying to kill them!”
“Just trying to get their attention. None of the bullets were hitting the building, just around it.”
Stevenson rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I’m leading this mission, and nothing happens without my okay. Understood?”
“Yes, sir. Awaiting further orders.”
Stevenson turned to their leader. “What now? The field operatives are on their way over, but they have to get back to the transporters in order to cut down time crossing the whole forest.”
The leader looked down at the monitor. “We hold tight for now. They can’t go anywhere else at the moment.”
* * *
“Shit. Now, we’re trapped.” Trent swore when he got inside. “There’s nothing in here for cover, and those asshole helicopters are shooting. We should have just bypassed it and gone into another forest.”
Scanning the abandoned office for anything that could help didn’t take long. Joans
Leaning against a wall and wheezing for a breath, Trent closed his eyes to try to calm the unrest brewing inside.
Refusing to surrender, Girish moved around in case he’d missed the one thing that might help them keep hidden when the field operatives arrived. He stepped across a portion of the floor and frowned at the creak it emitted.
Trent ducked down to look outside. He spotted several vehicles surrounding the building and field operatives with guns climbing out. “And now we’re truly fucked. Here comes an army after us. I guess we’ll have to prepare for a battle.”
Girish walked over the portion of the floor again, noting it kept creaking. “Trent.”
