Black Harvest

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Selena watched a black Suburban drive between the buildings, shining a spotlight into the shadows. The light swept back and forth across the road. She raised her MP-5, risked a quick look through the night scope and focused on the windshield in front of the driver. He had a microphone to his mouth. Her heart began pounding.

Steady your breathing. Relax. Slow your heart rate, take up the slack. Take your time. Don't fire until you have to.

Easy, standing on a firing range. Not so easy when the adrenals began pumping. She ducked back into the doorway. Across the way, Ronnie waited. Nick and Korov emerged behind him. The spotlight found them. She leaned out of the doorway and put eight rounds into the windshield of the SUV. The stuttering ripple of shots broke the silence.

The light went out. The windshield shattered. The Suburban skewed left and rammed into the side of a building. The passenger door opened and a man rolled out into the street. He had an M-16. He brought it up and fired, the bullets slamming into the wall above her head. The MP-5 bucked against her shoulder and Selena shot him, three rounds, center of the body.

A loud, shrieking alarm began. The sound came from everywhere, echoing down the space between the buildings, bouncing from the walls, filling the night air.

Nick spoke into his microphone. "That tears it. Back to the vehicles."

"Nick." Lamont's voice on the headset. "They're piling out of the barracks. One Humvee pulling out already, man on the gun. They're scrambling. Get your ass out of there."

"Take out the generators and the propane tanks."

"Roger that."

The generators were big, but they were essentially diesel engines. A few rounds through the radiators and the block would put them out of action. The unmistakable sound of the .50 boomed loud in the Texas night. They ran for the fence. The lights flickered. The Barrett had a ten round magazine. Nick heard two more fast shots. Half the lights died.

They reached the last row of buildings before the fence. A Humvee wheeled around the corner at the far end and turned onto the road between the buildings. The gunner up top cut loose with the belt fed machine gun. The M240 spit out 7.62mm rounds, lots of them. Selena and Ronnie went right, Nick and Korov left, behind the buildings on either side of the road. They heard the whine of differentials as the vehicle powered nearer. Once it emerged from between the buildings and passed the corner, someone would get killed.

"Cover me," Korov said.

Nick didn't argue. He leaned around the corner and began firing at the gunner. "'Selena, Ronnie, cover," he yelled.

The MP-5s put out a lot of firepower. Rounds bounced from the armored vehicle, starred the windshield. The gunner ducked down, firing blind at them. Korov sprinted down the side of the building. The Humvee passed him. He leapt up onto the side as it went by and shot the gunner. He dropped a grenade through the open hatch and jumped off. The explosion blew the doors open. It slowed and stopped. Flames rose from the wreckage.

The Barrett boomed in the night. The compound went dark. It boomed again. A propane tank exploded, painting everything with yellow orange light. They ran to the end of the building. The fence was fifty yards away over open ground.

Headlights bounced toward them.

"Lamont, what do you see?"

"Looks like six, no, seven trucks. The trucks are splitting up. They're going to flank you. One Humvee headed right for you. They had some kind of trouble with the other. About four hundred yards."

"Get the RPG. Take out that bastard."

"Roger that."

"We can't outrun those trucks." Ronnie watched the headlights drawing closer.

"We have cover here," Korov said. "More or less."

"Right. Korov, you and Selena take that end. Selena, do what Korov says. Ronnie and me here. Let Lamont worry about the Humvee. We focus on the trucks. We stop them, they have to come after us on foot. Go."

Korov and Selena ran for the other side of the building. They reached the end.

"I will go high. You stay low."

Do what he says.

She crouched and peered around the corner. Above her, Korov took his stance. Three trucks were barreling toward them. They'd left the road and fanned out across the flat dirt.

"Now."

They began firing.

Selena targeted the truck to the far right. A steady stream of empty casings spewed from her gun. She watched the headlights shatter. The front tires blew out. The truck swerved and stopped. She could hear doors open, men cursing. She turned her attention to the second truck. Korov had hit the third. Flames shot up as she watched.

Somewhere in her mind Selena heard Nick and Ronnie firing at the other end of the building. She ejected an empty magazine, slammed in another, charged the weapon, began shooting. The MP5 felt like it was part of her, a live thing in her hands. Above her, Korov kept up a steady stream of fire. The air smelled of gunpowder and brass.

The lights went out on the remaining truck. It stopped.

The charges in Building Four ignited in a white hot flare of heat and light. It felt like someone had sucked all the sound away, then thrown a match into a giant pool of gasoline. There was a loud wumpf that shook the ground. She felt a rush of heated air. An enormous fireball of red and orange bloomed in the night. It rose and lit the compound with a hellish glare. In the sudden light she saw men running toward her. Her MP-5 was hot in her hands. She inserted another magazine. Men died in front of her.

She saw the second Humvee coming. Bullets hammered the side of the building over her head.

Korov touched her shoulder. "We fall back. To the others."

They ran toward the others. The Humvee turned the corner. Selena saw the machine gun turning toward her, bright muzzle flashes, each a messenger of death. Something dark moved through the air and the vehicle exploded. Lamont had come through with the RPG. A man wrapped in flames stumbled out of the wreck and fell screaming onto the road. Korov shot him.

"Men coming." Korov gestured over his shoulder. The light from the blazing building cast a bright red glow. Ronnie fired at shapes in the darkness. Muzzle flashes answered, winking at them in the night. They heard Lamont's M4. Steady, three round bursts.

Nick's voice on their headsets. "If they get between us and the fence, we're screwed. We run for it. Lamont, we're coming in."

"Roger."

"Now."

They sprinted for the opening in the fence. M-16s chattered behind them. Dirt flew around their feet.

Ten yards from the fence Ronnie went down. He cried out, once.

No one spoke. Korov and Nick lifted him, each on one side. They started again for the fence. Something hit Nick in his back like a hammer and he went to the ground, taking Korov and Ronnie with him. Ronnie cried out again. Nick got to his feet. They dragged Ronnie through the fence. Selena ran backwards behind them, firing at their pursuers. Lamont kept up covering fire from the truck. Spent casings littered the ground around him.

They heaved Ronnie into the back of the truck. Korov clambered in beside him. For a big man, he moved fast. Lamont fired a last burst and climbed in on the other side.

Nick got behind the wheel and started the engine. Selena scrambled into the passenger side. A window shattered. More rounds punched into the truck, hard, metallic sounds. He gunned the Suburban and headed away from the compound and hoped nothing hit the gas tank. The rear view mirror filled with bright spots like deadly fireflies in the night. Behind them, Building Four burned with sullen ferocity. Smaller fires marked the vehicles they'd destroyed.

Nick drove into the dark and prayed he didn't run into a wash or a stand of cactus. When he figured they were far enough away he turned on the lights. He pictured the map of Texas in his mind and drove across the plain, headed for the nearest road. They'd left the second vehicle, the Barrett, the launcher. Sooner or later Lodge and Dansinger would figure it out.

His back was numb. His arms didn't work as well as he would have liked. Nick heard Korov in the back seat.

"You were shot. Are you wounded?"

"I'll be okay. The vest stopped it. Thirty layers of Kevlar, it'll stop a .308. Usually. Felt like Barry Bonds slugged me with his bat. Lamont, How's Ronnie?"

"I've got the bleeding stopped. He took one in his right leg. Got the bone."

"Conscious?"

A hoarse croak from the back seat. "Yeah, I'm conscious. Hurts some."

"Run faster next time."

"Speak for yourself, Kemo Sabe." Ronnie turned to Korov. "Thanks for dragging me out of there."

Korov shrugged. "You would have done the same, nyet? It is what we do."

Ronnie nodded. "Yeah. It's what we do."

The Texas night stretched ahead of them. A rabbit darted away in the lights.