Deep Black

48

As soon as Karr heard the Hind he shoved open the door. Two Russian Marines stood in awe about five yards away, staring in disbelief as the helicopter raked the compound with rocket and gunfire. Karr’s A-2 cracked twice and both men fell over as if they’d been sawed in half.

“Go! Martin! Go!” he yelled, moving out from the doorway. He did a quick turn, made sure the way was clear, then reached back and pulled the bewildered rescuee out from the door. He pushed Martin along the alley, then across the back to Building One. He got him down and glanced at the handheld display from the Bagel — the Russians and Charlie Dean had disappeared somewhere. One of the Zeus antiaircraft guns began firing from the far end of the base. Karr knew from the briefing that it wouldn’t be able to hit the Hind, but he also knew Fashona and Lia should have taken it out.

“Up the ladder, up the ladder!” he yelled to Martin. “Go! Go!”

Martin started to complain. He hadn’t put on his shoes, and his feet were cut and bleeding.

“Just get the fuck up now,” Karr said, grabbing his shirt and pushing him toward the ladder as two Russians came charging down the road. Karr leveled his gun and fired four bursts, missing with all as the men threw themselves to the ground. That was good enough for now, though — he jumped on the ladder and climbed up so quickly he nearly knocked Martin off at the top.

The compound rocked with gunfire, rockets, and secondary explosions. Karr saw one of the men he’d missed coming down the alley and fired another burst, cratering the man’s skull.

“Fashona!” he yelled as the helo whipped toward them. “We’re on the roof. Put down a line and haul Martin up.”

“Don’t have ropes,” said Fashona. “I got no crew, remember?”

“Fuck me.”

“I’d love to, honey, but you’re not my style.”

“Shit. I don’t trust this roof. Can you land in front of the building?”

“Yeah, if Lia can stop playing with the stinking cannon.”

The helicopter whipped around about twenty feet from them, tilting on its axis as the cannon on the right side of the fuselage roared. A truck at the far end of the compound caught fire.

“All right, I’m going to send Martin down. I’ll cover him from here, then go and get Dean.”

“We’ll cover him,” said Lia. “Get Dean and let’s get the hell out of here.”

Karr whirled around to Martin. “You gotta go back down the ladder. Helicopter’s coming for you.

“I–I can’t.”

“Yeah, man, you go now,” said Karr. He spotted a car moving down the road from the area of the SAMs. “Go! I’ll worry about the car.”

“What car?”

“Go,” said Karr. He pushed him toward the ladder, then burned the entire magazine — more than eighty bullets were left — tearing through the front end of the vehicle. By the time he was done, the remains would have fit in a coffee can.

He pulled out his handheld to look for Dean as he slammed in a new ammo box. Karr hit the Bagel’s control screen, pushing the small UAV closer toward the base. Then he went back out to the view screen and from there directed the computer to find the image he’d earlier associated with Dean. It took several long seconds; finally, the screen popped into map mode and a white box outlined three figures running toward the main gate.

The Hind swept in from behind him, shooting its cannon as it did.

“Lia! Watch out for Dean!” yelled Karr. “Don’t fire at the gate.”

“Where is he? I’m not getting a feed with the locator system.”

“He’s near the gate.”

As Karr looked down to update the position, the screen went blank.