OUTCAST Ops: African Firestorm

CHAPTER SEVEN

The OUTCAST team raced up the stairs two at a time, one covering the other two to the next landing, then leapfrogging past them. By the time they reached the fourth floor, their legs were burning and they were slightly out of breath. Dante glanced through the fire door's small window and nodded. Naomi opened the door and the other two stepped out, Tanner going left, Dante right. Naomi followed, ready to help either one.

They could all smell the acrid stench of gun smoke in the hallway. To the left was the outside wall, consisting mostly of windows overlooking the driveway below. Gunfire, from ahead and to the right, told Tanner that the hitmen were still there.

They moved quickly down the hall to the first set of glass doors, which had been shattered, fragments littering the carpet both in the hall and inside. Tanner stopped just short of the doors, Naomi and Dante stacking up behind him. Tanner glanced through the glass into a small reception area.

"Black to White," Liam's tone was low but forceful. "We have our own Omega Condition here. We're in the office, but there's a gun battle going on below us. Black Three's working the computer, but we're definitely going to have to shoot our way out. Black Two says whoever they are, they're speaking Arabic."

Tanner’s eyes scanned the room. "Do what you have to. If it comes down to any of you or the data, leave the data. One out."

Seeing no one, Tanner stepped through the door frame. Naomi and Dante, pistols up and ready, followed.

The reception area consisted of a desk, a few chairs, a pair of side tables, and several large photos of the company's ships on the sea-blue walls. Two sets of translucent glass doors, one set directly across the lobby from the main doors, the other to the left, behind the receptionist's desk, led deeper into the offices. Bursts of gunfire, overlapping and of various lengths, echoed throughout the offices.

Tanner motioned to Naomi and Dante toward the doors ahead, while he moved to the doors on the left. Looking at the other two, he nodded and they moved through both set of doors.

Dante went through the door low and to the right, while Naomi went left and high. A wall forced them to turn to the right, and they found themselves five feet away from an armed thug. He was dressed from head to toe in black, facing away from them, firing an AK-47 full-auto into an office door and window, shredding the thin wooden door, shattering glass, and wrecking the office inside. Empty casings flew out of the Russian assault rifle, bouncing on the floor in a jingly brass rain.

Naomi stroked her pistol's trigger twice, and the enemy shooter’s head exploded as both .45 slugs slammed into it. As the gunman fell, both Naomi and Dante heard someone shout, "Abdel!"

Both OUTCAST members moved forward at a fast walk. Before they reached the body, a second armed combatant appeared from around the corner, his AK-47 rising to butcher whoever had killed his comrade.

Naomi and Dante were faster.

They both fired twice, and at point-blank range, the heavy slugs ripped into the masked man's head and torso, knocking him off his feet and onto the ground. Both OUTCASTs moved forward, pistols still at the ready. The hallway to the left opened up into a small common area, while to the right it ended in a short hall. There were two bodies in the common area, a man and woman dressed in business attire, butchered by gunfire. A water cooler had been savaged and a table hacked up by the same rounds.

"Three to One," Naomi said softly into her radio. "Two Tangos down, two Civs KIA."

"Three Civs KIA here," Tanner came back. "I also have one WIA Civ. No Tangos yet."

Naomi led the way across the common area, carefully stepping over the bodies. She and Dante could see four offices around the outside of the common area, each one shot up, and another hallway leading deeper into the office. They moved to the corner where the common room and the second hall met. Before they could lean out, the corner dissolved and splintered under a hail of bullets. The pair pulled back and rode out the swarm.

"At least two," Dante said loud enough to be heard over the radio.

There were a pair of loud clicks and the bullets stopped coming. Naomi and Dante leaned out, Naomi on one knee, Dante above her. Both saw their targets — two more black-clad assailants — franticly trying to reload their AKs. Both OUTCASTs fired and the foes went down in bloody heaps.

The OUTCASTs continued forward.

In the other hallway, Tanner crept forward. The gunfire had stopped. "Two more Tangos down," Naomi said softly in his earpiece.

"Copy, Three," Tanner said. "We're two Tangos short. Be alert."

He had already passed three bodies, and a fourth who was wounded, but still alive. He hadn't said a word to her, wary of being ambushed while distracted. The smell of cordite was strong, and he noticed plenty of empty shells scattered around the floor. Rank amateurs, he thought. Stupid, but unpredictable.

He moved past a couple of empty offices on his left and a conference room to his right. A break area was to his front and right, while a closed door, presumably leading into another office, lay to his left. Ahead, the wall curved, with a door that stood half-open. A brass plate was mounted next to the door, but from fifteen feet away, Tanner couldn't read it.

The OUTCAST leader’s experience and training gave him a split-second advantage in what happened next. Even as his mind registered the black figure rising up from behind the break area's counter, he turned, crouched and fired three times in rapid succession. All three slugs struck the attacker center mass, ripping through his chest and out the back, spraying the wall behind him with blood. The AK tumbled from his grip, bounced on the counter, and clattered to the floor. The body dropped out of sight.

A flash of movement from his left made Tanner spin in the direction. The last black-clad adversary stepped out of the office, AK braced against his arm and hip. For an instant, Tanner saw the fanatical gleam in the man's eye before he pulled the trigger three more times.

The AK fired into the ceiling, but its wielder was already dead, ripped open from head to upper chest. He dropped to one knee before falling face first onto the carpet.

"Two Tangos down," Tanner intoned, quickly changing magazines for his pistol. "That's all of them, but stay alert. There might be a few bodyguards still active."

Tanner moved forward a little quicker, toward the corner door. Once he got closer, he moved to the left side of the doorway. The plate next to the door said, "Horst Aswegen, CEO."

Before he could push the half-open door fully open, Dante said into his earpiece, "Two to One. We're coming up on your right."

Tanner glanced in that direction and saw his teammates walking towards him, pistols held low, but ready. He motioned for them to stack up on the other side of the door. With a few gestures, he indicated their plan of attack. Once both of his colleagues nodded, Tanner raised his left foot and kicked the door open.

He counted to five, then went in low and to the right. Naomi came in high and to the left, while Dante went low and left.

What had been a nice office was now a mess of broken glass, bullet-marked wood and shattered objects. Across the room, a half open door led out into the outside corridor. The smell of cordite and blood was strong in the room, and the low thrum of an engine could be heard from somewhere above.

A pair of men dressed in suits laid on the floor in pools of blood, pistols still in their hands. Tanner glanced at them, checking for identification. "Neither one's Aswegen," he said.

"Must have gone out the door," Dante said.

"Helo pad," Naomi said.

"Let's move," Tanner said.

They darted across the room to the door, then eased out into the corridor. They could hear the helicopter, a low rumble from above. As the OUTCAST squad emerged into the empty hallway, gunfire erupted from the roof, pistol shots mixing with long bursts of automatic fire that overrode the helicopter's high pitched hum.

"Move!" Tanner commanded, taking the lead. The staircase for this end of the building was only ten feet from the door, and the team climbed it quickly, pistols up and ready to fire.

On the first landing the gunfire from above ceased and as the team reached the top of the stairs, the pitch of the helicopter engine changed. By the time they stepped into the open, a blue and white helicopter was already twenty feet in the air and rising quickly. They were too far away to see the helicopter's occupants, and there was no acknowledgment of their presence as the chopper continued to rise into the sky.

"Tanner!" Dante pointed. "Bodies!"

Tanner looked away from the helicopter, now disappearing into the night sky, and in the direction Dante was pointing. Four bodies were sprawled near the helipad, hidden in the shadows. The team went over and checked them. Two were bodyguards, the third a pilot, and… When the lighting on the roof showed Horst Aswegen's pale face and lifeless eyes, Tanner knew they had failed. All four had been shot multiple times; there was not a pulse among them.

"We'd better get back down there and see if there's anyone left alive to question," Tanner said. "Let's move."

The three ran for the stairs. As they started down, Tanner transmitted on the radio, "White to Black, what is your status?"