“Maybe I don’t think you’re such a great friend. Have you seen all the trouble you’re getting me into lately?”
“Trouble? Hell, you used to worry about falling over and breaking your leg when you’d put your pants on in the morning. At least now I’m giving you something real to worry about.”
Dranko chuckled and then Angela’s voice caught them both by surprise, “Are you old women ready to stop flirting with each other?”
Cooper and Dranko looked at her, then each other, and shrugged their shoulders in exaggerated fashion. Dranko handed Angela the rifle, solid and made for hunting deer. “I only have one box of shells for it, which is why we hadn’t already distributed this one. But, for tonight’s work, it will be plenty. I brought this for you too, just in case. He held up a small pistol with an extra magazine.
Angela took both weapons from him. She checked the actions and practiced racking the bolt on the rifle a dozen times. Keeping the muzzle pointed at the floor, she dry-fired at least as many times, to get a feel for the trigger pull, “Very nice. Balanced. The bolt throws fast and smooth. The trigger is light, consistent, and it breaks clean. The glass on it looks sharp and clear.”
“It holds four rounds in that box magazine. Don’t forget, with the bolt open, you can top off the magazine.”
Angela nodded, “Got it.” She moved her attention to the .380 pistol, practicing racking the slide, dry-firing, and checking the sights.
Dranko had his M16 strapped across his back. “And, I also have these,” he clanked a set of rifle plates together. “When added to our soft body armor, these can stop most rifle rounds, too. They are heavy, but for a short run like this, it won’t be a problem.”
Angela shook her head, “I don’t need a set. My game tonight will be speed. Those will just slow me down too much. You wear them.”
Cooper started to protest, but stopped himself. What she says makes sense. I’m not going to play out something from a movie and be the over-protective male.
Finally, Dranko handed her a camouflage smock, “I didn’t have a full set of pants and shirt, but this should work to cover most of you.”
“Thanks. With a pair of dark pants, they’ll be fine.”
Cooper spoke up, “We wear regular clothes getting there, weapons stowed. We’ll change in the field. There may be more police up in the West Hills, I don’t want to risk a stop.”
The corners of Angela’s lips turned down in thought, “True. True. I’ll work up a nurse’s bag from Lisa. Our cover story can be that I’m a private nurse going to see a patient.”
“And who are we?” Dranko asked, skeptically.
“My gallant bodyguards, of course!” she winked.
Cooper smiled, “That’s believable enough these days. I like it. Good idea.”
Chapter 31
A few minutes later, Cooper was outside. The cold air nipped at his exposed ears and fingers. He knelt beside Elena’s grave, propping himself up with the butt of his rifle. The earth that had consumed his wife was still fresh enough that he could smell its dampened odor. He thrust a hand into the dirt and grabbed a fistful of it. He brought it to his nose and inhaled. He imagined he could smell a whiff of her perfume. The clumps of dirt slowly fell through his fingers back onto her grave.
“I need your help tonight. I’m going to save our son, I hope.” He worked hard to keep his voice steady amidst the emotion.
He listened in silence, hoping for an answer of some kind. But, the night was deathly quiet, save the bark of a dog in the distance. Suddenly, he heard the flutter of wings and looked up. A black crow had alighted on the wire above. A part of Cooper wanted to believe it was the same bird from days before, but he couldn’t be sure.
His eyes fell again to the freshly tilled earth and what lay beneath. “I miss you, love. I miss you every minute. I don’t know how I can raise our boy without…” His voice cracked and fresh tears plied their way down his face and fell onto the earth, darkening it. He stared, thinking in the silence at the ground where his wife’s body lay.
Then, from the east, the deep roar of an engine disturbed his thoughts. He’d heard that sound before. A second later, it clicked. It was the whine of a military Humvee. A chill ran down his spine and the pit of his stomach turned over.
Cooper turned, ripped open the door, and shouted inside, “Angela, watch Jake. Dranko, on me! Now!”
Seconds later, Dranko had gathered his gear and appeared at Cooper’s side. Already, the first barks and pops of gunfire from the eastern barricade were echoing off his home’s walls. The telltale rapid popping, tat-tat-tat, of automatic weapons fire greeted their ears.
“Military,” Cooper breathed to Dranko as they set out on a full sprint towards the gunfire. Dranko nodded as they ran.
Within seconds, the gunfire had grown deathly silent. The roar of the engine revving up again, drawing closer, confirmed his worst fears: the barricade had been quickly overrun.
Cooper and Dranko had run barely fifty yards when the Humvee came into view. They flung themselves to the ground and behind two small trees that were scattered about six feet apart. The Humvee raced towards them, straight towards Cooper’s house. They saw the driver, a passenger, and the gunner who stood behind the machine gun that was mounted on top of the vehicle’s roof.
“Got gunner,” Cooper whispered to his friend as he sighted his rifle on the man’s torso that lay exposed.
When the vehicle was within thirty yards, they opened fire. Caught by surprise, their volley was devastating. Cooper fired three shots in rapid succession. The first caught the man square in the chest and rocked him back against the opening. The second ripped the man’s neck wide open and a red geyser erupted. The third shot missed entirely as the machine gunner’s body slumped and banged against the vehicle.
Dranko had let loose a controlled burst of gunfire from his M16, stitching a pattern from the driver to the passenger-side. Both men were cut down in seconds. The vehicle, driverless, swerved and then flipped over. It skidded, on its side, to a stop just twenty feet from Cooper’s front lawn.
Cooper and Dranko turned toward each and exchanged smiles. A second later, Cooper saw Dranko’s face look aghast just as he heard another engine roaring up the street and the first burst of gunfire.
He felt something set his left arm on fire. He rapidly pushed himself backward, trying to find more cover behind a low retainer wall. His left arm burned where the bullet had hit him. He clenched his fingers and moved his arm to confirm it hadn’t broken any bones or destroyed any key muscles.
He popped up and shot blindly in the direction of the sound of the second Humvee. Dranko lay absurdly exposed and he hoped to give him some cover. Two of his rounds impacted on the Humvee’s body, one close to the machine gunner up top.
Within a second, Cooper was staring down the barrel of the heavy barrel machine gun. He dropped to the flat of his belly as a burst of gunfire hit the low wall he was hiding behind. Dirt showered him and rock chips bit into his arms and face. With his arm, he shielded his eyes from the stinging debris and looked up.
Dranko had swung his body around the tree to gain as much cover as it could afford—which wasn’t much. The machine gun fire was stitching across the ground, arcing in slow motion from where Cooper lay towards Dranko’s position. Dranko was firing back blindly at the Humvee as he tried to shrivel his body up enough to hide behind the all-too-skinny tree. Fear throttled Cooper’s throat as he saw his friend’s impending fate. He rose back to his knees, but rifle fire that came from behind the Humvee forced him back down. More men, dismounted.