Nick had no illusions about the so-called rules of war. The Chinese were hostile. Once they were done with their prisoners, they'd kill everyone. Nick put his head next to Selena's and whispered.
"I'm going to work my way over to the right. You take the group by the vehicle. I'll target the guards by Ronnie and the others. When I open up, shoot the officer first. Try to get them all if you can. If you can't, toss smoke and move toward me. There's ten of them and two of us but the odds are going to get better quick."
Selena nodded and took a bead on the officer. He was telling one of his men what was going to happen to him for letting a prisoner escape.
Valentina is out there somewhere.
Nick sidled away. Selena's adrenaline kicked in and her mouth went dry. The end of her weapon began moving. She took deep breaths and calmed herself until the sight was steady again on the officer's torso. Her heartbeat slowed and time seemed to slow with it. Then she heard the suppressed stutter of Nick's MP-7. Time sped up again.
She let off a three round burst. The officer slammed back into the vehicle and slid to the ground. Bright red blood spurted out over the white snow. The soldier he'd been dressing down stood in shock. She shot him and swiveled toward the others. They were moving, their training taking over. Selena shot one as rifles came up. She flattened herself as a stream of bullets passed over her head.
At the sound of Nick's first shots, Ronnie took down one of the guards with a flying tackle. The Russians dropped to the ground. Lamont saw one of the Chinese bring up his rifle and point it his way.
The man jerked and crumpled as Nick's rounds found him.
Selena rolled, ejected a spent magazine and slammed in a new one. Valentina appeared out of the darkness, firing as she ran, and fell down beside her. Chinese bullets sang overhead.
"Still two of them, sister. One is by the rear of the vehicle, one by the front."
"Cover me," Selena said.
"Wait…"
"Cover me."
Valentina flipped to full auto and laid down suppressive fire. Selena sprang to her feet and raced for the front of the armored carrier. Valentina's shots rang off the hood. Selena came around the front bumper and shot the soldier crouching there. At the rear, the last Chinese swung toward her and fired.
A bullet struck her in the thigh. It felt as though she'd been hit with a train. She went down, hard.
Then everything went black.
CHAPTER 40
Nick kneeled next to Selena, wrapping a field bandage around her thigh. He talked to Ronnie as he worked.
"What happened?"
"We heard a noise. We went toward it, then those guys popped out of nowhere. It was like they were ghosts. I've never seen anything like it. They could teach us something."
"She's coming around," Lamont said.
Selena opened her eyes.
"You're wounded but you're okay," Nick said. "The round went through your armor but missed the artery and the bone. It's still in there."
"How long?"
"Have you been out? Not long. Can you stand?"
"I don't know."
Ronnie and Nick helped her to her feet. Waves of pain rolled through her. She bit her lip and leaned on Nick.
"Lamont, help her," Nick said.
"Got you, babe," Lamont said, putting his arm around her.
"Babe?"
He grinned at her. She managed a smile.
"Can you handle the pain?" Nick asked. "Morphine will knock you out."
"I can handle it, but give me a small dose, just enough to dull it down."
Nick took the morphine from his pack and squeezed half a dose into her thigh.
Vasiliev and Valentina stood near.
"We must move quickly," Vasiliev said.
He was right. Even with suppressors on both sides, the firefight had been noisy. If they were lucky, the sound of the generator running the lights at the tower would have covered the noise.
It started to snow, fat heavy flakes that landed and stuck.
"Time to take out the tower." Nick said.
Ronnie had retrieved the AT-4. The rest of the Russians had formed a circle around the others, weapons pointing out, watching for any sign the Koreans were coming.
"Major Vasiliev, were you able to neutralize all of the antiaircraft positions before the Chinese surprised us?" Valentina asked.
"They had moved them," Vasiliev said. He looked defensive.
"Did you or did you not neutralize the positions?"
"Two of them. We did not locate the third."
"Shit," Lamont said.
"Too late to do anything about it now," Nick said.
Another announcement came over the loudspeakers by the tower site.
"Thirty minutes to launch," Selena said.
Valentina looked at Nick, pointedly ignoring Vasiliev. "How do you want to do this?"
"We should stick together," Nick said. "No point in splitting up now."
He gestured toward the glow of lighting at the launch pad.
"The tower is about three hundred meters that way. We can get within fifty meters or so before we risk being seen."
"Fifty meters is well within the range of our launchers," Valentina said, "but visibility is getting worse. We need to move."
"Let's keep it simple," Nick said. "Line abreast, ten foot intervals. Colonel, put your, RPGs and loaders at each end. Ronnie, you take the middle with the AT-4. Selena, you and Lamont stay near Ronnie. We get close enough to see what we're shooting at, we blow the missile batteries. That will distract them and give them something to think about. Then we fire the launchers at the rocket, all at once. That sound good?"
Nods all around.
"Ronnie, you have the most bang for the buck. You aim below the nose where that bomb is. Just don't miss."
"Do I ever miss?"
"Everyone else should target the fuel trucks," Valentina said.
"Some of those troops down there might survive the blast," Ronnie said.
"We'll deal with that when we come to it," Nick said. "They'll be disoriented by the explosions and we have the advantage of surprise. Once that rocket goes up, we head back to the choppers and boogie."
Valentina looked confused. "Boogie?"
"We get the hell out of here."
"Can't be soon enough for me," Lamont said.
"Move out," Nick said.
They headed for the launch tower. Selena had her arm around Lamont's shoulders. The morphine had kicked in. She felt lightheaded, but her leg hurt enough to keep her alert.
Nick's adrenaline began pumping again as they set out. What if the Koreans had heard the firefight with the Chinese? How had the Chinese managed to take a seasoned Spetsnaz team by surprise in the first place? It wasn't going to do Vasiliev's career any good. Besides that, he hadn't done his job. One of those mobile antiaircraft units was still waiting out there somewhere.
They reached a spot just outside the circle cast by the lights illuminating the launch vehicle. A different fuel truck was hooked into the rocket. One more waited in line.
The assault teams knelt facing the target. Ronnie brought the AT-4 up onto his shoulder. He looked through the eyepiece and flipped off the safety. At each end of the line, the Russians waited with their grenade launchers. Nick looked through his rifle scope.
Nothing indicated that the firefight with the Chinese had been heard. Some of the troops he saw were keeping positions around the tower. They looked bored. An officer and two men in civilian coats stood some distance away, watching the fueling operation.
Nick spoke softly into his microphone. Valentina translated into Russian as he spoke.
"On my command, fire."
He turned to Lamont. "Blow the charges."
Lamont reached into his pocket, took out the remote detonator and pressed the button.