Gunfire erupted from outside. Tanner and Naomi raced out of the room along the balcony back to the stairs. Thick white smoke drifted in from outside, limiting visibility. They took the stairs two at a time.
"Two!" Tanner coughed. "Take the prize out through the pool! Sky Team, fall back in through the house! We'll cover!"
Outside, Dante and Stephen took turns firing three-round bursts into the smoke, then fell back toward the house. Around them, the smoke cut their vision down to about a dozen feet, but they could hear the shouts and the movements of the guards as they advanced.
The first thing they did once they were outside was to throw all four smoke canisters, blanketing the house's northern side with irritating fog. Then they hid inside the smoke. They heard the shouts of the guards in the smoke and tossed two of their frag grenades in the direction of the voices, then fired several short bursts before retreating back to the corner of the house. Gunfire came from all along the front, forcing both men to stay low.
Dante fired off bursts from his MP5 into the smoke, which was beginning to dissipate. He transmitted to Tanner, "We've coming through the front door now!"
Stephen switched his machine gun to full auto and fired off the rest of the magazine as Dante raced toward the door. Once they were through, Tanner and Naomi stepped up and opened fire into the acrid fog.
Stephen reloaded his MP5. "Forces incoming.”
"We'll be right behind you," Tanner said.
Stephen and Dante moved past them and raced for the pool.
"How do we slow them down?" Naomi asked.
"Cover me," Tanner said, then turned and raced down to the kitchen. He pulled the stove away from the wall and grabbed the gas pipe going into the stove. He quickly unscrewed the coupler letting it drop to the floor. The hiss of gas was barely audible with the noise outside, but a sulfur-like smell drove him back to the kitchen doorway. He waited until the gas was making his head swim, then ran out of the room to rejoin Naomi, changing magazines on his MP5 as he did so.
She shot him a glance. "What did you do?"
"Left a little going away present.” He turned and spotted a pair of gunmen at the patio doors. He fired two quick volleys that shattered the glass, taking one guard in the chest, but missing the second fighter, who threw himself into cover.
"Time to leave."
Naomi spit off a few controlled bursts in the direction of the front door, then turned and ran toward Tanner. "Visual on at least a dozen of them."
Bullets ate away at the balcony's supports. The shouting intensified.
"Stun grenade.” Tanner held out an open hand. She tossed him one.
"Head for the beach as fast as you can, I'm right behind you."
Naomi ran while Tanner sprayed a barrage of lead at the front door, eliciting a scream of pain from that direction. He unleashed two more fusillades at the patio doors, then ran after Naomi. By the time he reached the pool she was already outside, running across the lawn. He could see the rest of the team in the near distance by a couple of trees.
Movement to his left made Tanner turn and fire a concentrated series of rounds on the run that struck a guard in the chest and stomach.
Near the end of the pool closest to the exit, Tanner stopped and pulled the pin on a stun grenade. He line-drived it into the kitchen, turned back and sprinted, ignoring the shouts and gunfire behind him. He was five yards outside the pool enclosure when the stun grenade went off, lighting up the kitchen with intense light —
— and igniting the gas.
The natural gas hadn't been on long enough to create a massive explosion, but it was sufficient to destroy the kitchen and send a fireball out into the hallway and pool area, igniting everything in its path, including six of Hassan's men. The fireball also blew out the glass in the pool enclosure, but all Tanner felt was a strong, hot wind on his back.
Naomi turned to look at the house, which had several fires burning and thick, dark smoke billowing from it. "What did you do?"
Tanner’s voice was ragged. "Keep running!"
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The rest of the team was past the trees before Naomi and Tanner caught up with them. While Naomi braced herself against a tree trunk and fired the last rounds in her magazine in the direction of the house and guards, Tanner reloaded. While Naomi changed magazines, Tanner fired at the advancing guards, now silhouetted against the growing house fire. The guards shot back, striking the trees, but they'd lost any momentum they might have had.
Tanner peered into the haze. "Throw a frag," he told Naomi.
Naomi nodded and pulled the grenade from her harness. She pulled the pin, released the spoon and threw as high and as far as she could in the direction of the guards. She turned and started running, covering some ground before the grenade exploded near the ground with a bang. Several screams followed, and their pursuers dropped to the hard ground, either injured or seeking cover.
Tanner let loose a burst from behind a tree, moved to another tree, fired another cluster of rounds, then turned and ran after Naomi. She had nearly caught up with the rest of the team, who were just reaching the shadow of a large rock the size of a bus.
Naomi turned and braced herself against the rock, MP5 pointed in the direction they had come. "Stairs are over there," she said when Tanner reached her, motioning with her head in the direction of the cliff.
"Two," Tanner said into the radio. "Hold up. Four, we need you over here to back up Three."
"Copy, Prime," Liam said.
A few seconds later, Stephen came around the rock.
"How's Hassan?" Tanner asked in a low voice.
"Alive, but he's fighting us every step of the way." Stephen held up a walkie-talkie and Tanner could hear short conversations in Arabic.
"According to the radio, we've killed about half the security force, but they're still coming. They're more scared of whatever Hassan will do to them if they fail than they are of us."
"All right," Tanner said. "You and Naomi hold up here until I talk to Liam. Call out if they try rushing you."
"Right."
Tanner went around the rock to find the rest of the team waiting near the top of the cliffs with the prize. Hassan's face was covered with a black hood, and his hands were tied at the wrists and elbows with riot cuffs. Dante and Liam had him by the arms and were holding him up, despite the crime lord's resistance. Danielle was near the top of the stairs, ten feet away. From here, Tanner could see the boathouse and the boat.
"Guards still pursuing?" Liam asked.
"Yeah."
"Release me!" Hassan spat. "Release me and you might still live! My people will hunt you down, rape your women, cut the throats of—"
Tanner hit him with an overhand right to the jaw that snapped the man's head to the right and made his knees buckle.
"Wish I had thought of that," Liam said.
"Get him down the stairs and onto the boat. You have any smoke cans left?"
"We each have one," Liam replied.
"C-4?"
"Three quarter blocks," Dante said.
"Okay, give me the C-4. When you three get to the dock, make a smoke screen for the dock from anyone up here."
Dante handed Tanner the three small blocks of explosives. "What about you?"
"Covering our retreat. Move!"
Dante and Liam dragged the half-conscious Hassan to the stairs. Danielle had already started down the wooden staircase, and they followed her.
Gunfire erupted from the other end of the rock and made Tanner turn and run back to where he had left Stephen and Naomi. He reached them as both Naomi and Stephen fired in the direction of the house.