Tanner spoke into his radio “All members: Stand by for some thunder and lightning.”
Tanner pulled the pin on a flash-bang grenade and lobbed it through the shattered window. Naomi’s flash-bang was a couple of seconds behind his. They hunched down behind the desks, put their hands over their ears, shut their eyes tightly and opened their mouths. The bright light and ear-shattering boom, despite being shielded by a wall and two desks, was still enough to stun the pair for a couple of seconds. Tanner wasn’t sure, but he thought he could hear screams amid the explosions.
Ignoring the dancing lights over his vision and the ringing in his ears, Tanner rose and started forward. Naomi was a couple seconds slower to recover, but she quickly followed. On Tanner’s gesture, they split up, the OUTCAST leader taking the door on the right, Naomi taking the one on the left. They stormed through the doors together, Commandos up and ready. Naomi sighted her target first, a heavyset Triad thug with a bald head trying to raise his K2 rifle while blinking rapidly to clear his eyesight. Naomi didn’t give him the chance. She stitched him waist to neck with five 5.56mm rounds. The gunman went down without a sound.
Tanner caught movement to his left. He spun, dropping into a crouch as an AK-47’s muzzle flash heralded the arrival of half a dozen 7.62mm rounds. As the bullets sped over his head, Tanner returned fire, sending a dozen 5.56mm slugs back. The Triad gunman, using the edge of a storage shelf as cover, pulled back as Tanner’s return volley clanged against the steel supports. Before the 49 could recover, Tanner ran forward, loosing shorter bursts. Naomi followed, her own weapon blasting short, rapid volleys at the same target.
“Wait!” a voice yelled out from the shelves. “I give up.”
Both Tanner and Naomi stopped firing. “Throw out your weapon!” Tanner yelled. The AK flew out from behind the shelves and landed on the floor twenty feet away, sliding a ways before coming to a stop. “Now, come out with your hands up!”
Liam and the others emerged from the aisles at the same instant the last 49 walked out, hands over his head. He looked no older than twenty, with uncombed hair and a cheap suit, his eyes wide in panic.
“Pistol!” Tanner pointed to the gang member’s waistband. “Pull it out slowly with your left hand.” The kid did it, slowly extracting the automatic from his belt.
“Toss it.” The 49 chucked the pistol in the same direction as the AK, then put his hand back in the air.
“Five, cuff him.”
Dante moved forward, careful to stay out of his teammates’ line of fire. The Triad survivor’s arms were bound behind him with flex cuffs. Dante guided him to the nearest shelves and used another set of cuffs to bind him to the support frame.
Tanner walked over to the prisoner. “Two things. First, as soon as you can, call Billy Hong and tell him that we want Rhee. Understand?”
“Yes.”
Second, the Black Dao Triad is going down. When it does, don’t be on that ship. This is your only warning.”
The kid stared up at him with wide, unblinking eyes, then nodded slowly.
Tanner consulted his watch. “Time’s up. Let’s move.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
OUTCAST was picked up by Choi and Vessler in a cargo van. The five climbed in and Choi drove away from the warehouse.
“Nothing yet on the police scanners,” Vessler said from the front passenger seat. “What’s next?”
“We get some rest.” Tanner removed his NVGs in the back seat. “I think we’ve sent a strong enough message to Hong tonight.” He spoke into his radio. “Base, what’s the latest from the Triad?”
Danielle’s reply was loud and clear. “Large number of conversations on the Triad’s phone system. All in Chinese. I have translation programs running on them, but it’s going to take a little while.”
“We’re half an hour out,” Tanner said. “Go to bed.”
“Not until you’re back.”
“Is Casey there?”
“Yes.”
In a couple of seconds Casey came on the air. “What do you want, you old dog?”
“I think it’s time to call in the FBI. That’ll put more pressure on Hong and his Triad to give up Rhee, or at worst, to break the alliance.”
“What’s the federal angle?”
Liam answered, “I spotted several U.S. Army and Marine Corps cases of firearms in the warehouse. I got photos of their serial numbers. Ready to receive them?”
Danielle came back on the channel and said that she was.
Liam sent the photos and then after a couple of minutes Danielle came back on. “Those weapons crates were reported missing over a two-year span from Army and Marine Corps bases throughout the Western United States.”
Casey sighed. “Okay. I’ll get both the Army CID and the NCIS involved in the warehouse investigation.”
“What about the brothel slaves we rescued?” Tanner asked.
“As of half an hour ago, they were still giving their statements. If even half this stuff gets leaked to the press, the political shockwaves could last for years.”
“What did the president say about them staying in the U.S.?”
“He agreed to it. Classify them as political refugees and take it from there. How about Rhee? Any sign of him and his force?”
“Negative,” Tanner said.
“Be careful. Rhee’s like an angry rattlesnake. No telling where he’ll strike.”
“We’ll handle him.”
“I hope so, for all our sakes.”
After a quick meal, three hours of sleep and a shower, the team reassembled in the Trans-Continental Marsh Hotel’s Presidential Suite. Vessler and Choi joined them, looking a little less rested than the team. After each had grabbed themselves a cup of coffee, the team, Casey, and the DEA agents convened in the suite’s main room.
The Presidential Suite wasn’t just a title; U.S. presidents, foreign leaders, and the richest people in world regularly stayed there when business took them to San Francisco. As such, it was luxuriously appointed and equipped with all the amenities that the leaders who stayed there were accustomed to, including secure communications. The views of San Francisco from the suite’s windows were only eclipsed by the vantage point of the hotel’s world-famous restaurant two floors above.
Liam sipped his coffee and leaned back. “We miss anything while we were asleep?”
“Just the press going rabid.” Vessler stifled a yawn. “ Internet, TV, radio, newspapers— you name it, they are all over it.”
“I briefed the president earlier.” Of all the people in the room, Casey looked the most refreshed. “He’s already taking flack from all directions over this, especially from this district’s congresswoman. But for now, anyway, he’s leaving this in our hands.”
“That’s nice of him,” Stephen joked.
Danielle stared at the screen of the laptop open in front of her. Naomi noticed her friend’s expression. “What’s wrong, Dani?”
“There were explosions and fires at four different farm supply stores around northern California overnight.”
“Farm supply stores?” Naomi frowned. “Uh-oh, I just had a nasty thought.”
“About me, I hope.” Liam grinned like the devil.
“You wish.”
“Ammonia nitrate?” Tanner interjected.
“Yeah. Oklahoma City was a few years before my time, but I worked with some ATF guys who investigated that scene. They had nightmares for years.”
Dante raised his eyebrows. “Do these stores carry ammonia nitrate?”
“In fertilizer form? Yeah. Still popular, though strangers buying a lot of it at once will raise a few flags.”