When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the OUTCAST operators stepped over the fallen and moved quickly through the kitchen, Tanner leading the way.
The shoulder wound hurt like hell, but the pain focused Kim’s perception. He had managed to get out via the restaurant’s front doors with a small cluster of customers who decided to flee. The CS had made his eyes water and caused him to cough a few times, be he got clear of it quickly. Inside a doorway a hundred feet up the street from the restaurant, he pulled the phone out of his pocket, despite the white-hot pain in his shoulder. He opened the outgoing call log and placed a new call to the most recently used number.
“Yes?”
“The Americans attacked the restaurant,” Kim said through gritted teeth. “I do not know if Hong is still alive.”
“Where are you?”
“Outside. The Americans came in through the windows and the roof, used tear gas and grenades. I cannot get back inside and I am wounded.”
Kim could hear the steel in Rhee’s tone, cold and sharp. “Make sure Hong is dead. Nothing else matters.”
“Understood, sir.”
The OUTCAST team rammed through the kitchen doors into a service hallway. To their left was a server station, along with three servers huddled in the alcove. All three blanched at the sight of the armed and gas-masked team, but Tanner put his finger up to his gas mask in the universal sign of quiet. The servers nodded, their eyes wide with fear.
OUTCAST moved out into the dining room. A number of customers were on the floor or behind a makeshift barrier in an attempt to stay out of any gunfire.
“Prime to Striker. We have Hong. Status?”
“Stalemate,” Vessler yelled. “Two or three hoods inside the front door are keeping us from entering. CS gas has almost dissipated. A few customers ran as soon as the shooting started upstairs.”
“Copy. Five, where are you?”
“On Washington,” Stephen returned. “Twenty seconds out.”
Tanner peered across the dining room. “Everyone stay down, you’ll live longer!” he shouted, the gas mask muffling his voice.” Two, you’re with me on point! Three, rear guard!”
Liam moved past Naomi, Stephen and Hong while Naomi dropped back. They fast-walked toward the glass doors separating the dining room from the lobby. Three gunmen stood inside the small lobby, uncertain what to do next. One of them saw the approaching intruders and shouted a warning to the others.
Liam and Tanner fired through the glass doors, shattering them and ripping into two of the 49s. As they fell, the third Triad gunner fired, but he shot high and wide, shattering a decorative lantern above and behind the team. Before he could adjust, Tanner and Liam killed him with a paired burst of 5.56mm rounds.
“Striker, hold your position.” Tanner stepped through the shattered doors. “There’s too many witnesses for you to greet us as friends. But stay low, because we’re sending a few bullets your way.”
“Copy.”
Tanner led the others out onto the sidewalk. The team’s van skidded onto the street and screeched to a stop a few feet away from them. Most of the CS gas had dissipated, though a few stray wisps still hung around.
Tanner spotted Vessler crouching behind a car ahead and to his left. He whispered into his radio, “Striker, down!” then fired several bursts in Vessler’s direction, ripping up the car’s trunk, hood and bursting the rear driver’s side tire. He heard shouts and screams and turned to see dozens of bystanders watching the action, many videoing it with their smartphones.
“Move it!’ Tanner bellowed. Naomi and Stephen hauled the now-struggling Hong toward the cargo door Dante had slid open.
Then Choi’s voice made their blood run cold. “Shooter!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Choi’s shout from Tanner’s right made the OUTCAST leader spin in that direction. He spotted the shooter, an Asian male with a bloody shoulder pointing a pistol at the van. Choi rose from between two cars.
“Freeze!” the DEA agent yelled.
The wounded Asian spun toward Choi and both men fired at the same time. Choi staggered and dropped. The attacker lurched when Choi’s rounds struck him. As the DEA agent fell, Both Tanner and Liam opened fire, the twin 5.56mm streams of lead ripping apart the gunman’s torso. The assailant took another step, his face twisted into a hateful stare before he collapsed onto his chest and went still.
“Danny!” Vessler cried.
Tanner spun and fired another burst at the car Vessler was behind. “Stay where you are until we’re clear!” he said over the radio. “This is being recorded by those people over there. Need to maintain plausible deniability.”
“Fuck that. That’s my partner!”
Tanner turned to the van to find the rest of them already onboard. He jumped in and told Dante to go. The van accelerated down the street while he pulled the door shut.
As they reached the intersection, Dante leaned on the van’s horn. Ahead of him, cars slammed on their brakes and sped out of the intersection, allowing the van to shoot across the street without incident.
Liam pinned Hong to the floor while Stephen administered a tranquilizer patch to the Triad leader’s neck. After a minute the bound man stopped struggling as the drug took effect.
“Liam, Nay,” Tanner said, unzipping the jumpsuit. “Get changed and switch weapons. Dante, drop the three of us off at the hotel, then you and Stephen head for the safehouse. We’ll pick up Casey and Danielle and meet you there.”
“Why can’t we take the elevator?” Halverstaff moaned as the four stepped out into the hallway.
“Because if the enemy is smart, they’ll have blocked them off or turned them into kill boxes,” DuPree said.
“But we’re fifteen floors up.”
Then I suggest you save your breath for the climb down.”
“Which stairwell?” Danielle asked.
“East is closest,” Casey said.
“And probably guarded,” DuPree added.
Can’t be too many guards in the stairwell. Worse comes to worst, we can duck into a lower floor and change staircases.”
They jogged down the hall, DuPree leading, then Casey, with Halverstaff and Danielle bringing up the rear. They reached the fire door and DuPree used the small window in the door to check the landing. “Looks clear, but once we’re out there, keep moving unless I say stop. Danielle, keep an eye up above us. I’ll worry about what’s below. Stay as close to the wall as possible. Let’s move.”
DuPree opened the door quietly and started down the stairs, the P-90 to her shoulder and sweeping the next landing and set of stairs. Casey was next, his pistol sweeping high, then low. Halverstaff, who was unarmed except for a folding multi-tool sheathed to his belt, scurried after them. Danielle stepped out onto the landing and gently closed the door behind her before catching up to the others, her MP5 pointing up the stairwell.
They made it without incident to the fourteenth floor and then heard a shout from above. Gunfire rained down at them, bullets sending sparks flying as they struck the railing. Danielle judged the shooter to be four floors above them, and fired a pair of short bursts upwards. She heard a grunted curse and the gunfire stopped.
Dupree was already on the landing between the fourteenth and thirteenth floors. Casey was behind her, his pistol aimed up. Halverstaff was a few feet behind his boss, his expression bordering on panic. Danielle took the stairs three at a time, thankful for Tanner’s insistence that the team stay in shape.