The bullet intended to end Elli’s life lightly grazed the top of her head, scorching a narrow groove in the thin layer of skin on her skull. Elli fell back when Josef’s pistol fired; the chair she was lashed to tipped against the twin bed. Josef’s nearly headless body collapsed sideways as if flung toward the doorway by an unseen hand.
‘Elli!’ Kelsey screamed as the elderly woman slumped in the inclined chair. Blood seeped out of her wound, drenching her gray-white hair with a bright crimson sheen.
Rodriguez caught a blur of motion in the hallway; someone had run from a room on one side of the hall to the room on the opposite side, where the hostages were. He held up his hand to let Edwards know that he’d seen at least one Tango. With Rodriguez providing cover, Edwards moved down the hall, positioning himself to cover Rodriguez as the point man leapfrogged past him toward the bedroom door.
Edwards heard a thundering crack inside the room, then a bloody spray exploded out of the open doorway.
‘God, was that you?’ Edwards asked into his lip mike.
‘Roger, Angel. Tango with Halos is down,’ Gorski responded as he slid back the bolt and chambered another round.
The Tango who’d taken over perimeter patrol from his comrade was now running back to the cabin. Gorski lined up the crosshairs on the back of the man’s head and fired. The view through the scope briefly went out of focus as a cloud of hot gas from the barrel floated across Gorski’s line of sight. In the distance, he saw the Tango crumple to the ground, dead.
‘Tango in front of cabin is down,’ Gorski announced with the emotional detachment of a surgeon excising a tumor.
Rodriguez and Edwards filled the bedroom doorway, each quickly surveying the room. Edwards sidestepped with his back to the wall, moving toward the corner of the room, where he’d have a clear view of the concealed side of the bed.
‘Clear,’ Edwards shouted from the corner.
Rodriguez holstered his weapon, stepped over the dead Tango, and moved to Elli. He placed two fingers on the side of her neck.
‘She’s alive,’ he told the other man.
‘One Tango down. One Halo wounded,’ Edwards announced.
‘One Tango down back here. All clear,’ Hepburn called back. ‘Corpsman is on the way.’
Rodriguez was cutting Elli’s bonds when Gilgallon entered the room. The two SEALs carefully lifted Elli off the chair and laid her unconscious form on the twin bed. Using his k-bar knife, Edwards freed Kelsey.
Gilgallon checked Elli’s eyes; both were responsive to light. He then inspected the bloody wound near the crown of her head.
‘Will she be all right?’ Kelsey asked.
‘The wound’s superficial; it should heal up with minimal scarring. Looks worse than it really is.’
The corpsman then cracked open a small packet of smelling salts and held it under Elli’s nose — her eyes immediately sprang open.
‘Vat? I?’ Elli said, startled, grasping for words.
‘Easy, ma’am,’ Gilgallon said calmly. ‘You’ve got a nasty scratch, but you’re going to be fine. Just relax and let me patch you up.’
‘Four Tangos down,’ Edwards reported. ‘Anyone got a line on number five?’
Dima was slowly working his way through the ankle-deep mire of the wetlands when he heard the sounds of gunfire from both the cabin and the knoll. An explosion shattered several windows in the cabin’s central room, followed by a cloud of thick, white smoke. Then he watched as Ilya’s dash to the cabin ended when a single round fired by a very skilled sniper obliterated the man’s sskull.
‘Yop t’voi yo mat,’ Dima muttered, the all-purpose Russian profanity fitting both his mood and the situation.
As he watched the cabin, three men dressed head to toe in black scaled the levee and quickly cleared the front of the cabin for targets. Dima’s remaining comrades appeared unable to offer any effective resistance to the assault team.
Dima crouched down into the swampy water.
If I can just keep out of sight, he thought, maybe I’ll get out of here alive.
With his peripheral vision, he caught some movement to his right. He turned in time to see a lightly built man rise out of the water, leveling an HK MP5 assault rifle.
He turned, but before he could bring his weapon around, Ahsan perforated his chest with a pair of two-round bursts. Dima continued to rotate on his right foot, spiraling down into the water.
‘Tango five is down,’ Ahsan reported as he watched the man drop facedown into the shallow water.
Inside the cabin, Gates holstered his pistol and walked back to the bedroom where Kelsey and Elli had spent the past few days in captivity.
‘Max?’ Kelsey said when she saw him in the doorway. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘U.S. Navy SEALs at your service, ma’am,’ Gates replied. ‘Compliments of Rear Admiral Jack Dawson.’
‘Is Nolan with you?’
‘No, but not because he didn’t want to be. All the guys here, except Lieutenant Edwards over there, served with Nolan. We promised him we’d get you and Miss Vital back safe and sound. You okay?’
‘Other than a little rope burn around my wrists and ankles, I’m fine.’
‘How’s your friend?’
‘Your medic says Elli will be fine, just a superficial wound on her head.’
‘Chief,’ Edwards called out, ‘we got all five.’
‘Hoo-yah!’ Gates replied.
‘Hepburn, give Heaven our sit rep,’ Edwards ordered.
On the bridge of the Sharon S, Dawson took the news with a mixture of pride and relief.
‘Bravo Zulu, Angel. Heaven out,’ Dawson said, acknowledging the squad’s situation report.
‘What’s the word, Admiral?’ Martin asked anxiously.
‘The news for the most part is good. Kelsey’s fine, and Elli suffered only minor injuries. The corpsman is patching her up right now, and we’ll get a doctor to look her over ASAP. Our men took out all the Tangos and came through without a scratch.’
‘Do you want me to move us in closer to shore now?’ Harsen Smith asked.
‘That would be fine, sir,’ Dawson answered.
Dawson then picked up his satellite phone and dialed Grin’s direct line at MARC. Grin picked up before the first ring faded.
‘Grin here.’
‘Grin, it’s Dawson. We freed the hostages. Pass the word.’
‘Gladly, Admiral.’
‘Mosley, they freed the hostages!’ Grin shouted as he cradled the receiver. ‘Kelsey and Elli are fine.’
‘Great! I’ll contact the Russians,’ Mosley said. ‘Let Nolan know.’
‘I’m already typing.’
62
Cooper sat patiently in Orlov’s office. Once the deal had been struck and Kilkenny had left to instruct Avvakum on using the decoding program, there was little left to do but wait.
In the twenty minutes since Kilkenny had departed, Leskov remained at his post by the door, distracted from his watch over Cooper only by the status reports he received from the security teams posted around the building. Each time a report came in, Leskov cupped a hand over the earpiece and cocked his head slightly — a habit rooted in years of combat.
The phone on Orlov’s desk rang, and he answered it. Cooper watched, hoping to pick up clues from Orlov as to what he was being told. The man’s brow creased, as if some external pressure were trying to hold the thoughts inside his head. Whatever the news, the look on Orlov’s face told Cooper that it was unexpected.