Xue Lin kept her rifle trained on the Chinese sniper in the top floor window while Ryan scanned the second floor with his scope, aiming first at the scientist then at the guard who was armed with a submachine gun.
The rest of the American team were ready to take the guard outside, but there was still that closed door to contend with which needed to be opened from the inside.
On the ground floor, the officer was waiting impatiently for the results of the scientist’s test upstairs.
“Hao ma?” he yelled in the direction of the stairs. The guard who was standing behind the hostages shifted back and forward nervously. He had recently lost three comrades in a raid in Brooklyn and was well aware of how trigger-happy the Americans were.
“Hao!” the guard on the second floor yelled down after the scientist had given the thumbs up for the three vials.
“Well, it seems that you have lived up to your part of the deal. Thank you for that. Unfortunately my boss in China is not so honest like you.” He smiled grimly. Chairman says to kill Barbecue Couple. You sir can go. No hard feelings.”
Sam shook his head in disappointment and looking at the officer straight in the eye he calmly said: “Take them down.” and as Ryan and Xue Lin opened fire, with ear splitting booms, taking out their targets, Sam rolled the flash-bang grenade toward the officer, using the moment to draw his own pistol and shoot the guard standing behind the couple.
Ryan’s first fifty caliber bullet had shattered the second story window and torn through the chests of both the guard and the scientist standing behind him. Xue Lin’s shot produced a red spray behind the head of the sniper on the top floor.
The people on the street scattered as the SUV squealed around the corner. The guard on the street pulled his side-arm from its holster and fired at the SUV, the Americans fired back with machine guns out both windows, taking him down.
Inside, the flash-bang grenade that Sam had rolled along the floor had lit up the whole room and blown magnesium all over the officer setting his suit on fire, while Sam shot the other guard three times in the chest, swinging around to put the flaming officer out of his screaming misery.
“First floor clear,” reported Sam.
“Second floor clear,” said Ryan.
“Sixth floor sniper down,” added Xue Lin.
“That’s six including the poor bastard outside,” said Ryan looking down at the guard’s body riddled with bullet holes.
Xue Lin started rapidly packing up her equipment when Ryan said: “I’ll do that. You go see your folks.”
She smiled at him and took off for the stairs.
Sam was cutting the Barbecue Couple loose from their zip ties as they thanked him profusely, the wife making comments about how things had gone down: “Nice job you! Wow honey did you see how he set that man on fire with that flash-bang? I thought he was going to burn the whole building down! And firing over our heads like that at the other guard. WOW! That takes confidence.”
Xue Lin was banging on the front door as Sam cut the last zip tie.
“Hold your horses!” said Sam, gesturing at the couple to go and open the door. He wanted to get upstairs and get the viruses, and check the bodies.
The front door opened and Xue Lin threw her arms around her mother and then her father. The three Americans outside dragged the Chinese guard in off the street and closed the door. Sam was already up on the second floor wiping blood spatter off the vial cases before putting them in the backpack. Everything was in order. He looked at the scientist and the guard on the floor who most likely were dead before they hit the ground, judging from the mess the fifty caliber bullet had made of them.
The Team Leader was thinking about what was coming next. “It’s time to move everybody. Let’s get back to the vehicles. Ryan, bring SUV two.”
“Roger that,” Ryan was already in the stairwell on his way down with the rifles.
The Team Leader took controclass="underline" “Sam you are with us in SUV one. The happy family is in SUV two. That’s the black one. Stay close, we’ll be driving fast back to the airstrip.”
“Roger that Team Leader,” answered Sam as the sound of Italian police cars could be heard in the distance.
Ryan squealed to a stop behind the first SUV. The Barbecue Couple were pulling weapons off the guards as Sam hurried them along. Within two minutes, Xue Lin and her parents were piling into the black SUV and Sam was in the first with the rest of the team.
Ryan turned around and smiled momentarily at the Barbecue Couple: “Hello. My name’s Ryan. I’ll be your get away driver for today.” He casually passed the Chinese machine gun to Xue Lin in the passenger seat. “Please buckle up and wind your windows down. There might be more on their way, and it’s easier to shoot when the windows are down.”
Xue Lin checked the submachine gun’s magazine and her parents in the back seat cocked their weapons.
Sam was the last one into the backseat of the SUV in front as it took off down the street towards the ring road with Ryan driving aggressively just a couple of meters behind. Turning the corner onto the ring road, Sam yelled “Look out!”, just a second before a black Mercedes plowed hard into the side of the lead vehicle with Sam in it. A second black sedan screeched to a halt behind and four Chinese men opened fire from inside their car, shooting two of the tires of the lead SUV. Ryan reversed rapidly. Xue Lin hung out the window firing a flood of bullets at the Chinese, hitting two in the back seat. Her mother was calmly firing her Chinese pistol back at the driver of the second car but the window was bullet proof.
The lead SUV was crumpled on one side. Sam’s head was bleeding and he was disoriented. No-one else was moving inside. Their vehicle was immobilized. Two Chinese agents quickly approached Sam’s window and ripped the backpack from his grasp, and ran back to their car abandoning the Black Mercedes. Getting in the second car, they pulled away from the scene leaving a traffic jam and a good deal of bent metal and brass casings all over the road.
Ryan’s passengers were out of the car and checking the injuries or the team in front.
“Any bleeders?” Ryan yelled loudly. Sam checked himself and then the others who were all a little bloody from the accident, but no bullet wounds. “I think they were trying not to shoot the vials.”
“Figures,” Ryan grunted. “When you ladies are all feeling better I have room in my car for you. It might be time to go… again.”
The dazed team grabbed their weapons and limped back to Ryan’s SUV, two having to get in the very back as they were now eight in one SUV.”
“Safe house,” the Team Leader said as Ryan stepped on the gas and moved past the two wrecked vehicles.
The CIA safe house was twelve minutes drive away. Xue Lin’s mind was ticking over. She pulled her phone out and checked the mapping program that the Tool Man had put on her phone for the bug she’d put on the virus vial.
“Well they haven’t found the bug,” Xue Lin said.
Sam’s neck was hurting so he couldn’t turn his head: “Great! Keep an eye. We’ll regroup at the safe house and get this vehicle off the streets. The bullet holes are attracting attention.”
They pulled into the safe house’s small garage and the team staggered out one by one. Xue Lin was watching the dot on the map intently. It was still moving but was caught in traffic. They hadn’t gotten far yet.
Xue Lin’s parents talked quietly with her as they administered first aid to the men’s abrasions and checked them for concussions. Two of the team had probable broken arms, one man also had a bad case of whiplash. Sam looked a bit of a mess but seemed to be functioning normally. He shook hands with Xue Lin’s father: “It’s really nice to meet you sir.”
“Well, thanks for coming to get us. You put on quite a show Sam. Who makes your flash-bang grenades?”