'Okay,' he said. 'Tina, when they fire their next barrage, I want you to let out a scream, and, Jesse, I want you to start cursing. Keep your hands on those switches and wait for my signal.'
They both nodded and Jason took the rifle back from his brother and put it to his shoulder. There was no point in wasting shots. He peered through the scope and looked for someone of rank. He finally found the man, talking rapidly into a microphone.
He exhaled and took the shot, then cursed as it went wide, only hitting the man in the shoulder. 'The damn scope is off,' he muttered. It must have gotten knocked around some. Still, the man went down, cursing, and Jason heard him order the others to open fire.
He dived back down just as the barrage hit. Tina took a deep breath and screamed while Jesse began to curse like a sailor on shore leave. Both of them were quite convincing.
'Now,' he whispered. 'Be silent.'
Both of them went quiet.
'I think we got 'em, sir,' one of the guards yelled.
'Move in and check it out,' the wounded officer called. 'Nice and easy.'
Jason found a space between the crates and eased the barrel of the rifle through it, adjusting the scope slightly once it was in place. The sound of cautious steps approaching could be heard.
'Hold,' he whispered.
He sighted in on the man farthest away.
'Hold,' he repeated, his words barely a whisper.
The guards moved closer and were now inside the Claymores' arcs.
'Ready,' he said, his finger tightening on the trigger.
'Now!' he shouted, his shot taking the guard in the chest.
Jesse pressed down on the switches and the Claymores went off with loud
Jason used the cover of the crates and the confusion to continue taking shots, piling up the bodies behind them, even as they turned and tried to escape. As his brother had predicted, there was a bottleneck and the men went down easily.
The way ahead was all but clear, and Jason gestured for them to follow as he stepped around the crates and began the cold process of finishing off the injured. They couldn't risk having one of them creep up behind them.
Both Tina and Jesse seemed appalled at the carnage they'd wrought, even more so as Jason gunned down a young soldier trying to crawl away.
'Why?' she asked him. 'Why?'
'Because to leave them alive puts all of us at risk,' he said.
The words had no sooner left his mouth than a nearby rifle sounded and Jesse went down, cursing for real as his blood began to flow.
21
'Jesse!' Tina cried out, rushing to his side.
Feeling a wave of cold wash over him, Jason tracked the source of the shot without thought and fired in the space of a heartbeat or two. The guard he'd wounded earlier had propped himself up against a crate and waited for them, much as they had waited for his men.
Jason's shot took him in the heart, killing him instantly.
He scanned the area for any other dangers and, seeing none, turned back to his brother. 'How bad?' he asked, kneeling down.
'I'm okay,' Jesse said. He held up his left hand, which was bleeding profusely. 'It passed right through me.'
'Yeah, and took several bones with it,' Jason said. He pulled out his knife and cut a long strip away from his shirt. 'It's a good thing you're right-handed.'
'It's a good thing he's not dead,' Tina snapped.
There was an unspoken accusation in her voice, as if Jason had done something wrong. He could feel the waves of anger coming off her.
Jason didn't respond to her tone, but nodded his head in agreement, then wrapped the hand carefully. 'This is going to require a lot more medical care than we can give it here,' he said. 'Try not to bump it on anything — it will hurt like hell if you do.'
'Can we get out of here now?' Tina asked.
Jason got to his feet and helped Jesse to his, holding him steady while he caught his breath and his balance returned. A nearby guard had a canteen on his belt and Jason took it, pulled the cap and handed it to his brother. 'Take a drink. You can go into shock later if you feel like it,' he said. 'Right now, you've got to stay focused.'
'How can you be so cold?' Tina asked. 'Look around you!'
The high-tension wire inside him frayed a little bit and he turned on her. 'You don't get it, do you? You were an analyst and it wasn't real to you. You do all those translations, but they don't connect to what happens if you pass on certain information. This is my life. This is what I do. I kill people, Tina, bad people who will hurt others for pay or power or even those just stupid enough to work for those kind of people. And if I don't do it just right, people die — but the wrong ones.'
He jabbed a finger in her direction. 'You've switched back and forth between treating me like a schoolboy to treating me like a lover to being my partner and back again, but, Tina, this is who I am. Now, I'm getting you two out of here, then I'm going to hunt down Feng Li and put an end to all this once and for all. Until then, I'd appreciate it if you'd do less talking and more shooting!'
Even as he finished his sentence, he raised the rifle once more and fired it over her shoulder, his shot taking a guard in the back who'd been trying to sneak away.
'Is that understood?' he finished.
Her sullen glare was frosty, but she nodded. 'Yes, sir,' she said.
'Good,' he replied. 'Now let's get moving.'
They met little resistance on their way to the stairs leading out of the cabin, and as they reached it, Jason noted a large crate marked Phosphorus Grenades. He stopped and pried open the lid using his knife. 'These will do nicely,' he said.
'What do you have in mind?' Jesse asked.
'A lot of these crates are wood,' Jason said. 'Phosphorus burns real hot. We'll toss a few of these in here before we go, and with all the ammunition and the fuel, all of this will be so much useless ash in a few hours.'
'Sounds good,' Jesse said.
They each took three, with Jesse using his teeth to pull the pins. They tossed them in random directions, and as they turned up the stairs, the bright glare of the burning chemical lit the cavern behind them. The crackle of flames and heat was already starting by the time they reached the main floor of the Quonset building.
'Head for the front,' Jason said. 'I'll take point, just in case we run into any more guards.'
Tina chuckled dryly. 'I'm pretty sure you've killed just about everyone,' she said. 'What's your body count for the day?'
Gritting his teeth at her jibe, he moved forward, his eyes searching the darkness for any sign of a guard who might stand between them and freedom. They reached the door without incident.
'Must have sent pretty much everyone they had on hand down there,' Jesse said.
'Guess so,' Jason replied. He eased open the door to the icy air of night and they stepped out, moving past a truck and in the direction of where Tina said they'd left the SUV.
As they cleared the back bumper, a heavy gust of wind passed over them, and Jason turned to see the Asp landing next to the building. In the copilot seat was his old friend Boris, and at the controls was an Asian man that he assumed was the infamous Feng Li.
'Well, well,' he said. 'I guess I won't have to go hunting for him after all.'
