We crept up to the porch, avoiding any window observation. Retro placed a small object the size of a brick against the wall. Called a Radar Scope, it was basically a motion detector that could see through walls up to twelve inches thick, telling us whether anyone was in the room. It didn’t matter if the person was playing possum or not. Breathing alone would be enough motion for it to detect. We would use the scope as we cleared until we hit resistance. From that moment on, we’d assume we were compromised, and move as fast as possible.
In seconds, Retro signaled that the foyer just beyond was clear.
Buckshot began working the door, unlocking it in a matter of moments. He looked at me, black ski mask and Venetian eyewear, and I nodded. He turned the knob and we entered, silently moving forward with all guns taking a sector of security.
In front was the stairwell, just like the girl had said it would be. Retro took up a position at the bottom, and we began flip-flopping up it, the low man pulling security while the high man went forward. When we reached the second floor, Retro went to the first room in the hallway, using the scope.
According to Maria, this floor was used for “training,” with about five or six bedrooms left and right down the hallway. Retro used the scope and shook his head at door one. We got the same at door two and three. We moved across the hall to door four. I watched the scope and saw it light.
Retro shoved the scope in his pack and got ready to fight. Buckshot twisted the door handle, then leaned out of the way. We silently went inside, guns trained to shoot any threat that presented itself.
The room was illuminated with candles. The only thing in it was a bed, which had a teenage girl on it. Retro closed the gap to her and pinned her, gagging her mouth. The rest of the team looked for additional threats. In the corner was another door, which the girl was staring at hard. I moved to it. Before I reached it, the door swung open and I found myself face-to-face with the fake bum from Prague. He was wearing nothing but his underwear, and his brain was trying to compute what he was seeing. Before he could react, I jammed the suppressor of the UMP into his forehead. I got him on his knees and signaled Decoy. Circling around him, Decoy pulled out a small metal baton covered in a thin rubber coating. He hammered the man right above his ear, dropping him like a stone.
Retro was making shushing noises to the girl, keeping her calm. I signaled him to flex-tie her, then signaled the same to Decoy. We couldn’t take her with us and couldn’t risk her running around yelling, compromising the assault, so we’d tie and gag her here and come back for her later. The fake bum would get the same treatment, in case he woke up.
We exited the room and began clearing step-by-step, no longer using the scope but still moving as quietly as possible. All other rooms on the second floor were empty until we entered the last one, seeing a girl on her hands and knees with a man behind her. He caught the movement of the door and looked up in surprise, one of his eyes staring off into space over my shoulder. Decoy put two rounds into his head, spackling the wall with brain matter, the only noise the hollow clanking of his bolt.
She had fallen onto her stomach and was trying to roll over. I broke silence.
“Get on her! Don’t let her see the body. She’ll be fucked up for life.”
Buckshot threw the body on the floor, covering it with a blanket, while Retro collapsed on the girl, trapping her as she attempted to escape. I locked eyes with Decoy.
“What the fuck was that? He was no threat.”
He didn’t back down an inch. “He sure as shit was a threat to her.”
I glared at him for a second to show him I was pissed, but I couldn’t argue with the logic.
“Control yourself. This isn’t a vendetta.”
Retro had finished flex-tying her, smiling all the while to keep her calm, although the effect came out a little twisted given the mask and NODs. She looked confused, but didn’t try to fight. Exiting the room, we went back down the stairwell to the first floor. We’d removed two from the equation, which left anywhere from four to eight still out, based on Maria’s description.
We cleared room after empty room, causing the tension to build in the team. We’d rather hit the enemy one at a time, but every empty room lessened that chance. Sooner or later, we were going to kick over an ant pile. Flip- flopping down a hallway, I saw a door in front begin to swing open. I sprinted forward. A man came out empty- handed. I trapped his arm, locking up his joints in a come-along and driving him into a wall. Just past him in the room, I could see four other men around a card table, all looking at me in shock. They immediately began diving for weapons.
One of the men inside the room managed to get off two rounds, both wildly off the mark, before having his head split open. The others didn’t fire a single shot. In the blink of an eye, all four were down, the noise of the suppressed weapons overshadowed by the bodies hitting the floor. The echo of the man’s two rounds hung in the air.
Decoy pulled a flex linear charge out of Buckshot’s backpack, slapping it down the length of the door. We separated left and right with the door in the middle. He glanced to ensure everyone was clear and initiated the charge. It splintered the door inward, cutting it in half.
We followed the charge in before the pieces had even settled, finding one man on the floor laid out by the fragments of the door. Decoy fell on him while the rest of the team advanced.
The room was a kitchen. In the rear, by an oven, another woman cowered. This one older, with her hands raised. I moved to her while the team fanned out inside the spacious area. Gunfire erupted to my left, followed quickly by the muted clanking of the UMPs.
I reached the woman and prevented her from moving, whispering softly to her, using soothing noises as I flex-tied her hands to her ankles in a sitting-up position. I didn’t bother with a gag, because her screaming wouldn’t make a shit’s worth of difference after that door charge. I stroked her hair and smiled at her to let her know I meant no harm, then returned to the team.
We’d cleared the entire house, and I was pretty sure we’d eliminated all threats. Maria had said nobody ever stayed down with them in the basement, only coming down when it was time for someone to leave.
I signaled all-clear, meaning it was time to hit the basement. We raced back to the entrance, stacking on it with weapons raised. Retro opened the door to a completely black stairwell, so dark even our NODs were picking up no light. I could hear rustling down below, with the close-in stench of sweat and unwashed clothes wafting up. I ran my hands along the wall and found a switch, turning night into day. We began flip-flopping down the stairs, hearing the beeping of the alarm the girl had told us about, when the lights went off again.
Pulling security at the top, Buckshot turned them back on. We went a few feet, then they went out again. I halted the procession, turning on the infrared illuminator on my NODs. It wasn’t that powerful, basically giving me a view of about five feet to my front, but it was better than the ridiculous light-switch competition. Retro and Decoy did the same, giving us a view down the stairwell like we were in
Moving slowly, we reached the bottom. To my left, I saw the girl working the light switch. Her eyes were wide open, straining for any hint of light, the IR source from my NODs making them glow like an animal in the night. Behind her were the other girls, all on the floor with their arms around their knees, shaking, completely unaware that we were there.
There were no beds. Just row after row of pallets on the floor. Apparently, the only time they felt a bed was when they were working, which for some reason struck me as particularly cruel.
The light-switch girl was shaking as well, her hand above the switch trembling so badly it looked like she was flicking water off of it. She had no way to stop whatever danger was coming down the stairs. All she could do was slow it down. But she didn’t quit fighting.
