He carefully peeked into the first room he came upon. It was empty. After a quick scan, he turned his attention back to the hallway. The rifle was growing heavy in his left arm.
The next room was a bathroom, which was empty as well. He stopped repeatedly and strained his ears for any sign of where the others might be hiding. There was nothing. Growing ever closer to the room that Karami and Sabah had disappeared into earlier, he had a good idea of where the remaining three men were. Sure enough, the door to that room was closed.
Chase was a risk-taker, but he wasn’t an idiot. There was every reason to believe that kicking the door in could only result in all sorts of bad news for him. There could be three heavily armed men waiting for him on the other side, or the door itself could be booby-trapped.
Stepping into the bathroom, which had only a shower, no tub, Chase crouched behind the toilet and balanced the rifle’s magazine on the seat. At this angle, he could see only a very narrow sliver of the door he was shooting at. Taking aim, he squeezed the trigger and let another hail of lead fly.
The rounds chewed up the left side of the door, splintering the frame. Chase waited for a response, but none came.
Picking up his weapon, he walked into the hall and put another burst through the door as well as through the drywall. No response.
Against his better judgment, he decided to kick the door open. He counted to three and let his foot fly.
The moment his shoe connected, he heard a roaring barrage of gunfire.
CHAPTER 27
Harvath ran across the street and charged directly into the building he’d seen the man fall from. He didn’t know if his mind was playing tricks on him or if he’d actually caught a glimpse of Chase in the upper window.
Murphy was right behind Harvath, and they ignored the elevator and headed right for the stairs. They were halfway up to the fourth floor when some Islamist skidded to a halt on the landing above them and tried to bring his weapon up to fire. The man never had a chance.
Harvath and Murphy both drilled him with suppressed rounds to his chest and face. The man’s finger pulled down on the trigger in spasm and his weapon discharged wildly. Rounds ricocheted through the stairwell, sending Harvath and Murphy diving for what little cover there was.
When the dead terrorist’s weapon fell silent, Harvath double-tapped him with two quick shots to the head just to make sure. After kicking his weapon away, they resumed their charge up the stairs.
When they got to the fourth floor, Murphy covered Harvath as he stepped into the hall. There were only four apartments per floor, and based on the window the body had come out of, Harvath knew exactly which one they were looking for. He just prayed that Chase was inside and that he was still alive.
Covering the apartment door with his weapon, he signaled for Murphy to come forward and join him.
Harvath studied the door frame for any sign that it was wired. He didn’t see anything, but that by no means meant it was safe. Schiller and his team hadn’t seen anything either, and the entire third floor of the building across the street had been incinerated. This apartment could be rigged to explode as well.
If it wasn’t rigged, and they did have Chase inside, was he sitting there with a gun to his head? Would they shoot him if Harvath kicked open the door and rushed in? Without knowing how many there were, could he and Murphy take them out before they did anything to Chase?
It was a big gamble. Five men on his team were already dead. Whatever Harvath decided to do, he’d better be sure he was absolutely certain about it. He already had gallons of blood on his hands. He needed more information.
Taking a deep breath, he placed his ear against the door and listened. He heard a noise from inside. It was faint at first, but the longer he listened the louder it grew.
It sounded like a scuffle. Then Harvath realized it wasn’t a scuffle at all, but rather the sound of somebody turning the place inside out.
He signaled Murphy to be ready, and then, taking a step back, Harvath raised his boot and kicked the door in.
Nothing exploded, except the door off its hinges from the force of Harvath’s kick. He figured he had a fifty-fifty chance of being right. If someone was turning the place over, it meant he was looking for something. And you don’t bother looking for something if you’re about to blow yourself up. At least that was what Harvath hoped. Lucky for them, he’d been right.
Harvath moved quickly inside, his weapon up and at the ready. Murphy was right behind him. They hadn’t even made it through the living room when there was a burst of automatic weapons fire and rounds came slamming through the wall at the other end of the room. Harvath and Murphy hit the floor.
The Green Beret came up onto his elbows and prepared to return fire, but Harvath waved him off. They had no idea where Chase was. They couldn’t just fire blindly through the walls.
“Phoenix Three!” Harvath yelled. “Are you in here?”
“Harvath?” came the reply.
“Roger that.”
“I’m coming out. Don’t shoot.”
Chase stepped out into the hallway and walked toward them. His arm was covered with blood.
“Is there anyone else here?”
Chase shook his head. As Murphy swept the rest of the apartment, Harvath ripped open Chase’s sleeve and checked his wound.
“Does it hurt?”
“A lot. It hit bone.”
“We’ll get you taken care of,” replied Harvath. “Right now we’ve got to get out of here. Is there anything worth gathering up?”
“Maybe. I turned the place upside down fast and dirty, but couldn’t find anything. If we had more time-”
“We don’t.” Already the sounds of approaching emergency vehicles could be heard in the distance.
“The apartment is clean,” said Murphy as he rejoined them. “What do you want to do?”
Harvath knew what he didn’t want to do. He didn’t want to walk through the throngs of people out on the street, around behind the burning building and off into the woods to pick up Murphy’s car. Too much could go wrong. His car, the one with the book on the dashboard, though, was parked right outside. It didn’t matter if people saw it or gave a description to police. They wouldn’t be using it long enough to make a difference. All they needed to be able to do was make it back to the barn.
With Murphy on point, the three men exited the apartment and quickly made their way down the stairs. They laid Chase down on the backseat. Murphy rode shotgun and Harvath slid behind the wheel.
The onlookers stared, their mouths agape. They didn’t know what to make of any of it. The last thing the trio heard as they sped off were the cries of revulsion from the crowd as Harvath drove over the body of the dead terrorist still lying sprawled in the middle of the street.
CHAPTER 28
Two extensive medical kits had been allotted for the operation. One was with Riley Turner and Mansoor, who, along with Andy Bachmann, had already left for the airport near Stockholm. The other belonged to the assault team and was sitting in the back of the moving truck that had been abandoned at the scene of the failed safe house raid.
Harvath, though, had a couple of items in his bag of tricks that he never traveled without. As he debriefed Chase and cleaned up his wound, he unwrapped a tampon, cut off about an inch, and packed it into the hole. He then wrapped Chase’s arm with duct tape. It would do for now, but Chase was going to need professional medical help.
