The rest of us had six incensed Russians to deal with. Like everyone around them, they were still stunned, unable to fight back.
First, Grigor. He was flailing, still blinded, trying to get his bearings. I gave him a vicious chop to the larynx with the blade of my hand. The blow drove quantities of blood into his lungs. He dropped to his knees, gasping for air and coughing up thick red puddles. I grabbed his jaw with one hand, put my other hand behind his neck, and twisted. Hard. Harder than I would if I were trying to get a stuck lug nut off a wheel.
Even over the screams echoing through the cavernous train station, with its high ceilings, I was close enough to hear the wet
“Tango down,” I told my team.
A volley of gunfire reverberated through Grand Central. It was coming from above. Adam and Ty had raced up the stairs into Michael Jordan’s Steak House. They’d taken positions on the north balcony.
One of Chukov’s young punks had parked himself under the New Haven line departures board. He was still dazed from the flash grenade when Adam fired. The man’s chest tore open like a pumpkin that’s been hurled off a rooftop. His shirt turned red and he dropped in a heap.
“Tango three is on the west balcony,” I said.
Ty came back. “I don’t see him.”
“He hit the ground when the grenades went off. He’s hiding behind the marble balustrades.”
Ty kept talking. “Chickenshit bastard is socked in good. I can see a sliver of his punk ass between the sixth and seventh column.”
The balustrades were only inches apart, and Ty was at least two hundred feet away. Hitting the target would be like driving a golf ball through a chain-link fence.
“Do you have a shot?” I asked.
“No…”
Then there was a loud crack.
“But I took one, anyway,” he added. “Tango three is down.”
I watched as a trail of blood flowed through the marble balustrades on the west balcony and dripped to the floor below.
“Nice work,” Adam said.
The place was sheer bedlam. I had used flash grenades in combat and seen the effect it had on the enemy. But this was a hundred times worse. The people around us had no training. Many of them were suddenly blind, deaf, or both. It was temporary, but they didn’t know that. And now bullets were flying, too.
Random screams filled the air. People calling out to God. People cursing out the unseen enemy. People proclaiming their love for parents, spouses, and children they thought they would never see again. I could smell the fear.
In the midst of all the insanity, the Russians were reeling and unable to find a target. Ty and Adam had excellent vantage points, but they had to be careful not to shoot innocent bystanders helplessly stumbling through the mob.
One of Chukov’s men who still didn’t have his vision completely back began firing wildly up toward Adam and Ty, riddling the marble railing, shattering glassware, and popping the overhead lights.
“We’ve got a loose cannon down there,” Adam yelled.
Ty stood away from his cover. Just for a second. One of the Russians spotted him and fired. The round caught Ty square in the chest. He went down hard, and I moaned.
“Son of a bitch, that smarts,” he said, pulling his six foot six frame off the floor. He tapped the body armor that had stopped the bullet. “God bless you, Mr. Kevlar.”
He got back in position and opened fire on the shooter. Not just one shot,
“Tango four is down and out,” I said. “Talk about overkill—”
“Yeah, well, that’s what happens to people who piss me off.”
“You okay?” I asked.
“Fine. Vest is a little torn up.”
“For the record,” I said, “there’s no Mr. Kevlar. You should be thanking Mr. DuPont.”
“Noted,” Ty said.
There were two shooters left. Chukov and his number two. They were coming out of their daze, and Chukov, his gun now in his hand, screamed, “Shoot the bitch! Kill her!”
Then Chukov turned his gun on me. I dived as bullets chewed up chunks of marble behind me. I rolled and pulled my own gun. The Russian going after Katherine was already thirty feet away from her, moving fast. I had one shot. Maybe. I drew a quick bead, exhaled, squeezed the trigger lightly. The bullet drilled straight through the back of his neck. He pitched forward, driving his face into the marble staircase.
“Matt, behind you!”
I spun around and Chukov’s first bullet caught me in the chest. The second one ripped a hole in my left shoulder. The pain was immediate and excruciating. I hit the floor hard. Truth was, I’d never been shot before.
Chapter 90
EVEN OVER THE mayhem, I could hear Katherine scream when I got shot. Then I heard Adam’s voice in my earpiece. “Junkyard Six is down.”
That was me. I hadn’t been Junkyard Six since we left Iraq, but in the heat of battle, Adam reverted to familiar territory.
“Cover him, cover him!” Adam yelled.
There was a hailstorm of bullets. My guys were laying down suppressive fire at Chukov, forcing him to take cover and stop shooting at me.
I was in pain, but I was grateful. The bullet that Chukov fired at my chest was lodged in my body armor and not in my body. But the force of the concussion had knocked the wind out of me, and I felt like I had a couple of cracked ribs.
The bullet in my shoulder was what the medics casually refer to as a
“Matt, Matt, are you okay?” Ty said.
“Where’s Katherine?” I yelled.
Zach jumped in. “Shaken but safe. Are you okay?”
“No. And I won’t be okay until we get Chukov.” I stood and looked around. “Where is he?”
“Running up the south ramp,” Adam said. “I don’t have a clean shot from the balcony. Matt, how bad were you hit?”
“Enough to really piss me off. I’m going after him.”
I could see Chukov barreling his way up the ramp through the frenzied crowd toward the 42nd Street exit.
My shoulder was burning as I headed toward the ramp. Chukov looked back and saw me. Then he looked at the bottleneck in front of him. Hundreds of people were screaming in terror as they fought to squeeze through doorways that were designed to handle one person at a time.
Ten more seconds and I’d have him.
There was a second ramp — one that went down into the subway. It was wide open because nobody wanted to go down there. The lessons of 9/11 were still fresh in people’s minds. Grand Central was under attack. Get out of the building. Don’t risk being trapped underground. Only a crazy person would head down there.
The mob kept clawing at the front doors. One crazy person broke off from the pack and raced down the ramp toward the spiderweb of subways below.
Chukov. He had realized he’d never make it out the narrow door.
