“Not necessarily,” von Zwick countered. “I have excellent night-vision coverage around the building, providing a view of nearly every square foot of the clearing. As soon as they exit the forest, they will be exposed.”
“That’s why you cleared the underbrush,” said Bear.
“Precisely.”
Gunner walked away from the monitors, subconsciously placing his hand on his holstered sidearm. “Not enough,” he muttered to himself.
“Did anybody get a count on the bogeys?” asked Cam.
“Six. Maybe eight?” responded Bear.
“Same,” said Gunner. “Listen, they’re more likely to fan out and circle the house.”
“Should we take the fight to them?” asked Bear. “We don’t have any shooting portals. They’ll just pound this glass until we have no choice but to—”
“Not true, Lieutenant Barrett,” interrupted von Zwick. “My Fachhallenhaus was originally framed using timber and solid block walls. They are eight inches thick. The roof is made of two-inch-thick slate shingles. The structure is virtually impenetrable by most bullets.”
“The glass isn’t,” argued Bear. “Even leaded panes will shatter.”
“Ah, my new friend. These are not leaded but, rather, Level 3 ballistic protection. It is over an inch thick and will repel three precisely fired rounds from a .44 magnum handgun.”
Gunner eased his partners’ concerns. “Most operatives use 5.56 NATO rounds in their battle rifles and nine millimeter in their handguns. These windows will hold. The bigger problem I see is fighting back. They know we’re here and will continue to focus their fire on the glass or the doors until they break through.”
“Follow me!” ordered von Zwick. Gunner led the group as von Zwick quickly moved up a wooden spiral stairwell to the second floor. Once upstairs, he pointed toward the center of the large landing area. “Pick a weapon out of that closet. As you will see, H&K is my preference. It is a fine German weapon.”
Bear pulled open the door, and interior lights immediately turned on. The closet was lined with gun racks holding a variety of automatic weapons, hunting rifles, and shotguns. Beneath them were shelves with hard-plastic handgun cases organized by caliber. Finally, the lower drawers were filled with ammunition and extra magazines.
“This is my kind of closet,” said Cam as she moved in and picked a compact MP7 submachine gun. It would work best for close-quarter combat if their attackers breached the entry door.
Bear shouldered an MP7 and also chose a Remington 870 shotgun, which had a twenty-five-shell bandolier-style shot holder as a sling. Gunner did the same; then he turned to Professor von Zwick.
“Do you have a place to hide until this is over?”
“I will not cower to the enemy,” he replied defiantly. “I will be your eyes at the security monitors. You will hear my voice throughout the house. Now follow me.”
Von Zwick marched out of the closet into the open area at the top of the spiral staircase. As he did, Cam leaned into Gunner and whispered, “Is this guy for real? He’s prepared to fight off the Mongols and the Turks.”
“No doubt,” Gunner whispered back.
“We must hurry!” Von Zwick was impatient with the Gray Fox team for not getting into position. “Remember what I am about to tell you. Entry door is west. Barn door is east. Sides are north and south. Now, watch this.”
He walked to the steeply sloping roof line and placed his hand on a square framed portion of the truss system. He pushed up on the panel until it opened, allowing the cool night air in. As it opened, two support struts clicked into place to hold the panel up. With a quick push of his palm, the panel could be lowered closed.
“There are a dozen of these hatch openings around the entire roofline. You listen to my instructions as I tell you where the intruders are coming from. Do you understand?”
Bear didn’t hesitate. “I want the west side over the entry. I’ll use the shotgun to hold them off the porch and away from the glass.”
“I’ve got south,” said Gunner. That was the direction of the road and the last known location of the attackers.
“I’ll take the rest and call for backup if I need it,” said Cam.
“What about the barn doors?” asked Gunner.
“I will handle those myself,” replied von Zwick. “I have practiced this many times in the dark to foil intruders.”
“Let’s roll,” said Bear.
“One more thing,” said von Zwick. “I will be turning off all interior lights. If I shout lights on, I will be referring to the exterior lighting. I will do this if most of them are in the clearing. You will have to move quickly, but you can gain an advantage.”
“Got it!” said Cam as she scampered off to her post.
Von Zwick scrambled down the spiral staircase.
“If possible, let’s start with silenced sidearms,” said Gunner before his team got into position. “We can pick them off quietly while flushing out whether they have NVG.”
“Roger that,” said Bear. “Call out your kills, too.”
The three operatives got into position and waited for the professor-turned-Rambo to report the location of the first attackers.
Chapter Twenty-Two
United States Embassy
Baku, Azerbaijan
Execution. A single word with varied meanings. In the time of his grandfather’s day, execution meant to take another’s life under some authority, real or perceived. In Daniel Wagner’s day, execution was required to see an operation to completion, and a goal to realization. Thus far, every aspect of this mission was going as planned. Even the weather had cooperated.
Because of its proximity to the west coast of the Caspian Sea, the normally dry, pleasant weather could change drastically if moisture was brought in from the waters. In recent years, wild swings in weather patterns in the region had been experienced as the planet had been experiencing a sudden shift in its magnetic poles. Geologists had been reporting that the magnetic north pole had wandered as far south as Central Russia toward Kazakhstan, six hundred miles north of Azerbaijan but a thousand miles south of true north.
On this day, Wagner caught a break, the first of many. The weather was
