“I’ll check these guys for their NVGs,” offered Bear, who slipped out of the bedroom back toward the living area.
Cam crouched down next to Gunner, who stared quietly at von Zwick’s body. “You good?”
Gunner grimaced. “Yeah. This old guy didn’t deserve this. He loved his country and was just trying to flush out the vermin.”
“Sometimes, you can’t go it alone, right?” asked Cam rhetorically. She’d known Gunner for a long time. His self-reliance and exclusion of others sometimes got in the way of a mission’s purpose. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his friends and partners. It was just his way, especially since Heather died. The passage of time changed that.
He sighed as he stood. “I guess so. Anyway, I’m anxious to see what he was working on. Let’s mop up the wounded before the explosions draw any curious locals to us. Then we’ll see just how big this thing is.”
Gunner led the way, and Bear proudly announced the discovery of two night-vision monoculars. He handed them to Gunner, who refused. “You guys use them.”
Bear chuckled. “Oh yeah, I forgot about your cat eyes.” Gunner, like most cats, had a superior ability to see in the dark. It was more instinct than extraordinary retina sensitivity.
“Let’s make our way into the woods on the opposite end of the house where they were seen last. We’ll follow the perimeter for cover. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Bear nodded and raised the monocular to his right eye to scan the clearing. Near the edge of the woods stood a deer, but there was no sign of human life.
“Clear,” he whispered. Then he smiled to himself as he hearkened back to the Gray Fox team’s days in the Air Force. “Double time, airmen.”
Bear lowered his body and rushed across the clearing, with Cam and Gunner in tow. Fifteen seconds later, they’d entered the woods, where both Cam and Bear scanned the area of cleared underbrush for signs of life. Other than a whitetail deer hopping through the forest away from them, there was nothing.
“Split up?” asked Cam.
Gunner gave the instructions. “Yeah, twenty feet apart. I’ve got your six.”
“Moving,” said Bear as he made his way along the edge of the predominantly pine-tree forest. He’d advance twenty feet or so and then use the monocular to scan his surroundings.
“Move,” whispered Gunner.
“Moving,” Cam replied as she paced Bear’s advance through the trees. She shouldered her rifle and drew her sidearm, using her left hand to continuously look through the monocular.
With this approach, the three of them made a continuous loop of von Zwick’s house-barn combination until they identified one more man who’d bled out from Gunner’s shotgun blasts. On the side of the property where the road was located, they found broken saplings and signs of a person struggling to fight through the underbrush.
“Whadya think?” asked Bear.
Gunner thought for a moment as he searched the ground where the man had fallen for his NVG. He smiled as he located a more advanced, military-issue set of goggles with a head strap. The entire assembly was covered in blood. Gunner wiped off the blood on his khaki pants, where it joined that of von Zwick. He didn’t like loose ends and wanted to eliminate the potential threat.
“Let me track him. You guys flank me about fifteen paces to each side. If he’s hiding in the brush, we’ll flush him out. My guess is he headed for the cars.”
They moved in unison through the underbrush that became increasingly dense as they neared the road. After ten minutes of searching, Gunner shouted to his team. He knelt down next to a body to feel its pulse.
“Visual. KIA. Let’s check the road.”
They continued moving away from the farmhouse until they reached the barbed-wire fence. Bear was the first to join Gunner.
“I saw their cars parked down the road. It’s not that far from where Cam and I ditched the Bimmer. We might check the pockets of these guys for their keys. It’s possible they dis—”
“Shhh,” admonished Cam. Both guys snapped their head in her direction as she climbed through the barbed wire onto the road. “Do you hear that?”
A low rumbling sound could be heard in the distance that appeared to be getting closer. Gunner and Bear both broke through the fence perimeter to join her.
“Motorcycles. Harleys, probably.”
Gunner checked his watch. It was three a.m.
“They’re not joyriding at this hour,” he said jokingly. “I’m thinking the explosions were heard back toward Jamel.”
“Really, these NordKreuz guys ride Harleys?” asked Cam sarcastically. “So typical.”
Gunner replied calmly, “That’s the difference between pretenders and ideologues. Pretenders like to play dress-up and pretend they’re actors in a movie conjured up in their minds. Ideologues are committed to their cause. It’s not about playing a role. It’s about advancing their goals.”
“Either way, whadya wanna do?” asked Bear. “We could stand here and warn them off. A few well-placed rounds skipping along the pavement at their feet would send them screaming back to their beddy-byes.”
“Or we may end up wasting time only to wind up getting bogged down in a firefight,” countered Gunner. He turned to Cam. “Check the GPS on your phone and get our coordinates. Call it out to me. I’m gonna text the Den and request an extract.”
“What about our biker buddies?” asked Bear.
“Let’s get the extract request in while we have cell service. We were in a dead zone over at the professor’s place. At the house, we’ll have the benefit of NVG, and I doubt these thugs do. Either way, you guys will get the honor of target practice while I search the barn.”
Bear laughed and raised the barrel of his rifle. “Now you’re talkin’.”
“I’m ready,” announced Cam as she raised her phone to show Gunner the display.
He’d already retrieved his phone from his cargo pants pocket as they crossed the fence. He was prepared to send a text via the Deutsche Telekom cell network, connecting through the NSA’s secured satellites to the Den’s communications personnel.
Gunner typed
