He nodded and climbed into the ambulance.
She was about to leave when Frank grabbed her hand. “Finish what you started.”
She watched the ambulance race east towards the yacht club and could feel Fletcher burning a look in the back of her head. She turned and stared him down. “A conversation for another time,” she hissed.
He broke his stare. “What’s the plan?” he said.
Sin wiped her blood from her palms and refilled the cylinders of her .45’s. “We go in through the front door. Erase anyone inside. Onyx is probably on the third floor. Wherever he is, that’s where we’ll find Carmelita. Once we establish his whereabouts, you leave him to me.”
“There’s a big bastard in the third-floor window, west side, waving an M16,” she heard in her earpiece. “He’s covering himself with a woman.”
Gunfire rang down on them from above. Everyone ran for cover.
“No one shoot. I repeat, no one shoot,” Sin said.
“I can keep him at bay by firing into the building,” Danny said.
“Shoot far enough away that a ricochet can’t hit anyone.”
“Ten-four.”
As soon as she heard the sound of the fifty-caliber firing into the side of the building, she gave Fletcher the go sign.
60
Sin, Fletcher, Baxter, and Johnson crept their way to the front entrance as Garcia took care of a stray gunman on the second floor. She hugged the exterior wall, a pearl-handled revolver in one hand. With the other, she counted down from five.
On her mark they shot out the locks on the front door.
She and Fletch kicked open the doors and dove for cover as shots rang out from within.
“Lights,” Fletcher yelled, then tossed a smoke bomb into the interior.
Baxter and Johnson shot out the lights inside the entrance.
“Snipers, any of you see a transformer connected to the target?” Sin said.
“It’s mine,” Wilson answered.
Sin heard a bang and saw sparks fly through her peripheral vision. The building went dark.
As soon as they broached the interior, shots rang out from the right and left.
Baxter held up his thumb and pinkie, the squad’s sign for a flash-bang. He grabbed one off his belt, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the hall.
As soon as it went off, they heard the cries of the enemy.
Sin wasted no time in attacking. She ran down the hall and dropped to her knees with a .45 in each hand as she approached the rooms on the left and right. With a pull on each trigger, she took out the gunmen who were stymied by the effects of the flash-bang. Back on her feet, she saw a lone gunman running down the stairs. Without losing stride, she dropped him before he reached the bottom.
She and the others took cover behind the wall next to the cement steps and waited to see if anyone else would be dumb enough to come down. No one did. She pointed to Johnson and wagged her thumb and pinkie. As soon a flash-bang was tossed up the steps, she and her team made their way to the second floor, taking out the members of the Black 6 who were waiting at the top of the stairs.
Using a smoke canister for cover, she and her team quickly cleared the second floor and gathered at the staircase to the third.
“Snipers, do you copy,” she whispered. She received an affirmative and continued. “We need to see what you see.”
“Confusion,” Garcia said.
“The big man is hunkered down in the far corner of the room at the end of the hall. I have a heat signal just inside the door to the room. I repeat, I have a heat signal on the inside of the door,” Danny responded.
From Danny’s description, Sin figured Onyx was using Carmelita as a barrier. She eyed her men to make sure they all heard.
“Wilson, we need you to clear the way,” she said. “Our position is at the south end of the building, second floor. On my mark, fire into the concrete and steel of the third floor. I just want you to scare them. Do not penetrate the shell. Do you read?”
“On your mark, I’ll scare the shit out of them, shell stays intact.”
Sin and her team used the precious time they had to reload their handguns. Once everyone was ready, she gave Wilson his cue. “Count down from five, starting now.” She and her team silently counted down and ran up the stairs, their weapons leading the way. The entrance to the third floor was barricaded with tables, TV’s, and all sorts of furniture.
Fletcher pulled his grenade form his belt, made sure everyone saw him make the move, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the pile. The team ran back towards the second floor and covered their heads. The explosion caused debris to be thrown all over the steps. Even before the dust settled, Sin led the team back up. Breaching the access onto the third floor, she saw broken and bloodied bodies covered in bits of wood, metal, and glass from the explosion.
With Fletcher on her left, and Baxter and Johnson covering the rear, the team slowing made their way down the hall. Every time the enemy poked their head out of a doorway, they were disposed of. As they approached the door Danny had mentioned, two gunmen came out from cover, automatic weapons leading the way. She and her team dropped onto their bellies as if it were second nature. With a gun in each hand, she began shooting as a Baxter tossed a smoke cannister. Through the fog, she couldn’t get clear view of the targets, so she just emptied the barrels of her guns in their direction.
She held up a fist. Spotting her hand signal, her team stopped shooting but kept their aim on their target. Silence echoed louder than any gunfire. She and her men slowly dragged their bodies off the floor,
