Amira sheathed her two stilettos and unholstered the suppressed SIGSAUER P229. Not going up against large killer canines with knives. Do or die. Time to move, she thought, and ran from beneath the cover of the pipelines.
Chapter 9
Asim stood outside the door to the operations center, a long rectangular building that ran south to north. He’d returned from his walk at the sound of the first carnal cry. The hyenas had alerted the patrolling guards, and four of his men gathered in a group thirty meters in front of him, moving along the side of the barracks building where the hostages slept.
Asim knew the African animals were dangerous, especially at night. When he’d been a boy, a pack had infiltrated his village and killed two children who’d decided to sleep outside their hut. After the attack, the adults had established guards, and two nights later, they’d managed to kill two of the animals with machetes and AK-47s. He’d wondered at the time why the men had Russian assault rifles in a remote African village, but now, as an adult, he knew why: violence and conflict were the ways of Africa. And until something changes, they always will be.
The pack suddenly grew quiet, and the four armed men stopped moving, having reached the far end of the barracks. A row of trees had been planted just beyond the billeting in an attempt to provide a respite of outdoor shade to the workers who lived inside. Unfortunately for Asim and his men, the trees concealed the roaming pack of predators on the hunt.
The African night stood still, as if waiting for an invisible force to give the command to commence what Asim knew was coming. With the rebel attacks he’d led with Omar, it was always the quiet before the slaughter that was the most unnerving for him. The fact that a pack of hyenas had selected his men as prey only made it more chilling.
A single low growl emanated from just beyond the trees. It’s the female. She’s giving the command to attack. Asim knew the matriarch of the clan was the largest and most dangerous predator in the group, and he strengthened his grip on his AK-47.
Two sleek forms thirty feet apart exploded from the tree line, powerful legs and feet moving towards the men. Like bullets of animal fury, they covered the distance to the men in less than two seconds.
The man on the far left of the group managed to pull the trigger of his AK-47, but the bullets kicked up puffs of dirt as the first of the three-foot tall animals barreled into his chest, knocking him to the ground. The large animal dug its powerful jaws and head into his stomach, tearing at the soft flesh in an attempt to disembowel him.
The second man from the left froze in terror at the swiftness of the attack on his friend, and the second hyena leapt at him, even as two more hyenas emerged from the tree line, their rough paws propelling them across the dirt. The second monstrous beast tore into the man’s upper leg, snarling and growling as it bit deeper into the flesh, blood pouring over its bristly muzzle.
Asim watched in horror as his remaining two men fired their weapons at the new shapes from the tree line. At least one of the beasts was hit, and its forward momentum was violently halted, tumbling end over end into the ground. The fourth hyena struck the man on the far right, sinking its teeth into the wrist of his trigger hand. The jaws crushed close, pulverizing the man’s wrist into tiny pieces of bone and eliciting a shriek of horror from the rebel.
The remaining man on his feet turned to assist his friend, which exposed his back to the second hyena that had attacked and ripped apart the upper leg of the second rebel. The first two of his friends had already lapsed into unconsciousness from the sudden blood loss and shock. Death would follow soon.
The second hyena crashed into his back as he pulled the trigger on the AK-47, which caused the rifle of the weapon to lift, and bullets strafed across the back of his friend that he’d intended to help. The hyena scrambled up his back as the rebel’s chest hit the dirt, and he felt powerful jaws clamp down on the back of his neck. He heard a crunch as the terror overwhelmed him, and then he felt nothing as the wild animal crushed his spinal cord.
Asim’s mind fought to process the swiftness with which four of his men had just been literally torn to shreds. From beyond the three hyenas that continued to bite and tear into his friends, Asim saw two more shapes emerge from the trees. One was significantly taller than the other, with a larger and broader head. God have mercy. The matriarch. She stood at least four-feet tall and made the other hyenas in her pack seem like playful puppies compared to the menace that oozed from her muscular form. He raised his weapon to fire at the pack leader when a blur of black shadow appeared from his right.
His AK-47 still aimed at the hyenas, he turned his head and saw a figure clad in all black sprint across the dirt between him and the hyenas, moving rapidly towards the barracks building. That’s not one of ours. And then his male mind registered the way she moved, the lean physique, the gracefulness. It’s a woman, was his last thought as she extended her right arm towards him and opened fire with the pistol he hadn’t spotted until she’d pointed it in his direction.
Fortunately for Asim, the suppressed shots struck the corrugated steel of the operations center behind him, and he
