“Yeah, but it’s not exactly a wise rule of thumb to live by,” Samuels said.
“It’s appropriate now. Besides, I’ll fire off a few warning shots while you call Dorman so you can let him know his pipeline is under siege.”
Samuels called Dorman and filled him in on the situation, resulting in a flurry of expletives that Hawk could hear several feet away. After a few seconds of peace, Hawk broke the silence.
“You hung up yet?” Hawk asked.
“Dorman warned us not to shoot until his men arrived.”
“Good for him,” Hawk said before squeezing off several shots at the hostiles. He struck one in the head, while the other he hit in the chest.
“Did you get them both?” Samuels asked.
“Only one kill, from what I can tell.”
Bright flashing lights bounced along the horizon near the refinery entrance, arresting Hawk’s attention.
“Looks like the cavalry is on its way,” he said.
“Hawk,” Alex said over the coms, “there’s more trouble north of you.”
“How far north?”
“Maybe fifty kilometers or more. I’m having trouble getting an exact reading on your location.”
“How many hostiles?”
“A dozen, maybe more. They’re spread out, too. Looks like about every five kilometers,” Alex answered. “I’ll update you if I see any new developments.”
“What the hell?” Samuels asked. “It only takes one hole in the pipeline to create a leak.”
“It takes days to fix each breach though,” Hawk said. “Petrov wants to make sure this is a crater on the market graphs, not a blip.”
“Dorman is gonna be pissed.”
“And not just with them,” Hawk said.
“What do you plan on doing?” Samuels asked.
“The refinery just became a sitting target,” Hawk said. “Al Hasib is going to blow it to kingdom come if we don’t get back and stop it.”
Hawk and Samuels hustled back to the Humvee and roared past the caravan of Verge security vehicles tearing out across the desert.
“Get Dorman back on the line and find out who’s guarding the refinery,” Hawk said as their vehicle bumped along.
Samuels dialed Dorman’s number and put the call on speaker.
“What is it now?” Dorman growled.
“Who’s minding the refinery?” Hawk asked.
“I am.”
“By yourself?”
“Well, yeah,” Dorman said. “I can handle it.”
“We’ll be there in a minute. Keep your eyes peeled. The pipeline attack was just a diversion. The real prize is the refinery, and that’s what they’re coming for.”
Hawk hung up, unwilling to give Dorman a chance to throw his meaningless weight around. Hawk cared only about the mission, which was thwarting Al Hasib’s attack on Kuwait’s prized refinery.
A few minutes later, Hawk roared up to the gate and buzzed it to gain entry. No response. Hawk hit the button several more times impatiently.
“Come on, come on.”
Nothing.
“I ain’t got time for this,” Hawk said as he put his Humvee in reverse and backed up about thirty meters before stomping on the gas.
Hawk steered the vehicle straight toward the gate and ripped right through it. Lights flashed and sirens sounded, but not a single security guard came out to investigate.
“They’re already here,” Hawk said as he scanned the area.
With guns trained forward, Hawk and Samuels got out and surveyed the surroundings.
“Let’s check the security station,” Hawk said.
They crouched low as they sprinted across the grounds toward the office building where they’d previously met Dorman. Hawk opened the door slowly and peeked inside. Once he deemed the area clear, he motioned for Samuels to follow. Inside, they found Dorman slumped dead in his chair, two bullets to the chest, one to the head.
“We’ve got to hurry,” Hawk said.
They rushed back outside and scanned the facility for any movement.
“Up there,” Hawk said, pointing toward one of the distillation towers.
Samuels squeezed off a couple shots before fire was returned. The two operatives hustled behind one of the parked security vehicles to regroup.
“I saw another hostile opposite the one you spotted,” Samuels said.
“So, there are at least two of them.”
“I’m guessing more than that.”
Hawk peered around the corner of the front fender, only to be greeted by two more shots that peppered the ground.
“I’m going up after the one on the left,” Hawk said. “You take the guy on the right.”
“But we don’t have any cover,” Samuels argued. “We’re going to be sitting ducks.”
“And this place is going to be awash in oil if we don’t make an attempt to take action.”
Hawk didn’t wait for a reply. He stole across the grounds, ducking behind vehicles and holding tanks as he moved toward the tower. He stealthily climbed the ladder, stopping at a platform to see if the Al Hasib operative above had taken notice. If he had seen Hawk, the man wasn’t acting like it.
Hawk glanced across at the other tower, where Samuels started to climb. Above Samuels, the hostile was busy staring at the explosive device in his hand and had his back turned to Hawk. Seizing the opportunity, Hawk fired off a shot, hitting the man in the back. He plummeted to the ground.
The man above Hawk moved frantically over him, shooting down at Hawk. Samuels fired two shots and took the man out. Hawk watched as the man toppled over the railing and hit the ground with a thud.
“Nice shot, Samuels,” Hawk said over the coms.
“I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet,” Samuels said. “Look over there on the holding tanks. There’s at least a dozen flashing devices from what I can see.”
“Alex, are you seeing all this through the security camera feeds?” Hawk asked.
“It’s hard to see since these cameras don’t have much definition,” she said.
Hawk raced back down the steps and studied the explosive device lying next to one of the dead Al Hasib agents. “These devices look like they’re radio controlled—and there’s way too many of them around the facility for us to take down at this point.”
“Can you open one up for me?” she asked.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Hawk and Samuels rushed back to the security building and found a toolbox in the maintenance closet. Hawk dismantled the casing and turned on his body camera to show Alex the device.
“Perfect,” she said after
