Instinct: A Chess Team Adventure - By Jeremy Robinson Page 0,38
Knight said. “I’ve got three more rounds in this magazine.”
Three shots rang out in quick succession. Three more soldiers fell. Knight ejected and discarded the clip before slapping in a new one. He turned to King. “Yeah?”
King smiled. “Nice shooting.”
“You were expecting anything less?”
Sara was amazed at the team’s levity given their situation. She watched as Queen readied her UMP and placed some grenades against the wall, ready to throw. Was there a smile on her face? Bishop held a stoic expression as he propped his machine gun up on the wall. She’d seen what that could do. Then there was Rook. He was all smiles and had the craftiest look in his eyes, like he was in on a practical joke about to be played.
The truth wasn’t too far off.
Rook saw Sara watching. “You want to see how to make your enemy soil themselves?”
“On my mark,” King said.
At least he is still being serious, Sara thought.
“Now!”
Rook fired a grenade from his FN SCAR assault rifle, then tossed two more, while King, Queen, and Knight lobbed three each, in various directions and distances. Sara’s eyes widened. The mountainside was about to be lit up like the Fourth of July in Washington, D.C. She covered her ears and closed her eyes.
The screams of the soldiers couldn’t be heard over the echoing booms of the grenades exploding, one after another. The ground shook and smoke wafted through the air. For a moment, everything went silent.
Rook leaned up over the wall. A swath of mountainside had been cleared of trees. The ground was covered in fallen trunks, smoldering earth, and remnants of human bodies. Anyone approaching from below would be slowed by the fallen trees, slick with blood, exposed by the clearing, lit by the freed sunlight.
The silence ceased as the coughing and groaning of the still living began to filter out from the debris. A battle cry came next. Then a hundred men charged out of the dark forest and up the cleared mountainside. Their fire was concentrated on the Chess Team’s position, but the stone wall and steep angle protected them.
The Chess Team responded in kind, though much more efficiently. Bishop held down his trigger and swept the machine gun back and forth, chewing up earth and bodies alike. Queen, King, and Rook fired their weapons in quick bursts, catching the few who made it past Bishop’s storm cloud of bullets. Knight swiveled back and forth, firing occasionally at the men staying in the trees, attempting to circumvent the battlefield. Somi, on the other hand, held her fire. Her shotgun would only be useful for up-close and personal combat, which would come soon enough.
In that moment of pure pandemonium Sara felt safe. She could see that the Chess Team really was the best. They could handle this, and more, if need be.
A sudden pressure around her chest and blackening vision tore her away from the action. Brugada! Sara thought before losing consciousness.
But Brugada was not to blame.
THE VPLA DEATH Volunteers had the most complete map of Viet-cong tunnels, which crisscrossed the region from North to South Vietnam and into portions of Laos and Cambodia. This was their backyard, after all. And they trained in jungle warfare and tunnel attacks more than any other special forces unit on the planet. For them, desert warfare, trench warfare, even urban warfare were unlikely. Vietnam wasn’t about to invade another country or take part in a NATO mission. If they fought a war again, it would be like the last, on their home turf—in the jungle. And they were more prepared for it now than they had been during the Vietnam War, when they had held off a superpower. The superpower.
And Trung was determined to ensure they would have the power to do it again, and more. With the key to Brugada in Trung’s possession, their status in the world order would change. The few nations who had the ability to decide the fate of the world with a push of a button held the most power—were respected. Vietnam would soon earn that respect, and power, as well. The success of their current task was a testament to that.
Though they had failed to capture the U.S. team when they touched down in the field, contingency plans, including the one now in action, had been planned in advance. Every movement the Americans made had been tracked. They knew the U.S. team would reach the village first. They knew the massive number of regular soldiers thrown at