Court now shouted, “Cover!” and went prone, positioning his broken hand on the vertical of the rifle to steady it. Zack climbed to his feet and began firing around the front of the van. “Covering!”
Court aimed at the tiny yellow aircraft, already gaining speed, as it bounced along the wet grass of the airstrip.
He fired a single round, then another, his hand throbbing anew with each volley. He kept shooting, aiming, trying to judge for the aircraft’s increasing speed, the distance, and the bullet drop. The 416 was not a sniper rifle, but Court knew he should be able to hit a damn airplane at six hundred yards or more.
But the mist was heavy, the plane kept rolling away, and it didn’t look like he was going to be able to stop it.
He changed magazines with his good hand, flipped his weapon’s fire selector switch to fully automatic, and re-aimed at the tiny yellow plane as it took off from the bright green grass.
“C’mon, Gentry,” he said to himself, and he pressed the trigger, firing burst after burst as his left hand screamed in agony.
* * *
• • •
Four Russian mercenaries in full body armor burst through the rear door of the church in formation, rifles swinging right and left, searching for targets. When they found no threats they waved forward a group of people in the doorway. Fox, then Hines, then Zakharov, along with two Bratva men, all came running out towards three sixteen-passenger vans parked just meters from the door.
Behind them, Zoya appeared, her arms tied behind her back at the elbows, and two Bratva soldiers bracketed her as she was rushed out the back door and towards one of the vans.
Behind this group, a dozen more mercs in masks and the latest tactical equipment brought up the rear, scanning 360 degrees for enemy contact.
Gunfire raged from the roof, from the north, west, and south sides of the church, but here on the eastern side it was clear. The sound of the accelerating Air Tractor carried through the mist from the south, heard intermittently between the nearly incessant shooting.
Zoya watched while her father, Hines, and Fox climbed into a van, wasting no time racing off down the hill, making its own lane in the tall grasses. The other two vehicles revved their engines, their drivers already at the wheel, and Zoya was placed next to one of these while her two minders stepped up to the other. The back door was open, and inside were stacks of scuba tanks and other diving gear, as well as stacked Pelican cases, no doubt holding some other equipment for the unit.
As the men began to shut the back of the van, Zoya found herself unattended for a moment. In that instant, she turned to run back inside the church, but before she could take three steps a hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, leading her back to the door of the second white van.
* * *
• • •
Chris Travers and Art Greer bounded around the northern side of the church now and saw a white vehicle racing down the hill in the distance. Travers pressed his transmit key on his chest. “Squirters in a white van, heading east at speed.”
Jenner called back over the net immediately. “Once we suppress the threat here, we’ll bring the helo up and go after it.”
Travers and Greer took a few more steps towards the back of the property and saw a second, identical van racing off. Greer raised his rifle at it, but Travers stopped him. “The asset!”
Greer understood. The woman from CIA might be in the vehicle, so they couldn’t just rake it with gunfire.
As they finally rounded the back edge of the church they saw a third van, with several people moving around it, including a brunette woman with her arms restrained behind her back.
The men at the van saw the two Americans, and they raised their weapons. Travers and Greer fell flat onto the ground and, from the prone position, expertly picked off all four men without hitting the hostage.
They thought they had all the threats down, but the driver dove out of the vehicle with his short-barreled AK and aimed it at the attackers at the northern side of the building. He fired at them, and then they returned fire. He raced over to a stone wall in the back garden of the church to dive behind it, but Greer took him