Chapter 13 - DEAD SHOT AT GARNET
Z
BANG!
A blinding flash of white light and a deafening 130-decibel shockwave erupted inside the command trailer. The two squad leaders staggered backward, clutching their ears, completely disoriented.
I kicked the door off its hinges, stepped inside, and fired four rapid, controlled rounds.
POP! POP! POP! POP!
Both squad leaders dropped to the floor, double-tapped in the center mass before they could raise their sidearms.
The woman in the black coat, however, was no ordinary corporate executive. Despite the blinding shockwave, she rolled behind the steel digital map table, drew a compact chrome pistol, and returned fire, her shots punching holes through the thin aluminum walls of the trailer.
I ducked behind the server rack, feeling the heat of the rounds passing inches from my helmet.
"Ethan Vance!" she screamed over the ringing in her ears, her voice sharp and filled with venom. "You think you can destroy Northstar by targeting local ops?! We are global! We own defense contracts in twenty countries!"
"You threatened my wife," I said, my voice dead calm as I detached an EMP charge from my belt and slapped it onto the back of the main server rack. "That makes your global company my personal problem."
I primed the charge, rolled out from behind the rack, and brought my SIG MCX to bear.
She fired twice, one bullet grazing my shoulder armor, but I didn't flinch. I fired a three-round burst straight through the corner of the steel table.
The heavy rounds tore through the metal, striking her in the shoulder and thigh. She dropped her weapon with a sharp cry, collapsing back against the glass wall of the trailer, blood soaking her tailored coat.
I stepped over the fallen squad leaders, stopping directly in front of her, the muzzle of my suppressed carbine resting an inch from her forehead.
She looked up at me, coughing blood, her eyes wild with a mix of pain and disbelief. "Do it," she hissed. "Kill me. The strike team in Helena... they have standing orders. If I don't check in every fifteen minutes, they execute the package."
I pulled out my phone, brought up the live GPS tracker linked to Rachel’s vehicle, and held it in front of her face.
"Look closely," I said coldly.
Her eyes flicked to the screen. The blue dot representing Rachel’s transport hadn't taken the highway to Helena. It was currently parked inside the heavily fortified perimeter of the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, guarded by two active-duty SAM batteries and a full battalion of Security Forces.
Her face went pale. "What... how?"
"I didn't send her to a federal safehouse," I said, leaning in close. "I sent her to a nuclear weapons storage facility. Your strike team in Helena is currently waiting outside an empty decoy house surrounded by sixty federal marshals."
May you like
She stared at me, her mouth open in horror as she realized she had been completely outmaneuvered from the start.
"Now," I said, sliding the server keycard from her inner coat pocket, "give me the override code for your central database, or I let Captain Ward’s team test their new interrogation techniques on you."
