Chapter Twenty Five: …The Dogs Will Play
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They'd found him.
Rudo had been a supremely elusive man for the last year, never staying in one place long enough to leave any scent worth following. But Mordecai was a supremely determined hunter. Day after day, Mordecai had prayed for this; the chance to stick the pig and bleed Rudo like the bastard he is.
Over the years, Rudo had developed a vast array of hideaways and safehouses throughout the area. The majority of them were cabins hidden in the hinterlands, farmhouses in various states of abandonment, and other similar secretive hidey-holes. Rudo lived a life of constant motion, always running, always looking over his shoulder for Mordecai and his troopers. With rebellion underway, Rudo had gotten sloppy. He had decided to take advantage of what he saw as the military's preoccupation with the insurgency to indulge a bit in the finer points of life. He was staying at a retired, wealthy merchant's villa in the hills west of the city, as a guest of honor no less.
Somehow, word of Rudo's presence made it to the military, and Mordecai went at it like a wolf. He took only five other troopers with him; Beef, Dio, Z, Hawkeye, and Havoc. Mustang had ordered Havoc accompany Mordecai on any and all excursions outside the base.
They reached the villa around midnight, after two hours of stealthy-as-hell travel in a jet-black jeep specially designed for the less-respectable type operations the Light Infantry frequently undertook. They hid the jeep about half a mile from the villa and snuck in the rest of the way on foot. Mordecai left Havoc to 'guard the jeep.'
When Mordecai caught sight of the villa, he grinned half a sadistic, brutal grin centered off his incisor. He could see Rudo. Rudo and the owner of the Villa were next to each other, strolling slowly around the villa's open-air patio. A half-dozen of Rudo's guards trailed the two men.
"Beef, Z; on me. Dio; set up yer chopper right here. Hawk, setup wherever looks good to you. Once I grab Rudo, you guys just light this place up once they come out."
Mordecai and his two men ghosted into the shadows, rapidly closing distance on the villa. Hawkeye settled into a nook between a tree and a rock. She was about two hundred yards from the villa. She could have taken Rudo's head off without difficulty any day of the week from here, but Mordecai wanted him alive. She saw movement downrange and refocused. Z and Beef burst from the shadows and opened up on Rudo's guards, cutting through the lot of them in seconds with their submachine guns. Mordecai was right behind them. He had his shotgun and put a blast into the villa owner's chest from an arm's length away. He next swung the gun around, clocking Rudo across the temple before the man could react. Rudo fell to the floor. Mordecai began punching him in the head until he was certain the bastard was out cold. He lifted the man onto his shoulders and disappeared back into the woods, Z and Beef right behind him.
This had woken up the whole villa. About twenty armed men stormed out onto the patio. Dio let rip with his machine gun. As Dio raked them over, Hawkeye began shooting out the lights around the patio. Six shots later, it was plunged into darkness. Dio stopped shooting to reload and Hawkeye shot down two more men she saw moving in the windows. For fear of machine guns, snipers, and the dark, the men in the villa got the hell out of sight.
Mordecai and his crew ran by, not breaking stride. Hawkeye and Dio vacated their position to follow. They scrambled to the jeep, yelling as they ran to let Havoc know they were coming. They didn't want to spook the man and get shot at.
They got to the jeep as fast as they could. Havoc, hearing them yell, fired up the vehicle to expedite their escape. Mordecai made a mental note of that, surprised Havoc would take the initiative like that. Mordecai threw the unconscious Rudo into the back of the jeep. "Tie 'em up!" Havoc and Dio pounced on the man, pulling ropes out of the equipment boxes and roughly strapping Rudo's arms together behind his back.
Mordecai grabbed Dio's machine gun as Beef leapt into the driver's seat. Beef was the best driver here. With everyone aboard, Beef gunned it. The jeep leapt out of the thicket they'd hidden it in and onto a little-used dirt road. Beef avoided the main roads, taking a longer, but stealthier route back to base.
As they pulled in, Rudo began to stir, squirming about. He was face down and couldn't tell what was going on. Dio had his boot on the man's back and wouldn't let him roll over. "Who are you?" Rudo kept yelling.
Mordecai brushed Dio's boot aside and rolled Rudo over. "Hello, shithead!" Mordecai growled, grinning.
Rudo's face turned white. "Oh, shit…"