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Disclaimer: See chapter one.
Thanks to Infie, Maia and alecsangel.
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Chapter 4
494 spun around with inhuman speed to face the threat. But no matter how fast he was he couldn't get away this time. Andrews watched horrified as the boy fell to the ground with the bloody soldier over him, the razor sharp combat knife tearing through his camouflage jacket at the left side of his stomach. Andrews couldn't take the shot, afraid of hitting 494 instead of the enemy. What happened next would forever be engraved in his memory.
494 cursed his own stupidity as he felt the soldier crash into him. Something hit him in the stomach and his left hand went down automatically, grabbed the other man's wrist and squeezed. He brought up his legs as he fell, placing the soles of his feet against the man's chest as his right hand found the soldier's throat. The sound of snapping bones seemed loud in the suddenly silent night and the large body went limp. Completing the backward roll, he straightened his legs with all his strength, sending the bloody corpse flying through the air. 494 was on his feet an instant later, grabbing the knife and yanking it loose.
'That's it, no more holding back.' This was a lesson he would never forget. It had been fun keeping Andrews in the dark, holding back and not letting him see their full potential. And it had almost got him killed.
His ears picked up the distant sound of running feet, coming from the same direction as he had earlier. He had dropped his gun when the soldier crashed into him and it lay a few meters away on the sidewalk. Too far to reach. Flipping the knife in his hand, he threw it with all his strength, hitting the first soldier to round the street corner in the chest. He had heard two more and his hand blurred as he drew his Glock.
Andrews jaw dropped. Despite all his training and experience with battle he couldn't do anything but be stunned at the scene in front of him. 494 had taken a knife to the stomach and it hadn't even slowed him down. Quite the opposite in fact. That body had been flying through the air! Almost before he'd realized what was happening the boy was on his feet again, throwing the knife at something or someone. Andrews spun around with his weapon, ready to take out whatever the threat was. A body was falling to the ground at the street corner; the knife 494 had thrown was buried in its chest. A second soldier came into view but fell with two bullets in his head before Andrews had a chance to fire.
494 took out the third soldier with two more quick shots and moved quickly over to his MP10, picking it up and replacing the clip with a fully loaded one. He couldn't hear any more enemies approaching and took a few seconds to reload his Glock too; making sure the weapons were ready for use.
The sound of footsteps made him turn around and he saw Andrews crossing the street in a rush, moving over to him. The norm's eyes were wide and he stared in shock at the gash in 494's jacket. "How? What?" he spluttered.
Andrews almost took a step back as he met 494's eyes. The face that had almost constantly held an amused expression was stone cold. A pair of hazel eyes, eyes that made the night chill seem like a warm summer breeze, met his gaze. Without a word the boy picked something from his pocket and tossed it to Andrews. He caught it automatically and brought it up to look. The scuffed hockey puck now had a deep cut right in the middle of it.
Andrews couldn't hold back the laughter.
494 felt himself relax now that the immediate danger was over. The norm had stopped laughing but his eyes were sparkling with amusement. There were still no signs of 909 or 962 and they hadn't contacted him over the radio yet. Clicking on his own microphone, he called his CO.
"Three to Six, the street is clear. Over."
The response came within a second.
[Six to Three, affirmative. Out.]
It didn't take long before the two X5s came out from the building the soldiers had been targeting, both completely unharmed.
They moved quickly toward each other and the two units met half way. Andrews of course had no idea what was going on behind the scene, but it was obvious that something was wrong. 909 and 962 met them with perfectly blank faces, not showing even the slightest hint of emotion. 494's eyes had, if possible, turned even colder.
"Did you get the answer you were hoping for?" The tone of his voice matched the ice in his eyes perfectly.
909 actually looked embarrassed at the question but answered positively.
"I hope it was worth alerting everyone within a mile of our presence. We need to finish this tonight."
909 simply nodded and gave the order to return to base. They needed to pick up their explosives and everything they would need in order to hit the enemy HQ. If they could find it.
*****
The two pairs moved quickly through the streets, making their way back to their temporary base. They could hear distant shouts and occasional gunshots when some nervous soldier thought a shadow moved. Andrews swallowed a curse; this was not good. Not good at all.
"Six to Five, over." Andrews could hear 909 clearly, even without the radio. They were moving close together and 909 wasn't keeping very quiet.
[Five to Six, over.] 241 responded over the radio.
"We're returning to base, be ready to leave immediately with all equipment except the radio."
[Affirmative.]
Andrews caught himself nodding his approval. Not that anyone was watching him or would have cared, but the order was the right one to give. Movement a block away made them all take cover behind whatever they could find. Fortunately the five enemy soldiers weren't looking their way as they ran in the opposite direction. The enemy soldiers came from the direction of their base but had obviously not found it. 241 would have warned them if they had.
494 approached the house slowly, making sure 241 could see him and knew that they were friendlies. He moved inside and heard the others following close behind. The table had been cleaned off, the explosives and detonators stuffed away in their backpacks. 241 was waiting for them with her rifle in her hands, already carrying her backpack. The satellite radio was still sitting on the table and 909 headed straight for it.
494 ignored him for the time being and quickly went through the contents of his backpack. He knew what it was supposed to hold, but it didn't hurt to make sure everything was where it should be. Until now they had been carrying recon kit, and hadn't packed any weapons except for their guns and a few grenades. The camouflage uniform however was fitted with pockets made for the sole purpose of holding various explosives. He quickly began filling them, taking out a few more grenades and several blocks of C4.
"Cyclone to base, over," he heard 909 say. Straining his hearing, he listened in on the conversation.
[Base to Cyclone, report. Over.] The communications officer at Manticore responded.
"Position compromised, please advise. Over." 494 snapped his head around, looking at his CO. 'Please advise?' Why on earth would he need advice now? It was easy. Find the target, destroy the target, and get out.
Another voice came over the radio. A familiar voice but not the one he'd expected to hear.
[Cyclone, proceed with the mission and eliminate anyone who sees you. Out.]
909 breathed out in relief and 494 held back a groan. How could that soldier ever have become CO? And why was Sandoval issuing orders instead of Lydecker? It didn't matter though, they had to find their target and they had to find it fast. He pulled out a map of the city from a pocket and spread it out on the table.
"We need to move quickly," he started. "This has to be finished tonight." And tonight was half over already. They hadn't been on patrol for long when the fight had taken place but it was still already after midnight. They had to finish this before dawn.
The others moved over to the table, studying the map. They had covered most of the eastern parts of the City the first night and had seen no sign of their target.
"Any ideas?" 909 asked.
"I thi-" 962 started but was cut of by 494.
494 pulled out his combat knife and used the tip of the blade to draw a circle around an area down by the harbour. "They'll be somewhere here."
Andrews raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think that?" He had intended to point out roughly the same area and he wondered how 494 had come to the same conclusion as he had.
"It's the easiest part of the city to protect against attacks. You have to move through the city to reach it, and it leaves them with enough time to evacuate if they need to. If someone attacks it will be from the east, by land. I'd place the HQ a block from the harbour, far enough to make sure no one can launch a surprise attack from the water using SEAL's or whatever they call them here, but close enough to quickly evacuate to a boat."
Andrews nodded. It was what he would have done too. Though, 494 had pointed out more reasons than he'd thought of. If they used one or more boats to get away they could quickly get to the other side of the bay and proceed from there with other vehicles. Or continue to move south by boat if the situation on land prevented them from using the roads.
"But the intel said the target would be in this area," 909 pointed out.
"The intel was wrong," 494 stated flatly, locking his eyes with 909.
Andrews breathed a sigh of relief when 909 nodded. That kid wasn't thinking fast enough on his own to be a good CO. He was too focused on what he'd been told and not on what they knew. And it was obvious he felt more comfortable following orders than making decisions by himself. He seemed to learn fast though, and he knew when he was wrong. With a little more training he could become a good leader. He just had to realize that orders and intel weren't always correct.
They left the radio and a few more things covered in a corner of the building as they moved out. The radio was too heavy to carry if they ended up in a battle, and it would be easier to pick it up once they were moving out. The other things wouldn't be needed until they left.
*****
The small group moved carefully along the empty streets. The stars and the moon illuminated the demolished city, the buildings casting deep shadows along one side of the streets. As they closed in on the sea and approached the harbour the X5's began to pick up the low sounds of the waves hitting the docks.
494 walked point with Andrews, silently moving in front of the other soldiers. They had yet to see a single enemy soldier and 494 grew more and more cautious the further they got. Somewhere in front of them there had to be enemies, and they better find them before they got spotted themselves. 494 dropped to a knee and carefully peeked around the next street corner. They had reached a large open area flanked by lots of destroyed buildings. If their guess was correct they would be close to the enemy headquarters now.
A first, quick sweep showed no immediate threats and 494 took a longer, more detailed look over the area. A few hundred meters away he could see a soldier standing in the shadows of a burned out building. It was clearly a guard, and the position was well chosen. He was concealed in the shadows with free line of sight over a large open area. Close to cover and probably a radio. Had the X5 unit been normal soldiers he would probably have spotted them. Unfortunately for the guard they weren't.
494 held up his fist and made a motion downwards. {Hold position and take cover.} Turning slightly so he could see Andrews out of the corner of his eye he brought up his hand and pointed with two fingers at his eyes and then held up one finger. {One enemy spotted visually.}
Andrews moved forward to the street corner and took position. Straining his eyes he tried to see what 494 was pointing at but couldn't make out anything but shadows and ruins.
"Stay here." 494 whispered and moved away through the shadows without a sound.
Andrews tried to follow his movement but found it impossible to make out any details in the shadows. He concentrated on his hearing, trying to pick up any sounds that would tell him what was happening. One minute passed, and then another. The night was completely silent, save for the distant sound of the sea. Andrews let his eyes sweep over his surroundings in a irregular pattern, carefully keeping a lookout for any movement. He knew the other kids were somewhere behind him, atching his back and making sure no one surprised them from behind. Five minutes later he found it more and more difficult to concentrate on the task at hand. Where had 494 gone and what was the kid doing?
Something poked him on the shoulder and he whirled around, swinging his weapon around to face the new threat.
494 rolled his eyes in the dark. Surprising the norm probably wasn't a good idea, but it had been fun. He grabbed the gun before Andrews had turned it completely around to aim at him and mouthed a silent "easy" to the fellow soldier.
Andrews glared at the boy. He wasn't sure what bothered him the most. That he'd been caught completely off guard and would have been dead if it had been an enemy, or that 494 apparently found the situation hilarious.
494 bent down beside Andrews and talked with a low voice. "I took a sweep around the area," he said, motioning with his hand at the large open area in front of them. "Two guards are neutralised and I found this," he said with a grin, holding up a map of the city.
Ten seconds later Andrews had to restrain himself from letting out a low whistle. They had struck gold. The map was full of military symbols and small notes, and right where they had guessed was a group of symbols. Their target.
The group gathered together and studied the map. Their target was a three-storey building that was situated about a block away from the harbour. The area around it was fairly open, leaving any sentries with a good line of sight, which made the approach more difficult. An old church with a high tower was situated about two blocks from the headquarters. It would be a good spot for a sniper/lookout to cover the area.
*****
494 crouched low, folding his hands together and creating a sort of footstep for 241. When she stepped in it he would throw her upwards and make it possible for her to reach the roof. She took a few running steps and launched herself from the ground, using 494's hands as an extra boost and landed safely on the roof.
Andrews watched silently as the girl practically flew up to the roof. Damn, these kids made ladders and ropes obsolete.
Without any further delay the four remaining soldiers moved out, making their way toward their target. They split up in pairs again as they got closer, Andrews and 494 going to the right and the two other X5's to the left. The shadows made it easy for the X5's to hide their small frames and Andrews did his best to keep up with them.
494 and Andrews came up on a small parking lot with a low concrete wall lining one end, to ensure no cars drove out on the grass behind it. Still concealed in the shadows at the right of the open area they waited for 241 to report in. From her position she would be able to tell whether there were any guards between them and the building and where those guards were. 909 and 962 would approach from the other side and enter the building from the east while 494 and Andrews took the front door from the north.
494 tapped his microphone twice, signalling they were in position and ready to go. A few seconds later he heard the same signal from the other two-man team. 241's voice broke the silence.
[Two guards spotted visually at one o'clock. 70 meters from your position, Three.]
494 tapped his microphone once to confirm.
[Two guards on the roof, standing together and smoking.]
494 could hear the contempt in 241's voice. Smoking on watch was bad discipline. Smoking at night was even worse; it would destroy their night vision and any chances to see anything in the dark. Not that he minded though, the sloppier the enemy was the better the chances for success.
[Two guards at the east side of the building, close to the entrance.]
They would be 909 and 962's problem to handle, 494 knew. Two pair of guards and two more at the roof. More than he would have used but not enough to stop what was about to happen. Of course, 494 would have had better control over the city if he'd been the one in charge. They were probably so used to the war and their own success that they thought themselves out of danger, he mused.
909's voice came in low over the radio. [Take out the guards and move into position. 241, hold until we're in position to take the guards.]
[Affirmative.]
494 tapped his microphone once to confirm. The two of them moved quickly and silently over the street and ducked low behind the concrete wall. Moving on their elbows and knees, they slowly crept toward their targets.
Andrews kept his breathing slow and controlled as he followed behind 494. His body was pumped with adrenaline, ready for action and he forced himself to remain calm. The action would come and he'd be right in the middle of it, but not until it was time. The sound of low voices reached his ears and he strained his hearing, trying to pick up what was being said.
"Zasto moramo strazariti dvostruku smjenu kad je tako prokleto hladno?"
Why do we have to take double watch when it's so fucking cold? He translated silently for himself. Cranky guards were great, that meant they were less alert.
"Znas zasto, kad je Milosevich ovdje uvijek je dvostruka smjena."
You know why, when Milosevich is here the guard is doubled. Andrews's breath caught in his throat. Was Milosevich here? That was almost too good to be true. When he'd been released from the tribunal in Haag due to medical conditions he'd gone straight back to his old home turf. Unfortunately for the people, he hadn't changed a bit and had somehow managed to stay alive for almost ten years since then. If he was here they would have to make sure they got him before they left. It was a nice added bonus.
494 stopped crawling and turned slightly to look at Andrews. Holding up two fingers and pointing at the wall, he signed for Andrews to wait.
Two taps on the microphone let the others know that they were ready to go. A minute later the same signal came from 909.
[Go in ten seconds.] 241 said.
494 started to count down.
At 5 seconds he heard the muffled sound of a silenced shot. One of the guards at the roof was dead.
At 3 seconds the second rooftop guard died.
When he reached 0 he and Andrews leapt up from their position behind the wall and trained their guns at the unsuspecting guards. Two three-shot bursts took out the guards before they even knew they were in danger.
"Milosevich is here," Andrews hissed to 494. "We have to make sure we get him before we leave."
494 just nodded as he vaulted over the wall and moved toward the building with Andrews close behind.
[Thermal scans show 17 hostiles in the building. Most of them are on the first floor but 4 are on the second. About half appear to be sleeping or resting, the others are awake and moving around.] 241 reported.
494 and Andrews took up positions at the sides of the door. Readying a stun grenade each, they prepared to enter.
241 kept close watch on the area and waited until both teams were ready to go before giving the order.
[Go in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Go, go, go!]
Simultaneously both the eastern and the northern doors were kicked open and stun grenades were thrown in. 494 covered his ears and closed his eyes as the flashbangs detonated with a deafening sound. A second later 494 moved in with his weapon raised, closely followed by Andrews.
They kept close to the walls, one on each side of the corridor, to make themselves harder targets to hit. A soldier came stumbling out of a room a few meters in front of them and was immediately taken out. Several voices could be heard screaming and yelling orders.
494 threw another flashbang into a room and followed closely behind the detonation. The three enemies in the room were sleeping when the first flashbangs detonated and were knocked almost unconscious from the last one. 494 took them out with short, controlled bursts. This was what he'd trained for his whole life and every move, every decision, was as automatic as breathing. Utilizing the sudden calm in the fight, he took a second to replace the half-spent clip in his gun with a full one. After a quick examination of the room, he grabbed a few papers and stuffed them into a pocket. They had no time to read through the material they found, so they had to grab what they could and hope they got something of value.
Exiting the room he rejoined Andrews in their advance down the corridor. They took turns progressing down the corridor, making sure to cover each other. An explosion suddenly rocked the building and pieces of concrete rained down from the ceiling. 494 gave it a quick glance before they moved on. Apparently the building had been damaged at some point and wasn't as sturdy as it once had been. He took position low on one knee, close to the wall as he waited for Andrews to move past him. He was just about to rise and move forward when a shot came out of nowhere. Andrews staggered and went down with a bullet wound in his left thigh.
"Get down!" Andrews's scream was accompanied by the all too familiar metallic sound of a grenade bouncing on a concrete floor. 494 dove through a nearby doorway seconds before the grenade detonated. Another second later he was on his feet again, moving toward the door and the corridor. He had to get Andrews out from here. A rumbling sound shook the building and a bullet struck the doorjamb right above his head as he reached the corridor.
494 threw himself to the ground and sent a short burst through the chest of the enemy soldier firing at him. Another detonation shook the building and suddenly the onslaught became too much for the damaged framework. The last thing 494 saw before the roof caved in between them was Andrews being dragged away by two enemies.
494 scrambled to his feet and blurred out of the door as the building collapsed behind him.
-----A/N: One more chapter to go.
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