A/N: Alright, this one took longer to write because I had a bit of
writer's block, then saw some stuff on the news I wanted to toss in. It
is another long one though so I hope that makes up for the lengthy
delay a bit.
A/N 2: I know you've all gotten somewhat used to Harm's new language "skills", but he goes even further in this one due to pain and stress. Apologies to those easily offended.
A Man Called Ghost
Chapter 14
Harm quickly threw himself backwards through the door he had so recently just come through. As his back hit the dirt outside the door, he heard the unmistakable fire of automatic weapons. Pulling his MP-5 up and towards the door he depressed the trigger sending a spray of bullets at those on the other side. At this moment in time, he'd take blind luck. Releasing the trigger he rolled to his right and came up on a single knee. Taking a look around the compound, he started swearing savagely at himself. He even tossed a few expletives in for Webb. Someone was bound to have heard that racket and they would quite likely be joining the party soon. Pulling the sling of his MP-5 over his head he inched closer to the door and poked his weapon through pulling the trigger again. This time he held on until the weapon clicked repeatedly letting him know it was time to feed the beast. Drawing the weapon close to him he released the magazine and replaced it with a fresh one. Pulling back on the cocking handle he stood up slowly to crouch beside the door. Quickly he dove through firing blindly again, his dive landing him behind a small box. Cautiously, he raised his head and looked over the box to find three bodies laying on the floor, he couldn't see anyone else in the room.
"Well shit, let's hear it for blind luck." He muttered to himself. Quickly he stood up and closed the door he had just come through, again. On the far side of the room he saw another door that led further into the building. Easing away from the door he moved towards the back of the room stopping only to grab a belt of grenades off one of the dead bodies. He figured they would more than likely come in handy.
From what he saw on the outside, this smaller building was not connected to the larger one where he assumed they were doing weapons research. However, unless he missed his guess, there would be some party guests waiting on the other side of the door he just flew through so dramatically. Reaching up, he rubbed at the back of his shoulder where the slung sniper rifle had banged a little too hard during his evasive dive.
Carefully opening the door, Harm looked into what appeared to be an abandoned hallway. Sliding through the door, Harm slowly made his way down the hall checking every room he came across. Mostly offices of some sort, all of them abandoned. He thought about planting one of his packages in this building but decided not to. He was down to five and from the size of the main building he'd probably need them all there.
As he reached the end of the hallway, Harm saw an unmarked thick metal door. Cautiously he nudged it open and peeked through the gap provided. As soon as he did he heard someone say something in Arabic and then heard a metallic clicking. It didn't sound like anything associated with weapons so Harm decided to take a chance. Pushing the door open he softly padded through keeping to the shadows. In a room just off the door he saw two men in lab coats working on something. Beyond the room was a set of stairs that led down and turned to the left. Quietly Harm bypassed the room with the two men in it and started down the stairs.
Harm was surprised, though not overly shocked, to find that the stairs led to an underground tunnel connecting this and the main building. Along the way he saw signs of passageways he assumed led to the other buildings he had noticed. So far, he'd been able to sneak past anyone he'd seen, but none of those people since the first room had carried weapons. Mostly they looked like scientists or engineers. Well that went a ways towards confirming Webb's theory of a weapon being developed here, but it still wasn't conclusive proof. It was an interesting series of underground rooms and passageways though; must be damn hard to pick out even with ground penetrating radar.
As he was nearing the end of the hallways, Harm heard footsteps on the stairs in front of him. With a shake of his head and a quick curse, he looked around without any luck for somewhere to hide. The last room he'd seen had been further back down the corridor, and there were no convenient nooks or crannies to tuck himself into. Pulling his MP-5 up, Harm slid the safety selector off and crouched down into the slender shadows provided by the bad lighting. Better than nothing he thought.
After what seemed like hours, but was in all likelihood just minutes, two men descended the stairs. Both were armed and arguing animatedly in Arabic until they came to a sudden stop seeing the figure kneeling in the shadows. The first man shouted something raising his weapon while the second man turned and ran back up the stairs. With a sigh Harm pulled the trigger of his weapon for a quick burst into the chest of the man in front of him. Standing up quickly he moved to the stairs and took a quick look upwards. He could hear the pounding of footsteps, but could no longer see the man who'd taken off.
With another savage curse Harm started to climb the stairs quickly, keeping an eye out for the man he was following. Why was it that nothing Webb planned ever went according to plans Harm wondered not for the first time. He was so wrapped up in these thoughts he didn't realize he was nearing the top of the stairs. It wasn't until the second bounce of the grenade that he realized something wasn't right. In a flash, Harm decided he stood a better chance with whoever had tossed the grenade down the stairs than with the grenade itself. Pushing off, he sprinted to the top of the stairs and reached the last step as the grenade detonated. With a scream Harm dove over the edge of the stairs instantly aware of a fiery tearing in his leg. Looking up through the pain, he saw four men moving towards him from the far side of the room where they had obviously taken cover from the impending explosion.
"Come on you bastards, time to dance with the ghost!" Harm shouted as he tugged his weapon up and started firing. He managed to take down two of the men before his weapon clicked empty again. Tossing it down he pulled the nine millimeter pistol and squeezed off a few rounds as the remaining two terrorists moved for cover. So much for a sneaky approach, he thought to himself.
Pulling himself to his feet, Harm moved swiftly to the right towards a table in the corner. With a short pull Harm threw the table over on its side and took cover. Shoving the pistol back into his holster Harm pulled up the MP-5 on its sling and loaded a new magazine. He had no idea if he'd even hit the two men who were left and was wondering how to find out without getting his ass blown off.
Before he could formulate a plan he found out that at least one of them was still alive when they opened fire on his table. As the bullets splintered the wooden surface, Harm dropped down to his stomach and making himself as small of a target as he could. Slithering along Harm poked his weapon out around the corner and fired in the direction the bullets had come from. He was rewarded with a loud scream, followed by a gurgle. With a tight smile, Harm waited for the remaining man to give away his location. Cautiously he reversed his position behind the table and moved towards the other edge. If the guy on the other side of the room knew what he was doing he'd be tearing up that end of the table soon. Still no answering hail of bullets came and Harm chewed on his lower lip considering this.
Soon the reason for the man's absence was readily apparent as an alarm rang out through the building. Well, now he knew where his other friend went. Pushing himself up, Harm took a moment to look down and saw the shredded pant leg where hot fragments of metal had showered his leg. Luckily it appeared that only one piece had penetrated the skin, but it was a fairly large chunk. Testing the leg carefully, Harm put weight on it until it hurt too much to continue. He'd be able to move, just not very fast. Gritting his teeth, Harm pushed off and slowly moved towards the door the lone terrorist had escaped through.
Moving carefully through the building, Harm was often engaged in quick, deadly firefights with groups of armed terrorists. He'd used up all of the grenades he'd taken off that first body and was almost out of ammo for his MP-5. For the last hour the fighting had been getting fiercer; at first the terrorists had died quickly or run even faster. Now they were putting up a hellish resistance. His leg was also getting weaker as he moved along. He'd wrapped a crude field dressing around it from one of the uniforms of the men he'd killed, but blood was still seeping out slowly.
Harm suddenly stopped when he heard raised voices somewhere near him. Carefully he edged along the hallway until he came to a partially open door through which he could hear the voices. Through the door he spotted a man and woman kneeling on the floor with dirty blindfolds over their eyes. From the sounds of it, the people engaged in the argument were somewhere in front of the two people on the floor. As he watched, Harm saw a man in a ragged uniform step around the two people and stand behind them. Roughly the man reached down and yanked the blindfold off the kneeling prisoner.
"The deaths of these people will be upon your hands!" the man screamed in heavily accented English.
Sucking his breath in, Harm slid back from the door and looked around hurriedly. Was the man talking to him? How did the man know that he was there?
"Please...don't do this." Someone pleaded in an English accent. That would probably be the man on the floor.
"The infidel will see what it means to ignore our demands to leave our soil!"
Peeking back around the door Harm saw the uniformed man standing close behind the kneeling man with a knife to his throat.
"Shit" Harm breathed as he realized what he was seeing. This was one of those televised executions of innocent people. Sliding his pistol from its holster, Harm took careful aim as the uniformed man was screaming in Arabic. He would need to make this shot count; there was at least one more man in the room from the voices he'd heard earlier. As the uniformed man drew back the knife to strike, Harm squeezed the trigger and pushed through the door. Sliding across the floor, Harm turned to his left and saw another man standing stunned behind a video camera and tripod. Pulling the trigger twice, Harm watched the blood slowly begin to leak from a hole in the man's head. Pushing himself up to his feet once more, Harm scanned the room and didn't see anyone else who would pose a threat.
Turning back to the two people on the floor Harm moved towards the first man he'd shot and kicked the knife away from his hand before leaning down to check for a pulse.
"Who are you?" the kneeling man asked hesitantly.
"Just a friend. Looks like you folks needed a hand." Harm answered quietly. Pulling his K-Bar he quickly cut the rope that had been holding the man's hands behind him and moved over to the woman. First he removed her blindfold and gave her a little reassuring smile then he cut her bonds as well.
"You could say that again. Thank you so much." The kneeling man said quietly. Obviously he was still afraid, and probably in shock. Reaching around behind him, Harm unclipped one of his remaining canteens and handed it to the man.
"What are you doing here?" the woman asked. Not English from the sounds of her accent, probably American.
"At the moment, helping you two. In general, causing as much havoc as I can. Can you two walk enough to get out of here?"
"Yes." The man said as he stood and then helped the woman to stand.
"They were going to kill us weren't they?" the woman asked when she saw the two dead bodies and the camera.
"Looked like it to me." Harm answered truthfully. "Look, I'm still not done here. Do you two know a way out of the building?"
"We don't even know where we are. They haven't taken the blindfolds off in three days." The man answered.
"Shit. Do you know how to use one of these?" Harm asked as he bent down and pulled a handgun from the belt of the dead body at his feet.
"I can probably learn straight away." The man said.
"Good. Safety is here, make sure it's off when you go to shoot something." Harm pointed out as he handed the gun to the man. "And whatever you fucking do, don't shoot me when I come back. Now stay here."
"Where are you going?"
"I told you, I have a job to do. I'll be back. Now sit; stay." Harm said as he walked towards the door again. Listening for a moment he decided no one had heard the commotion and stepped out into the hallway.
Twenty minutes later Harm stood in the doorway to a cavernous room that contained numerous large steel tanks. It also contained a fair number of armed men as far as he could tell.
"Well now Rabb. How are you going to get this one done?" Harm wondered aloud. This was what he was looking for, a catalyst for his demolition work. Planting the rest of his packages here would make a nice bang. Unfortunately he didn't see those men in the room just letting him walk in and place them. His leg was also starting to get worse, or the adrenaline was wearing off and he was just feeling it more. As much as he'd love to unsling his rifle and just start picking them off like birds, he had a feeling that those he didn't hit would be able to swarm him fairly quickly.
Ejecting the magazine from his MP-5 Harm could see he only had six rounds left in his last magazine. Well, no guns blazing routine. Wouldn't really do much good without Sundance anyway. The alarms were still ringing out and all the men he could see looked pretty vigilant.
With a sudden thought Harm shrugged his shoulders. No one had said that the explosives had to be attached to anything, they just had to be near enough to cause the tanks to go up. Carefully he took out one of the remaining packages and attached the radio detonator. Kneeling down on the ground he poked his head back into the doorway and made sure no one was looking in his direction. With a quick cast he slid the explosives along the floor towards the nearest cylinder. As it coasted to a rest underneath the cylinder he smiled grimly. One down, four to go. Carefully he repeated the exercise with another package. Once the second one had also come to rest underneath one of the tanks, he realized there weren't three more tanks in easy reach. Pausing, he looked into the room and decided that it probably didn't matter. If those two tanks went up, the rest would probably go up in a chain reaction. Turning around Harm started back to where he'd left the freed hostages. Along the way he planted the last of his explosives in various rooms that looked like chemistry labs.
Finally he was back in the room where he'd originally found the hostages. He saw them nervously looking at him from one corner of the room, as far away from the bodies as they could get. "Come on." He said quietly, motioning them to join him.
"What do we do now?" The woman asked in an equally soft whisper.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm just about ready to blow this joint."
"Sounds good." The British man said with a sigh.
Almost as soon as they started out the woman noticed that Harm was limping badly. Looking down she saw the blood on his pants and around his boots. "My God, your leg!"
"I'll be fine; I know a doctor or two." Harm shrugged off her concern. "We need to move it."
As quietly and as quickly as he could, Harm led the two former hostages through the tunnels to the room where he'd first entered the complex. As soon as he entered the room he sensed something was wrong and held up his hand to stop the two behind him. Dropping to his knee heavily Harm drew his pistol and looked around. The bodies were gone, that's what he'd seen without knowing it.
"Someone's here." He whispered.
As soon as he said it two men barged through the door with AK-47s blazing. Aiming his pistol Harm started squeezing off rounds. Before he'd fired four rounds the English man stepped up beside him and started firing with the handgun Harm had given him. Between the two of them they took out the two terrorists, and two more men who came in after them.
"Thanks." Harm said simply.
"No way they're going to lock me up again mate, or the lady."
Harm stood and moved over to where the bodies were strewn on the floor. Reaching down he grabbed one of the AK-47 assault rifles and searched the bodies for extra clips. Ejecting the magazine that was already in the weapon he inserted a fresh one and chambered a round.
"Alright, listen to me. When you go out this door go straight to the fence. I cut the wire almost directly in front of this door. Get through the fence and keep running. Don't look back, I'll be right behind you. There's a ridge not far from the fence, get up it as fast as you can and take cover behind it. Got it?"
Silently the two former hostages nodded and got ready to run. Harm stepped through the door and put his back to the wall beside the door. "Now!" he nded.
He felt both people stumble out the door and move towards the fence. As soon as they did one of the roaming guards spotted them and shouted something. With a flick of the wrist Harm leveled his rifle at the guard and squeezed off a stream of bullets. As the guard went down under the hail another one shouted something and Harm adjusted the aim of his weapon. So much for doing this quietly.
With a quick glance over his shoulder he saw both the man and woman at the fence looking for the section he'd cut. When the woman located it, he started moving towards them keeping an eye on the compound. Everywhere he looked guards were pouring out of buildings so quickly it was impossible to keep moving his rifle at the new ones as they appeared. Pushing the lever on the side of the weapon he dropped the magazine and rammed a fresh one home. Chambering the first round he started spraying bullets at anyone he saw.
Suddenly he felt the fence against his back. With a tight grin he glanced down and got ready to drop to his knees. Unfortunately, he was helped to his knees by a torturous impact on his left shoulder. Looking down dumbly he watched as the blood seeped through the jacket. Cursing loudly he shoved himself against the fence and unexpectedly felt it give way. Looking up he saw the woman standing over him.
"GO!" he yelled at her and then pushed himself under the fence. Staggering to his feet he started backing away from the fence. Dropping his rifle he pulled his handgun out once more. At least this he could fire with one hand. Every step he fired a round until the weapon clicked on empty.
Turning Harm stumbled as he started up the ridge.
"Ah fuck it." He muttered to himself as he pulled the radio trigger from his pocket. Flipping up the six switch covers he pushed the buttons to light them up. With a last glance at the compound and short prayer that he wasn't too close, he pushed the green button to set off all the packages.
As the flames and explosions ripped through the compound, Harm covered his head and his eyes with his arms against the heat. He felt hot metal rip into his back and arms as the hot air washed over him. And then he passed out.
Water passed over his lips and Harm struggled to open his eyes. "Fuck." He muttered when he finally succeeded. Both the man and woman were standing over him. "I didn't know the show would be that big." he tried to shrug but stopped when the pain in his shoulder hit him.
"Are you alright mate?"
"Not really, thanks for asking though. Listen, at the top of the ridge I stashed a ruck. Go get it?"
"This one?" the woman asked holding out his rucksack.
"There's a radio in there, pull it out for me?"
As soon as the woman extracted his radio and handed it to him Harm turned it on. "Any call sign, this is Ghost. I am a company call sign and need immediate extraction of three bodies."
Silently he waited against the hope that someone picked up his transmission. Suddenly through the static he heard "Ghost, this is Bravo 2- 0. What is your position?"
"Bravo 2-0, just look for the big God damned smoke signal." Harm answered.
"Roger that Ghost. We are an air call sign inbound. ETA five minutes."
"Thank fucking Christ." Harm muttered before passing out again.
He didn't know how long it was before he woke again, but when he did he was onboard a helicopter looking up into a familiar face.
"God you're one ugly fucker to wake up to in the morning Gunny." He muttered.
"Nice to see you too, sir. It's been awhile. Your handiwork I take it?" Gunnery Sergeant Galindez asked looking out the window at a pillar of black smoke.
"Didn't have a beacon on me. Why am I strapped to a fucking stretcher?"
"You're pretty beat up sir. Burns and shrap wounds, not to mention the bullet in your shoulder. Corpsman shot you full of morphine, I'm surprised you can talk."
Nodding silently Harm thought back on the mission. "What a cluster fuck that was."
"Sir, who are they?" Gunny asked nodding across the helicopter.
Looking up Harm saw the two people he had rescued from the terrorists. "No idea. Just didn't like the thought of them having their heads ripped off."
Hearing him yelling at Gunny the two former hostages looked over at him. "Who are you?" the man shouted.
"Me? I'm no one, just a ghost." Harm answered with a small, tight smile before he let the morphine take him again. As he drifted off he couldn't help but wonder what Coates had meant when she said that Mac was too busy crying. He'd let her go, she should have found happiness by now.
A/N 2: I know you've all gotten somewhat used to Harm's new language "skills", but he goes even further in this one due to pain and stress. Apologies to those easily offended.
A Man Called Ghost
Chapter 14
Harm quickly threw himself backwards through the door he had so recently just come through. As his back hit the dirt outside the door, he heard the unmistakable fire of automatic weapons. Pulling his MP-5 up and towards the door he depressed the trigger sending a spray of bullets at those on the other side. At this moment in time, he'd take blind luck. Releasing the trigger he rolled to his right and came up on a single knee. Taking a look around the compound, he started swearing savagely at himself. He even tossed a few expletives in for Webb. Someone was bound to have heard that racket and they would quite likely be joining the party soon. Pulling the sling of his MP-5 over his head he inched closer to the door and poked his weapon through pulling the trigger again. This time he held on until the weapon clicked repeatedly letting him know it was time to feed the beast. Drawing the weapon close to him he released the magazine and replaced it with a fresh one. Pulling back on the cocking handle he stood up slowly to crouch beside the door. Quickly he dove through firing blindly again, his dive landing him behind a small box. Cautiously, he raised his head and looked over the box to find three bodies laying on the floor, he couldn't see anyone else in the room.
"Well shit, let's hear it for blind luck." He muttered to himself. Quickly he stood up and closed the door he had just come through, again. On the far side of the room he saw another door that led further into the building. Easing away from the door he moved towards the back of the room stopping only to grab a belt of grenades off one of the dead bodies. He figured they would more than likely come in handy.
From what he saw on the outside, this smaller building was not connected to the larger one where he assumed they were doing weapons research. However, unless he missed his guess, there would be some party guests waiting on the other side of the door he just flew through so dramatically. Reaching up, he rubbed at the back of his shoulder where the slung sniper rifle had banged a little too hard during his evasive dive.
Carefully opening the door, Harm looked into what appeared to be an abandoned hallway. Sliding through the door, Harm slowly made his way down the hall checking every room he came across. Mostly offices of some sort, all of them abandoned. He thought about planting one of his packages in this building but decided not to. He was down to five and from the size of the main building he'd probably need them all there.
As he reached the end of the hallway, Harm saw an unmarked thick metal door. Cautiously he nudged it open and peeked through the gap provided. As soon as he did he heard someone say something in Arabic and then heard a metallic clicking. It didn't sound like anything associated with weapons so Harm decided to take a chance. Pushing the door open he softly padded through keeping to the shadows. In a room just off the door he saw two men in lab coats working on something. Beyond the room was a set of stairs that led down and turned to the left. Quietly Harm bypassed the room with the two men in it and started down the stairs.
Harm was surprised, though not overly shocked, to find that the stairs led to an underground tunnel connecting this and the main building. Along the way he saw signs of passageways he assumed led to the other buildings he had noticed. So far, he'd been able to sneak past anyone he'd seen, but none of those people since the first room had carried weapons. Mostly they looked like scientists or engineers. Well that went a ways towards confirming Webb's theory of a weapon being developed here, but it still wasn't conclusive proof. It was an interesting series of underground rooms and passageways though; must be damn hard to pick out even with ground penetrating radar.
As he was nearing the end of the hallways, Harm heard footsteps on the stairs in front of him. With a shake of his head and a quick curse, he looked around without any luck for somewhere to hide. The last room he'd seen had been further back down the corridor, and there were no convenient nooks or crannies to tuck himself into. Pulling his MP-5 up, Harm slid the safety selector off and crouched down into the slender shadows provided by the bad lighting. Better than nothing he thought.
After what seemed like hours, but was in all likelihood just minutes, two men descended the stairs. Both were armed and arguing animatedly in Arabic until they came to a sudden stop seeing the figure kneeling in the shadows. The first man shouted something raising his weapon while the second man turned and ran back up the stairs. With a sigh Harm pulled the trigger of his weapon for a quick burst into the chest of the man in front of him. Standing up quickly he moved to the stairs and took a quick look upwards. He could hear the pounding of footsteps, but could no longer see the man who'd taken off.
With another savage curse Harm started to climb the stairs quickly, keeping an eye out for the man he was following. Why was it that nothing Webb planned ever went according to plans Harm wondered not for the first time. He was so wrapped up in these thoughts he didn't realize he was nearing the top of the stairs. It wasn't until the second bounce of the grenade that he realized something wasn't right. In a flash, Harm decided he stood a better chance with whoever had tossed the grenade down the stairs than with the grenade itself. Pushing off, he sprinted to the top of the stairs and reached the last step as the grenade detonated. With a scream Harm dove over the edge of the stairs instantly aware of a fiery tearing in his leg. Looking up through the pain, he saw four men moving towards him from the far side of the room where they had obviously taken cover from the impending explosion.
"Come on you bastards, time to dance with the ghost!" Harm shouted as he tugged his weapon up and started firing. He managed to take down two of the men before his weapon clicked empty again. Tossing it down he pulled the nine millimeter pistol and squeezed off a few rounds as the remaining two terrorists moved for cover. So much for a sneaky approach, he thought to himself.
Pulling himself to his feet, Harm moved swiftly to the right towards a table in the corner. With a short pull Harm threw the table over on its side and took cover. Shoving the pistol back into his holster Harm pulled up the MP-5 on its sling and loaded a new magazine. He had no idea if he'd even hit the two men who were left and was wondering how to find out without getting his ass blown off.
Before he could formulate a plan he found out that at least one of them was still alive when they opened fire on his table. As the bullets splintered the wooden surface, Harm dropped down to his stomach and making himself as small of a target as he could. Slithering along Harm poked his weapon out around the corner and fired in the direction the bullets had come from. He was rewarded with a loud scream, followed by a gurgle. With a tight smile, Harm waited for the remaining man to give away his location. Cautiously he reversed his position behind the table and moved towards the other edge. If the guy on the other side of the room knew what he was doing he'd be tearing up that end of the table soon. Still no answering hail of bullets came and Harm chewed on his lower lip considering this.
Soon the reason for the man's absence was readily apparent as an alarm rang out through the building. Well, now he knew where his other friend went. Pushing himself up, Harm took a moment to look down and saw the shredded pant leg where hot fragments of metal had showered his leg. Luckily it appeared that only one piece had penetrated the skin, but it was a fairly large chunk. Testing the leg carefully, Harm put weight on it until it hurt too much to continue. He'd be able to move, just not very fast. Gritting his teeth, Harm pushed off and slowly moved towards the door the lone terrorist had escaped through.
Moving carefully through the building, Harm was often engaged in quick, deadly firefights with groups of armed terrorists. He'd used up all of the grenades he'd taken off that first body and was almost out of ammo for his MP-5. For the last hour the fighting had been getting fiercer; at first the terrorists had died quickly or run even faster. Now they were putting up a hellish resistance. His leg was also getting weaker as he moved along. He'd wrapped a crude field dressing around it from one of the uniforms of the men he'd killed, but blood was still seeping out slowly.
Harm suddenly stopped when he heard raised voices somewhere near him. Carefully he edged along the hallway until he came to a partially open door through which he could hear the voices. Through the door he spotted a man and woman kneeling on the floor with dirty blindfolds over their eyes. From the sounds of it, the people engaged in the argument were somewhere in front of the two people on the floor. As he watched, Harm saw a man in a ragged uniform step around the two people and stand behind them. Roughly the man reached down and yanked the blindfold off the kneeling prisoner.
"The deaths of these people will be upon your hands!" the man screamed in heavily accented English.
Sucking his breath in, Harm slid back from the door and looked around hurriedly. Was the man talking to him? How did the man know that he was there?
"Please...don't do this." Someone pleaded in an English accent. That would probably be the man on the floor.
"The infidel will see what it means to ignore our demands to leave our soil!"
Peeking back around the door Harm saw the uniformed man standing close behind the kneeling man with a knife to his throat.
"Shit" Harm breathed as he realized what he was seeing. This was one of those televised executions of innocent people. Sliding his pistol from its holster, Harm took careful aim as the uniformed man was screaming in Arabic. He would need to make this shot count; there was at least one more man in the room from the voices he'd heard earlier. As the uniformed man drew back the knife to strike, Harm squeezed the trigger and pushed through the door. Sliding across the floor, Harm turned to his left and saw another man standing stunned behind a video camera and tripod. Pulling the trigger twice, Harm watched the blood slowly begin to leak from a hole in the man's head. Pushing himself up to his feet once more, Harm scanned the room and didn't see anyone else who would pose a threat.
Turning back to the two people on the floor Harm moved towards the first man he'd shot and kicked the knife away from his hand before leaning down to check for a pulse.
"Who are you?" the kneeling man asked hesitantly.
"Just a friend. Looks like you folks needed a hand." Harm answered quietly. Pulling his K-Bar he quickly cut the rope that had been holding the man's hands behind him and moved over to the woman. First he removed her blindfold and gave her a little reassuring smile then he cut her bonds as well.
"You could say that again. Thank you so much." The kneeling man said quietly. Obviously he was still afraid, and probably in shock. Reaching around behind him, Harm unclipped one of his remaining canteens and handed it to the man.
"What are you doing here?" the woman asked. Not English from the sounds of her accent, probably American.
"At the moment, helping you two. In general, causing as much havoc as I can. Can you two walk enough to get out of here?"
"Yes." The man said as he stood and then helped the woman to stand.
"They were going to kill us weren't they?" the woman asked when she saw the two dead bodies and the camera.
"Looked like it to me." Harm answered truthfully. "Look, I'm still not done here. Do you two know a way out of the building?"
"We don't even know where we are. They haven't taken the blindfolds off in three days." The man answered.
"Shit. Do you know how to use one of these?" Harm asked as he bent down and pulled a handgun from the belt of the dead body at his feet.
"I can probably learn straight away." The man said.
"Good. Safety is here, make sure it's off when you go to shoot something." Harm pointed out as he handed the gun to the man. "And whatever you fucking do, don't shoot me when I come back. Now stay here."
"Where are you going?"
"I told you, I have a job to do. I'll be back. Now sit; stay." Harm said as he walked towards the door again. Listening for a moment he decided no one had heard the commotion and stepped out into the hallway.
Twenty minutes later Harm stood in the doorway to a cavernous room that contained numerous large steel tanks. It also contained a fair number of armed men as far as he could tell.
"Well now Rabb. How are you going to get this one done?" Harm wondered aloud. This was what he was looking for, a catalyst for his demolition work. Planting the rest of his packages here would make a nice bang. Unfortunately he didn't see those men in the room just letting him walk in and place them. His leg was also starting to get worse, or the adrenaline was wearing off and he was just feeling it more. As much as he'd love to unsling his rifle and just start picking them off like birds, he had a feeling that those he didn't hit would be able to swarm him fairly quickly.
Ejecting the magazine from his MP-5 Harm could see he only had six rounds left in his last magazine. Well, no guns blazing routine. Wouldn't really do much good without Sundance anyway. The alarms were still ringing out and all the men he could see looked pretty vigilant.
With a sudden thought Harm shrugged his shoulders. No one had said that the explosives had to be attached to anything, they just had to be near enough to cause the tanks to go up. Carefully he took out one of the remaining packages and attached the radio detonator. Kneeling down on the ground he poked his head back into the doorway and made sure no one was looking in his direction. With a quick cast he slid the explosives along the floor towards the nearest cylinder. As it coasted to a rest underneath the cylinder he smiled grimly. One down, four to go. Carefully he repeated the exercise with another package. Once the second one had also come to rest underneath one of the tanks, he realized there weren't three more tanks in easy reach. Pausing, he looked into the room and decided that it probably didn't matter. If those two tanks went up, the rest would probably go up in a chain reaction. Turning around Harm started back to where he'd left the freed hostages. Along the way he planted the last of his explosives in various rooms that looked like chemistry labs.
Finally he was back in the room where he'd originally found the hostages. He saw them nervously looking at him from one corner of the room, as far away from the bodies as they could get. "Come on." He said quietly, motioning them to join him.
"What do we do now?" The woman asked in an equally soft whisper.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm just about ready to blow this joint."
"Sounds good." The British man said with a sigh.
Almost as soon as they started out the woman noticed that Harm was limping badly. Looking down she saw the blood on his pants and around his boots. "My God, your leg!"
"I'll be fine; I know a doctor or two." Harm shrugged off her concern. "We need to move it."
As quietly and as quickly as he could, Harm led the two former hostages through the tunnels to the room where he'd first entered the complex. As soon as he entered the room he sensed something was wrong and held up his hand to stop the two behind him. Dropping to his knee heavily Harm drew his pistol and looked around. The bodies were gone, that's what he'd seen without knowing it.
"Someone's here." He whispered.
As soon as he said it two men barged through the door with AK-47s blazing. Aiming his pistol Harm started squeezing off rounds. Before he'd fired four rounds the English man stepped up beside him and started firing with the handgun Harm had given him. Between the two of them they took out the two terrorists, and two more men who came in after them.
"Thanks." Harm said simply.
"No way they're going to lock me up again mate, or the lady."
Harm stood and moved over to where the bodies were strewn on the floor. Reaching down he grabbed one of the AK-47 assault rifles and searched the bodies for extra clips. Ejecting the magazine that was already in the weapon he inserted a fresh one and chambered a round.
"Alright, listen to me. When you go out this door go straight to the fence. I cut the wire almost directly in front of this door. Get through the fence and keep running. Don't look back, I'll be right behind you. There's a ridge not far from the fence, get up it as fast as you can and take cover behind it. Got it?"
Silently the two former hostages nodded and got ready to run. Harm stepped through the door and put his back to the wall beside the door. "Now!" he nded.
He felt both people stumble out the door and move towards the fence. As soon as they did one of the roaming guards spotted them and shouted something. With a flick of the wrist Harm leveled his rifle at the guard and squeezed off a stream of bullets. As the guard went down under the hail another one shouted something and Harm adjusted the aim of his weapon. So much for doing this quietly.
With a quick glance over his shoulder he saw both the man and woman at the fence looking for the section he'd cut. When the woman located it, he started moving towards them keeping an eye on the compound. Everywhere he looked guards were pouring out of buildings so quickly it was impossible to keep moving his rifle at the new ones as they appeared. Pushing the lever on the side of the weapon he dropped the magazine and rammed a fresh one home. Chambering the first round he started spraying bullets at anyone he saw.
Suddenly he felt the fence against his back. With a tight grin he glanced down and got ready to drop to his knees. Unfortunately, he was helped to his knees by a torturous impact on his left shoulder. Looking down dumbly he watched as the blood seeped through the jacket. Cursing loudly he shoved himself against the fence and unexpectedly felt it give way. Looking up he saw the woman standing over him.
"GO!" he yelled at her and then pushed himself under the fence. Staggering to his feet he started backing away from the fence. Dropping his rifle he pulled his handgun out once more. At least this he could fire with one hand. Every step he fired a round until the weapon clicked on empty.
Turning Harm stumbled as he started up the ridge.
"Ah fuck it." He muttered to himself as he pulled the radio trigger from his pocket. Flipping up the six switch covers he pushed the buttons to light them up. With a last glance at the compound and short prayer that he wasn't too close, he pushed the green button to set off all the packages.
As the flames and explosions ripped through the compound, Harm covered his head and his eyes with his arms against the heat. He felt hot metal rip into his back and arms as the hot air washed over him. And then he passed out.
Water passed over his lips and Harm struggled to open his eyes. "Fuck." He muttered when he finally succeeded. Both the man and woman were standing over him. "I didn't know the show would be that big." he tried to shrug but stopped when the pain in his shoulder hit him.
"Are you alright mate?"
"Not really, thanks for asking though. Listen, at the top of the ridge I stashed a ruck. Go get it?"
"This one?" the woman asked holding out his rucksack.
"There's a radio in there, pull it out for me?"
As soon as the woman extracted his radio and handed it to him Harm turned it on. "Any call sign, this is Ghost. I am a company call sign and need immediate extraction of three bodies."
Silently he waited against the hope that someone picked up his transmission. Suddenly through the static he heard "Ghost, this is Bravo 2- 0. What is your position?"
"Bravo 2-0, just look for the big God damned smoke signal." Harm answered.
"Roger that Ghost. We are an air call sign inbound. ETA five minutes."
"Thank fucking Christ." Harm muttered before passing out again.
He didn't know how long it was before he woke again, but when he did he was onboard a helicopter looking up into a familiar face.
"God you're one ugly fucker to wake up to in the morning Gunny." He muttered.
"Nice to see you too, sir. It's been awhile. Your handiwork I take it?" Gunnery Sergeant Galindez asked looking out the window at a pillar of black smoke.
"Didn't have a beacon on me. Why am I strapped to a fucking stretcher?"
"You're pretty beat up sir. Burns and shrap wounds, not to mention the bullet in your shoulder. Corpsman shot you full of morphine, I'm surprised you can talk."
Nodding silently Harm thought back on the mission. "What a cluster fuck that was."
"Sir, who are they?" Gunny asked nodding across the helicopter.
Looking up Harm saw the two people he had rescued from the terrorists. "No idea. Just didn't like the thought of them having their heads ripped off."
Hearing him yelling at Gunny the two former hostages looked over at him. "Who are you?" the man shouted.
"Me? I'm no one, just a ghost." Harm answered with a small, tight smile before he let the morphine take him again. As he drifted off he couldn't help but wonder what Coates had meant when she said that Mac was too busy crying. He'd let her go, she should have found happiness by now.