Brandon
I was currently planning our exfill for the operation as Big Luke packed the trunk and David readied his M110 sniper rifle. The target wasn't too far away, he was held up in an condemned warehouse in Harlem. There were a couple of old, rundown, multistory buildings surrounding the warehouse. We would probably split up and be on several different rooftops.
I stepped away from KATE and moved over to a workbench. On the bottom shelf, we had several different optics lined up in case we needed them. I picked up a compact, rubber, 4X magnifier with a quick-disconnect mount for my Heckler and Koch 416 assault rifle and the EOTech holographic sight mounted to it. I took the optic out of the box and walked beside the great, big peg board with different weapons of all shapes and sizes.
Several of them I recognized: the MP5 I used a couple summers back, a Barrett M82 .50 cal, an RPG7, and several others that I don't really feel like listing. When I finally found the weapon I was looking for, I lifted it off the wall and checked the chamber and the magazine: loaded. A gun that ain't loaded and cocked ain't good for nothin'.
I attached the scope to the rifle and then proceeded to lay it in the Charger's trunk.
Later, we were split up on three rooftops. It was around three in the morning and there was nobody in the streets below. I was on the shortest roof tops of the three, only about ten stories. Big Luke was on top of a fifteen story, abandoned office building across the street from mine. David was much further down the street, away from the condemned warehouse.
The target building was located on the opposite side of a T-intersection. Imagine the street we were above was the vertical section of the "T". The target building itself was at least seven stories tall. The top four of them being loft spaces.
"It's a trap, no doubt about it" I said through my radio.
"Yeah, they obviously don't realize that this isn't our first rodeo," replied Big Luke.
On the seventh floor of the warehouse, we could see through the window the target in a chair. His wrists were tied behind his back and there were dracaenae acting as guards around him. As I looked at the other floors of the building, I saw more monsters and a few PMC littered throughout the building. All in all, there were about eight or ten of them.
"OK, Smart One, what do you want to do? Do we go in low and slow or loud and proud?" asked David through his radio.
"I'm thinking low and slow on this one," I responded. "Hawkeye, stay put and provide overwatch. Red 5 and MacGyver will move in and get him out of there."
After Big Luke and I left our respective buildings, we stood on either side of the back garage door by the loading docks.
I looked at Big Luke through my GPNVG-18 night vision goggles over my eyes. We had finally had the chance to upgrade our night vision. These goggles had four tubes which widened our fields of view to about 100 degrees. I had to admit that we looked pretty bad ass.
Big Luke nodded and I pulled the door up with ease. Red-alert! They knew we were coming. I pulled the door open and Big Luke stepped inside first. The whole procedure was practically muscle-memory at this point.
We cruised through the first four floors of the building with no issue. We were especially thorough when clearing every nook and cranny of the place. We didn't want to leave any stone unturned.
The place was essentially two warehouse floors with a small offices in one corner of each floor. There were forklifts and old, expired boxes of product that I didn't bother to look too hard at. We cleared each floor without issue and moved on to the loft floors above.
These were more our speed. Clearing each individual room and meeting in one spot rather than clearing a big open area.
When we made it to the fifth floor, we came to a big wall that had a break on the right that went to the rest of the floor. We figured that this was where we were going to start having to shoot. The wall created a funnel which only aided the enemy.
We walked over to the break and hugged the wall with our left shoulders. This way, we could face the direction that David was. I was behind Big Luke as I peered around him. I pushed the stock of my 416 deep into my shoulder as Big Luke paused. No sense in rushing into an ambush, he would have said.
I turned up the volume on my headset so I could hear what was going on around me better. I should have only heard two people breathing, Big Luke and I. But I actually heard four sets of lungs working hard to silence their low whisper.
There were two unknown lifeforms on the other side of the wall.
Big Luke looked out the window to where David was probably located.
"Hawkeye to Red 5: There is one Laistrygonian giant standing right on the the other side of the wall. If you drew your 1911 and pied the corner, you could take him out before he could react. There is one merc facing away from the break in the wall. I can take him first before you go for the pie," we heard David say through our headsets.
Big Luke just nodded slightly. Then he slowly set down his M16 onto his one-point sling and pressed the button on his hard plastic holster. Ever so slowly, he pulled the weapon out and held it with two hands; muzzle down.
"Engaging now," said David's voice just before Big Luke sidestepped a bid arch around the corner and opened fire with his 1911. Two half-dollar sized holes appeared in the glass window right next to Big Luke's shoulder.
Big Luke reholstered his 1911 and picked up his M16. Then he waved for me to move up with him. I peeked around the corner to a pile of monster dust and one dead mercenary laying face down in a pool of his own blood. I had seen this kind of thing before so I was used to the sight of the blood, brain matter and skull fragments that were splattered all over the floor.
We stepped over the body and cleared the rest of the floor. Then we walked up the stairs to the next floor. Halfway up though, we heard a CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! As a grenade tumbled down the steps.
"Back the fuck up!" Big Luke yelled as he shoved me out of the stair well.
We just made it out before the grenade went off. BOOM! I ran my hands all over my chest to make sure that I was all still there. It was.
Big Luke moved towards the staircase with his rifle raised. He fished out a flashbang and then tossed it up the stairs. We saw the flash and heard the bang before we ran up. We opened fire on the mass of PMC and various monsters. David's rounds came crashing through the windows behind us.
This shit's too easy, I thought was we moved towards the staircase. They were literally throwing troops away; wasting human life by sacrificing these soldiers to draw us into a trap. It's even worse that it's all going to be for nothing.
We made it up to the final floor and dropped the two dracaenae that were standing right next to the top of the stairs waiting for us. The son of a bitch, son of Ares was sitting there bound to the chair at the end of the room.
Craig had short black hair and brown eyes. He was probably a little shorter and a little heavier then me. His arms were slightly defined but he still had a bit of a tummy on him. The Camp Half-Blood t-shirt he was wearing was kind of a slap in the face to us.
Big Luke lined up his sights on Craig's head but he didn't pull the trigger. I could tell that he wanted to but he stuck to his orders and dropped his aim.
"Oh, thank the gods. You came!" he said.
"Yeah, we're here. Now, let's get the fuck out," said Big Luke as he walked behind Craig and cut him loose with his Ka-Bar.
"Wait! We have to get my sister out of the holding cell in the basement," Craig said as he stood from the chair and rubbed at his red wrists.
"What sister?" I asked. "We never knew anything about a sister."
"I'll show you. But I need a gun," beckoned Craig as he held out his hand.
Big Luke and I exchanged looks. I could tell that he didn't like this one bit. Giving a gun to a kid that we knew was planning on turning on us. We had every right not to trust Craig, but there was something in his voice that told me he was telling the truth.
I could tell that Big Luke hated me for this, but I fished out my M9 that I kept on my hip and handed the loaded gun t the traitor.
"I believe him," I told Big Luke as our eyes never left each others in the little stare-down we were having.
We looked back at Craig who did a full weapons check. Ejecting the magazine and pulling the slide back. He put it all back together again like he had done it a thousand times.
"Have you ever held a gun before?" asked Big Luke.
"Not till now. Weapons are just a common knowledge among spawn of Ares," replied Craig, looking over my handgun.
"Um, did I just hear what I think I heard? Did we just give a loaded weapon to a known traitor?" I heard David say through my radio.
"Yeah. Stay frosty," I replied quietly.
"So, come on! Let's go get my sister!" cheered Craig as he lead us down the several flights of stairs to the basement.
"Great. Now he's leading you guys right into the basement where I can't shoot him," said David sarcastically.
"Then come on in," Big Luke replied. "Give him a lift, KATE."
We followed Craig down the steps. He moved with both hands on my gun, muzzle down. He peeked around corners as if he was one of us... which he wasn't at all.
"Man, you guys really cleaned house," he said as we made it to the ground level.
We heard a door open and close loudly. Craig turned around really fast and pointed my M9 at the noise. We were about thirty paces away at this point.
"Stand down. It's just David," said Big Luke.
David jogged up to us with his hands ready on his MP7 sub-machine gun. He must have left his M110 with KATE. Craig dropped his aim and started for the hatch in the corner to the basement. He pulled it open and led the way down the stairs. Big Luke insisted to follow Craig. His body took up most of the narrow shaft so if Craig tried to pull a fast one on us, Big Luke would end up taking the majority of the bullets.
That was Big Luke's fatal flaw: self-sacrifice. He was willing to give his life to protect the ones that he cared about.
"Craig!" said the voice of a little girl.
"Ruth!" responded Craig.
A small girl, probably eleven or twelve years old, who was locked in a steel cage. One very similar to what David and I both spent several hours in two summers ago. Just a big cube made out of steel pipe and bolted to the floor. This changes everything, I thought.
"Step back, Ruth. I'll get you out of there," I said as I fished out one of my magical leather work glove and switched it for my right kit glove.
"Whatever that does; it's not going to work. The cage is enchanted. You need the key," Craig informed us.
"Alright. You and me will go get it," said Big Luke.
I shot him a subtle look that said, Have you gone fucking insane?! But he didn't seem to notice or care really. David looked to share my worry but he didn't say anything either.
"Um, okay," replied Craig awkwardly. "I'll lead the way."
Craig started up the stairs and Big Luke followed. Craig still had his hands on my M9 but Big Luke's M16 just sat in the plastic "C" that was attached to the right side of his plate carrier.
"He's got a death wish," David mentioned under his breath.
"Maybe," I replied.
"So, what's your names?" asked Ruth.
David and I turned around to Ruth who was grabbing a hold on the bars. She had the same black straight hair that her brother had only hers went down to her lower back. She also had the same dark brown eyes. She too was wearing a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and jeans.
"I'm Brandon and this is David," I said.
"Oh," she replied. Then she paused for a second. "So, you guys aren't like the other campers. You guys some kind of Task Squad?"
BANG!... BANG BANG BANG! We heard gunshots from the floors above.
"Fuck it," I said, willing my glove to cool way down. I grabbed onto several of the bars and waited for the steel to freeze. When I gripped tighter, the bars crumpled like feta cheese. I did it to several of the bars so Ruth could squeeze her small frame through.
Then we raced up the stairs to see where the gunshots had come from... and who got shot. David led the way and I brought up the rear. We made our way through some large storage racks like you might see at a Costco. We were about to make our way into the center of the warehouse when David stopped to peak around the corner.
He quickly turned around and started to push Ruth and I back saying, "Get back. This is not something you should see."
I figured he was talking about Ruth so I pushed past him and looked around the same corner.
What I saw was not what I was expecting. Big Luke was standing over a lifeless Craig. Half of Craig's cranium had exploded. Blood and brains stained a cardboard box a few paces from Crag's body. My M9 was still in his loose one-handed grip.
Big Luke had his 1911 in hand and smoke was flowing out of the barrel, probably from the three rounds he fired. He didn't just shoot him on cold blood. Did he?
"This isn't good," I mumbled but Ruth overheard me.
"Why? What happened?" she pushed her way past David and ran out into the open.
Her jaw dropped when she saw her brother. Then she ran up and knelt down next to him. Her lower lip curled out as she broke down and started crying hysterically. She was trying to say something but it just came out as gibberish.
David and I ran up next to Big Luke who had knelt down on his right knee next to Craig's body. The expression on his face was not shock, not guilt or shame, but pitty.
"What happened?" Ruth managed to put together into comprehendable language. Rivers flowing from her eyes
"I didn't kill him," Big Luke responded. He took a deep breath. "We were making our way up to the next floor to get the key and a dracaenae with a scavenged AK popped out of nowhere and shot him. I drew my gun and sent her back to Tartarus before she could shoot me."
"Ooohhhhh," Ruth replied, going back to crying out in tragedy.
She had a little bit of a Jackie Kennedy moment when she scooped some of her brother's blood and tried to put it back in his skull.
She had seen enough. I walked around knelt down next to her.
"Ruth, we have to go and get you back to Camp Half-Blood," I said, lifting her up under her arms to her feet.
"We can't just leave him!" she yelled at me.
"We have no choice. We'll send someone back to retrieve him. I promise," I replied.
It was true. I mean, what were we going to do? Tie him to KATE's roof and pray that all the cops in New York had taken the night off? I didn't think so either.
Big Luke stood up and holstered his 1911. The look of pitty had changed to a expression of guilt. I didn't believe a single word of Big Luke's story. I didn't know if he killed Craig but he wasn't giving us the whole story, for sure.
David and I ushered Ruth out of the warehouse with Big Luke not too far behind. KATE was sitting outside the building next to the curb. KATE opened her passenger side door and I pulled it all the way open.
"Where is the target?" asked KATE through my headset.
"Later, KATE. Not now," I responded as I flipped the front seat forward so David and Ruth could sit in the back seat.
Big Luke stepped around and climbed into the driver seat, I claimed the shotgun seat. We drove back to camp to the quiet sobbing of Ruth and the rising sun.