Brandon
This was not fun at all. David and I had just spent most of the night walking through the Swiss backcountry to make it to the resort. Now we were standing on the ground waiting for Big Luke to drop his rope from the third floor. We had planned to bend the orders a little and go on the hunt for Percy during the night while Brittany was asleep. But there was one thing standing in our way, more like two things. How should I put this delicately? Shakespeare's metaphorical "beast with two backs" or Mrs. Humpdy Dumpdy and Mr. Fritolay? Fuck it. There was a couple having sex on the second floor in their Jacuzzi. Big Luke was waiting for us on the third floor but we couldn't sneak past the love birds without alerting them.
We sat there with our backs against the wall, our hands on our guns. My 416 and David had his MP7, I'm done using sex metaphors. We looked out into the trees as we waited for a rope to fall.
"You think they're actually doing the nasty up there?" asked David in a low voice.
"Oh, Baby! Yeah, right there!" squealed a female voice from above.
"Yep. It definitely sounds like fucking to me," I replied.
"Red 5 to Hawkeye and MacGyver: anyone out there?" asked Big Luke's voice through our headsets.
"MacGyver to Red 5: how's the vacation going?" I asked.
"Could be worse. You boys ready to start this thing? You're going to have to be damn near silent when you climb this rope," he explained. "I'm hoping that they are too distracted to pay you any mind."
"Copy that," we replied in unison.
David holstered his MP7 and moved towards the rope. I had a convertible sling with an extra mash hook to attach to the rifle. I pulled on the second hook and clipped it to the rail system. Then I pushed the rifle around so that it sat on my back, the nylon of the sling scraping across my plate carrier. We had taken off our ghillie suits for the time being. Then I followed David up the rope.
About three-quarters of the way up, we got a glimpse of Big Luke on the balcony above us. His expression change as he mouthed the words Stop! Stop! David stopped immediately and I nearly ran into him.
"Come on, Sugar. Let's take this inside," said the same female voice above us.
We listened as the couple got out the hot water and opened the sliding glass door into their room. When we heard the door slide shut again, we continued our climb. We made it to the top and hopped over the rail.
Big Luke was dressed quite differently than David and I. He wore some black cargo pants and a dark, navy-blue button-up shirt. On his feet were his regular eight-inch, black combat boots. He looked like a off-duty cop. With the exception for his spare chest-rig which housed a single ballistic plate and three rifle mags for his M16 which hung off his shoulders. On his head sat a black baseball cap with a night vision monocle clamped to the bill. He put his black gloved finger to the black bandana tied around his face, signaling us to be quiet.
"Brittany is still sleeping," he informed us in a low whisper. "I don't want her to know that we are bending the rules here."
We had relatively strict orders from Chiron not to snoop around the compound, but Percy wasn't going to be found otherwise. David and I nodded in response.
"Alright." Big Luke picked up a pair of black framed sunglasses, but the lenses were crystal clear. The lenses auto-adjust to to the amount of light. "Let's find this guy and get him home."
We followed Big Luke over to the open sliding door and through the suite, passing Brittany who was sound asleep on the left side of the bed. Before we stepped out of the room, Big Luke quietly picked up the keys from the end table and dropped them in his admin pouch. He would need them later to get back in the suite. David and I also tied black bandanas around the lower parts of our faces to help hide our identities.
I was a little jealous of Big Luke. He got to spend this whole operation staying in a nice, warm ski resort where we were living off MRE's and staying in tents. Not to mention he got to spend it with a six-foot blond that was practically throwing herself at him.
But then I got to thinking about where he was. We were as far away from the enemy as we could get, Big Luke was literally inside their front door. Constantly looking over his shoulder. If either of them slipped up, even the slightest in their cover, it could get them killed. Big Luke understood this. Brittany was mostly here for the vacation, she didn't fully fathom the gravity of the situation. That only meant that Big Luke had to keep and extra eye out to protect her.
I mindlessly followed my teammates out of the suite as these thoughts raced through my mind. David was right in front of me with Big Luke right in front of him as we hugged the hallway wall. The whole place was lit up like a Christmas tree, no need for night vision in there. I was only ripped from my mental rant when all of a sudden, Big Luke held up his fist and turned around. He looked right at me.
"You doing alright?" he whispered.
I could only imagine what my expression looked like. Probably eyebrows suddenly raised, distant eyes become focused with alert, neutral expression on my mouth that changes none under the rag. The look that someone has just after being pulled back to reality from a daydream or spacing out.
I answered Big Luke's question with a silent nod. He sighed like he knew something that I didn't and turned around.
I reengaged my brain as we crept down the hallway. The plan was to look and see if we could find where they are hiding Percy. I gripped at my 416, making sure that it was still there.
We heard a door at the end of the hallway open. All three of us pointed our muzzles at the noise. I stepped away from the wall so my team was out of my line of fire. The man standing there was wearing a pair of boxers with what looked like pork chops printed on them. He had a towel over his shoulders. He looked to be in his thirties.
"Go back for seconds, Porky," Big Luke ordered the guy at gunpoint. "This don't concern you."
The guy didn't object. He pivoted on his foot and walked back into the room, closing the door behind him. We moved passed the door as quickly and quietly as possible.
We tore the whole resort apart, looking for any sign of PJ. We eventually found our way to the first floor which was completely empty. No lights, no desk attendant. David and I cleared the two rooms behind the front desk. Big Luke searched the desk itself for any clues.
I walked into the room to the left from the desk. There wasn't a whole lot, just a bunch of cheep, metal lockers. Several of which were perforated with many crescent shaped holes for ventilation, I assume. Others had solid doors and were hanging wide open. These lockers were long enough to hang a sports coat, or stand a rifle in.
"Hey, guys? You should come look at this," David called from the room to the right.
I left the room I was in and walked over to see what David wanted us to see.
"You go ahead. I'll catch up," Big Luke said as I passed him.
I stepped into the room and found David standing in front of a bunch of monitors and TV screens. Most of the screens showed empty hallways at crooked angles. The first screen that caught my eye was a freeze frame on the three of us moving down one of the hallways. The second that caught my attention was a live screen shot of several guys in all black with handguns moving in on the third floor. It looked like they were heading towards Big Luke and Brittany's suite.
"We need to leave. Now," I stated in a low voice.
"Hold on," David retorted, looking at a different screen. One of the main lobby where Big Luke was standing behind the front desk... at gunpoint.
"Shit," I responded.
There were six guys with German G3 assault rifles pointed at Big Luke's face. The camera hit the scene at a skewed angle where we could see Big Luke's front and left side. His rifle hung out of reach at his right.
"So, American, eh?" asked one of the guys with a G3 pointed at my friend. "What are you? DEA? DoD? CIA?"
"Department of GFY," responded Big Luke.
We listened through the open door to the conversation. We could watch what was happening on the live feed on the monitor.
"What department is that?" asked the same guy.
"Stands for department of Go Fuck Yourself," replied Big Luke with a lopsided grin on his face.
"Oh, we got a feisty one, boys. Just like your wife, she was feisty too before I stuck my dick down her throat." that changed Big Luke's attitude.
"Oh, you better be fuckin' kidding me or may God help you," replied Big Luke in that level, serious tone of voice that has been known to scare the piss out of anybody who tried to challenge him.
"Ha ha ha!" the man chuckled. "She is safe for now, but we do have her in custody. And now we have you, too. Drop your weapons on the ground and put your hands on the top of your head. Otherwise, I radio to my buddies up stairs to put a bullet in your girl's pretty, blond head."
"You lay a hand on her and I'll shove my gun barrel down your throat and watch you shit bullets." reluctantly, Big Luke slowly unslung his M16 and unholstered his 1911. He put them on the ground and kicked them to the side. He wasn't happy about any of it. He kept his hands at his sides.
"Whoa, Oh! You think your going to test me? See how much of your shit I can put up with?" asked the ringleader of the six guys in front of Big Luke. He was almost laughing at Big Luke. "Well, I can assure you that I won't put up with a lot. Donner?" we saw him push a button on his radio. "Show the hostage what the barrel of a Glock looks like, then pull the-,"
"Wait!" called Big Luke, not meeting the ringleader's eyes and putting his hands on top of his head. "Don't hurt her. She's innocent. All she wanted was a vacation."
"Well, she's getting the vacation of a life time." one of the other guys walked around the front desk and flexcuffed the captured Marine behind his back and led him around the table to face the ringleader.
"Where are your teammates? We know you have two more," the ringleader asked Big Luke.
"I ordered them to get lost." Big Luke was giving us an order. He wanted us gone. If we got caught here, there would be no rescue.
"Where did you tell them to go?"
"I didn't tell them to go anywhere in particular, just to get away from here."
"That's our Que," I whispered.
The ringleader turned to his buddies and spoke in a calm voice. "Find them. Kill them on sight."
"Fuckin' hide," suggested David.
"Good plan," I replied.
We watched for another three seconds as the group of six divided into three pairs, two of which walking to look for us throughout the other floors, the ringleader and his right hand man escorting Big Luke to another part of the resort, and the last two started to make their way toward the surveillance room that we were in.
David decided to hide behind a filing cabinet because he was short enough to do so. I settled to hide behind the door. We were going to have to jump these guys without firing a single shot... without our human tank to help us.