McDonald Array - Divide and Conquer

“Jane!” he shouted, throwing the report onto the coffee table. “Get me the fastest ride you can between here and Laredo. I’m heading to the airport.”

“But the Select Committee hearing?” she protested having worked on it for weeks. But he was already out the door and halfway to the elevator.

As she moved towards the phone, it rang. Despite having supposedly not heard Jane shouting down the corridor to him. Vincent turned and ran back as Jane answered the call.

“I’m sorry, I can’t understand you. Just calm down,” said Jane, flustered by the call and obviously listening as hard as possible. As Vincent heard what was being said, his heart began to race.

“Katie, please, I can’t hear what you’re saying,” repeated Jane, sounding as concerned as Vincent had ever heard her. Vincent wanted to grab the phone from Jane but stopped himself.

“Did you just say they’re all dead?” asked Jane, her voice breaking.

Vincent’s heart pounded harder as his stomach lurched into his mouth. Jane nodded her head to Vincent, a pain shot through his left arm and a sweat instantly covered his body.

“Oh my God, was that an explosion?” were the words that sent Vincent crashing to the floor.

The look of horror on Katie’s face was the first sign for Sean that anything was wrong. He had turned from the Team Leader and as he faced Katie, her face contorted. Sean reacted instantly, diving and body tackling Katie through the open front door. A barrage of bullets thudded silently into the doorframe as Sean, pulling Katie tighter and tighter towards him, rolled over and over down the hallway, away from the immediate danger.

“Do you know how many there are?” he asked as he rushed her towards the basement door.

Katie shook her head violently. “I only went to pick up the newspaper and noticed a man hiding by the side of the house. I screamed and the next thing there were three!” Her voice trembled throughout as she struggled to control her fear and the shock of what she had just witnessed. Sean grabbed the phone from the hall table as he pushed her into the basement, he dialed the only number at Langley he knew off by heart, Vincent’s office number. He hit the dial button, gave Katie the phone and shut the basement door in her face, with clear instructions to lock it and only open it to him.

With Katie as safe as he could make her, he could concentrate on the remaining Russians. His major problem was he had no idea how many there were. The why would have to wait. He checked the Gyurza’s magazine, still 16 rounds left. As he realized Katie had seen what had become of the CIA team and he should have asked her, the Russian voices at the doorway gave him the answer. He checked the basement door was shut and fired two bullets into the doorway. If nothing else it would stall the ones at the front door.

Sean considered a number of options, making a break out the back of the house and circling round but there could be many more out there. Luis had seen six earlier. It would also leave Katie at the mercy of the guys from the front if they kicked in the basement door. Of course, charging the front meant again leaving Katie exposed to those who may come in from the rear. The one thing that seemed to be a common factor was that he wasn’t going to take the risk of leaving Katie. Which left one option, stand and fight. From the voices, he at least had one piece of information. There were at least two Russians left or one that talked to himself with different voices. Unlikely.

Sean rolled across the hallway floor and took up position in the living room which gave a slightly better angle to the doorway and protected him from the rear windows. It also offered him one of the most wonderful sights he had ever seen. One of Luis’ men’s AK47s lay propped against the wall of the living room. Sean reached over and grabbed the assault rifle, a little more firepower was never a bad thing in a tight situation.

He heard the first footsteps enter the hallway from the front door. He spun towards the doorway of the living room and prepared to enter the hallway selecting full auto on the AK47. Hopefully, one long blast would kill everybody in the enclosed space. Before he made it to the doorway, the back door crashed open and his position became completely exposed. He had no option but to change tactic and dive back into the living room as a hail of bullets raked the doorway. As the first of three flashbangs were tossed into the room all Sean could think, as he waited for the blinding flash of light and shockwave of sound that would disorientate and blind anyone within its range, was who the fuck was he up against?

Their maneuver had been timed to perfection and superbly done, entering a split second earlier from the front door had drawn Sean out and exposed him to the team from the rear. They were among the best Sean had seen and certainly had orchestrated the move quickly and effectively and with little time to plan. They knew what they were doing. The flashbangs also suggested that either they wanted Sean alive or evidence that it was definitely him that was dead. Otherwise, it would most certainly have been fragment grenades that had been thrown into the living room. Although Sean was under no illusion, he was aware of his ability to turn thoughts into actions almost instinctively. On tests of clicking the button when you see the item appear, he scored almost instantaneous times. Had his reaction times not been off the charts, they’d have already killed him twice over. They wanted him dead and they wanted proof.

Sean had practiced for years in kill rooms. As much as you prepared for a flash bang, without the correct equipment, you were going to feel the effects. He dropped the AK, placed his thumbs in his eardrums and covered his eyes with his fingers.

The bangs exploded milliseconds apart, one he could have coped with having experienced it so often before but three was overkill. Or exactly the amount you would use for somebody that had experience of flashbangs. These guys were exceptional.

Sean grabbed the Gyurza pistol, the AK47 was too cumbersome in the living room. He made out the image of the first Russian into the room, his weapon up sweeping the far side of the room. Sean tried to raise the pistol and aim at the mass but his balance had gone. The second Russian entered immediately behind his colleague, his weapon swept towards Sean. Sean’s mind screamed for his hand to move up and to the right but his body wasn’t really sure where right was. He pulled the trigger anyway. The gun went off and the Russian spun around. He had hit him. Sean’s gun wasn’t even aimed at the Russian. It didn’t make any sense. Sean watched as the Russian spun but didn’t fall, his weapon tracked back out the door. Somebody had come in behind them. Sean in his present state was not as pressing a threat. Sean screamed at his body to control its actions and for his mind to take control. They figured Sean would be out of it for a few seconds. A few seconds on a room breach was like a few minutes any other time.

Luis had pulled himself from the floor and rushed to the door of the empty house just in time to see the CIA Team Leader’s head explode next to Sean. A fraction of a second later, three more CIA team members were down. Not one shot had rung out. They hadn’t stood a chance nor did the fifth and final team member. He stood up, caught in the middle of the driveway, desperately trying to see where the threat had come from. His body rocked one way then the other as two bullets landed one from either side a fraction of a second apart. Luis tried desperately to see what had happened to Sean and Katie but they were nowhere to be seen. They must have made it into the house he thought.

As Luis watched, two pairs of men appeared from either side of the house and congregated at the door. The four carried rifles with thick barrels which Luis assumed must be some type of silenced sniper rifle. Luis watched as they huddled and conversed while they swept their weapons covering every angle. Twice he moved away from the tiny crack in the door that he was watching them from, despite the fact he knew they couldn’t possibly see him from that far away. A few nods suggested they were doing something, two split off and went back around the rear of the house.