Matthew Dunn - Sentinel

Roger spoke again, his voice quiet and tense. “You still have time to change your mind.”

“I know, but we’re going through with this.”

Roger made a sound like a sigh. “This is fucking crazy.”

Will glanced over his shoulder. He couldn’t see Laith but knew the man was secreted in the parkland by the road. “Laith, all set?”

“Damn right.” The former Delta Force operative sounded totally focused.

“Good.” Will looked back toward the river. “Remember. Keep everyone alive.”

“We know.” Roger went quiet for a few seconds before saying, “Hold. The embassy’s gates are opening.”

Will narrowed his eyes, waiting for Roger to speak again.

“Two BMW saloon cars and one SUV exiting.” Roger’s words were barely audible.

Will held his breath.

“It’s not our target. It’s the ambassador and his bodyguards.”

Will cursed and checked his watch again.

“The gates are closing.” Roger’s slow breathing was heavy; his voice sounded frustrated. “I’ve been watching this place all day. I saw him go in and haven’t seen him leave. He has to still be here.”

“Be patient. I’m sure he’s still in the embassy.” But Will examined every car that drove past him in case the target had used another concealed exit from the embassy to get to the road to access his home on Bolotnaya Ploshchad’. One vehicle passed close to him and threw up a wave of icy slush off the road and onto his body. Will brushed the slush from his legs and jacket while watching the car’s driver. The man looked old and waved a hand apologetically. Will looked in the approximate direction of Roger, focusing solely on his earpiece.

It was a further ten minutes before Roger spoke. “A silver Audi’s just pulled up on Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya, a hundred feet from the embassy gates. Two men are inside.”

Will grabbed his throat mic. “FSB?”

“For sure.” Roger went quiet for a while. “They’re just waiting.”

“Assessment?”

“They look routine. The same tail that was on our target yesterday.”

“Okay.” A gust of wind blew snow along the road from the river. Will momentarily shut his eyes as the stuff struck his face. When he opened them, he saw an army truck passing right by him. He held his breath as he casually watched the half-open rear of the truck and the many soldiers inside disappear down the road. For the briefest of moments he wondered if his intentions were too much, too risky, if he should abort this mission. But he knew that his only hope of rescuing Sentinel lay in doing something that few would dare attempt in the epicenter of Moscow.

“Gates are opening again.”

Will froze.

“Nothing yet. Hold.” Roger went silent for several seconds. “Okay, now I’ve got engine noises, I’ve got… I’ve got headlamps.” Three seconds passed. “Two vehicles. Both Range Rovers. Car in front has two men-definitely the protection detail. Car behind has one driver and no passengers. Driver is… yes, driver is target. Repeat, driver in vehicle two is target!”

Will shouted, “Move, Roger!”

“Like I needed to be told!” Roger’s voice was nearly breathless. The man was running at full sprint to the team’s parked vehicle on a side road between the river-straddling Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya and the road that Will and Laith were on. It was the same side road that their target and his bodyguards would be turning onto in seconds. “I’m at our vehicle. Fuck. Okay. Don’t think they spotted me.”

Roger had covered three hundred feet of snow-covered ground between his observation point and the vehicle in twelve seconds.

“I’m mobile, a hundred feet behind the protection detail, our target, and the FSB men who’re tailing them. I can see brake lights. The convoy’s turning onto Ulitsa Noviy Arbat. You should see them.”

Will did see them. He took quick sidesteps into the park so that he was hidden in undergrowth, but the two Range Rovers were still easily visible in the medium traffic on the road. As was the Audi containing the two FSB men, who would certainly be armed but whose job was to merely follow their target, make themselves visible to him, and thereby silently tell him that if he did anything silly in their country they would punish him.

Will crouched low. “Laith?”

“Yeah, I’ve got them.” The American’s words were slow and precise.

Roger’s vehicle emerged onto the road, four vehicles behind the convoy. Roger said, “Okay, stand by.” He went silent. When he spoke again, his tone of voice was one of absolute command. “Stand by. Stand by. Stand by. Okay”-more silence-“let’s go!”

Will sprinted out of cover, pointing his handgun at the Range Rover containing the two bodyguards. At the same time, he heard Laith’s AMR-2 sniper rifle fire two rounds into the SUV’s engine block, causing the vehicle to skid, then stop suddenly. In his peripheral vision, he saw Roger drive his vehicle around four civilian cars, then ram his vehicle into the rear of the FSB Audi, pushing it into the back of the Range Rover containing the target. All vehicles in the convoy were now stationary and trapped between Roger’s car and the immobilized Range Rover.

The two guards wasted no time, jumping out of their vehicle with pistols in their hands. Will sprinted to them even faster, and when he’d nearly reached their vehicle, he twisted, dived, and rolled on the road as one of the men raised his gun and sent a shot toward him. Then he sprang to his feet so that he was directly in front of the man. The bodyguard tried to sweep a leg against Will’s ankles to upset Will’s balance, which would cause him to stagger back and give the man sufficient distance to lift his gun again and shoot Will. But Will anticipated the movement, took one step back as the man’s leg swept through nothing but air, stepped forward again, and punched him in the chest with sufficient force to slam him back against the SUV. He took another step forward, jabbed two fingers into the man’s eyes, and brought the butt of his handgun down hard onto his shoulder blade. The man collapsed unconscious to the ground, and as he did so, Will ducked low. He was glad he did. A bullet from the other guard on the far side of the Range Rover raced through the air where he’d just been standing.

Laith shouted, “Drop your weapon and get on the ground!” Will glanced right and saw the SOG officer standing in the center of the road, only thirty feet away, with his rifle held at eye level and pointed at the second bodyguard. “Flat, facedown, hands clasped together and arms pointing at the sky. Fucking do it, or I’ll put a bullet in your skull!”

Will glanced left. Roger was on foot by the Audi. One of the FSB men was motionless by his feet. But the second Russian was moving quickly around the other side of the vehicle, a pistol gripped in both his hands. Will called out, “Laith?”

“Yeah, you’re clear. I’ve got this man covered.”

Will sprang to his feet and jumped onto the hood of the second Range Rover, ignoring the target, who was still in the vehicle. He ran over its roof, jumped onto the Audi, and dived right over it toward the FSB man, who was now at the rear of the car and had leveled his gun at Roger. Crashing midair into the man, Will wrapped his arms around the Russian’s upper body and limbs, pinning his arms tight against his sides before they hit the ground. He kept squeezing him tight. Roger appeared before them, nodded at Will, then smashed a fist into the Russian’s head. His head slumped to one side. But he was alive.

Will rolled away from the man just as he saw the target in the second Range Rover try to drive his vehicle out of the area. His Range Rover drove into the stationary SUV in front of it, moving it a couple of feet. He reversed into the Audi but was unable to move that car, as it was held firm by Roger’s vehicle. Driving forward again, he pushed the protection detail’s Range Rover a further few feet. He now had enough room to make a tight turn out of the stationary convoy and speed away from the trap. Will pushed himself up and sprinted toward the car as he saw it move back one last time and point its front tires right so that it would be ready to escape. He heard the vehicle’s gears change and the accelerator being depressed. He ran as fast as he was able and reached the driver’s door just as the car started to move forward. Smashing the window, he grabbed the driver’s throat, stayed firmly in position as the car swerved right and away from the other SUV blocking it, lurched toward the ignition, and turned off the engine. The vehicle slowed, then stopped.