Robert Ferrigno - Sins of the Assassin

“TIME TO CALL IT A NIGHT, COLONEL. YOU AND YOUR MEN WILL BE WELL TREATED, I PROMISE. CROSS MY HEART.” Crews couldn’t keep from laughing.

Rakkim reloaded, feeling the heat on his face from the fires that burned around them. Gunfire cracked steadily into the heavy-equipment vehicles, trying to find the right spot. The Colonel finished giving orders over his ear link, told Baby he loved her. His mouth moved silently in prayer.

“COLONEL, LAST CHANCE TO GIVE IT UP BEFORE-”

The End-Timers charged from the forest, guns blazing, spraying everything in front of them, not even trying to aim. The front row were hit multiple times by the Colonel’s men, but they kept coming, crawling forward, and there were so many more…Crews must have brought his whole army. Rakkim took them down, one shot, one kill, slapped in another magazine. The rest of the Colonel’s troops held their ground, firing steadily, making the shots count. The Colonel took shelter behind the tread of the bulldozer, firing with both hands, unhurried and unafraid, a strange smile on his face.

The men the Colonel had positioned in the drainage ditch opened up, caught the End-Timers in a cross fire, and this time they went down screaming, faces contorted in the glare from the burning trucks.

“Damn!” The Colonel rolled over, his right hand bleeding, shot clean through.

More troops arrived from the rear, called in by the Colonel. They dug in along the overturned vehicles and returned fire.

The Colonel got down beside the wounded corporal, wincing as he held the boy’s hand, blood running down his fingers. “Take it easy, you’re going to be just fine.”

“THOSE PIECES OF SILVER BELONG TO THE MAN WHO KNOWS HOW TO USE THEM, COLONEL.”

“What’s he talking about?” the Colonel asked Rakkim.

“I’m scared, sir.” Every time the corporal took a breath the pressure bandage rippled.

“That’s okay, I am too.” The Colonel beamed. “You know the Twenty-third Psalm, don’t you?”

The corporal nodded.

“‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,’” recited the Colonel. “Come on, son, say it with me. ‘He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.’ That’s it,” he said as the corporal moved his lips. “‘He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name’s sake.’”

A group of End-Timers slipped through the cross fire, opened up on the bulldozer, bullets clanging against the heavy metal. Rakkim shot all four of them. Three fell but the fourth staggered forward, fire reflected in his eyes as he leveled his shotgun at the Colonel. Rakkim shot him in the head, and he fell face-first in the dirt.

The Colonel looked over at Rakkim, nodded in gratitude. “‘Yea, though I walk through the valley…’ Come on, son, don’t leave me now, I need you here, come on…‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…’ Son?” His hand shook as he reached over and closed the corporal’s eyes.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” said Rakkim.

“What have you got to be sorry about?”

Rakkim started to answer, turned back to the battle. He heard bugles in the distance. The fires burned higher now, illuminating the whole line. He spotted Crews at the edge of the trees, a wraith in black, watching him. Bullets slammed into the bulldozer inches from Rakkim’s head as he fired-Crews was lucky, or touched by God; the bullet merely sliced open his cheek.

Crews howled, stepped back into the woods. “YOU LIED TO ME, RIKKI.”

“Rikki, what…?” The Colonel held the pistol in both hands, dropped it. “I can’t keep you straight in my mind,” he said, trying to pick the gun up, his fingers slippery with blood. “One minute you’re a Fedayeen traitor, the next you’re a Russian patriot…now…now I don’t know what to think.”

Rakkim gently took the pistol away from him.

The bugle calls were louder, coming from the south and north too, the perimeter under attack from all sides. More gunfire, heavy machine guns, cheers and charges.

“BACK, BACK, BACK, YOU DUMB BASTARDS.”

The End-Timers raced back into the woods. The only sound left was the crackling of the fires, and the wind whipping the flames higher.

“ROAST IN HELL, RIKKI.”

“Who are you, Rikki?” whispered the Colonel.

Rakkim didn’t have an answer.

Eagle Two, this is Woodpecker Five, we’re good to go here, said Gravenholtz.

The Colonel looked confused. “What’s Lester doing calling Royce?”

Alpha Company reporting for duty, Tiger Six. Cheers over the com link.

“Zebra Five?” The Colonel stood up. “How did you get here so fast?”

Locals ferried us across the river in every boat, barge, and skiff they had. We didn’t even have to ask them. We’re here, Tiger Six, and we’ve got them on the run.

The helicopter lifted off with a rush, flew low over the camp, hovered quietly overhead.

“Good job, Eagle Two,” the Colonel said to Royce. “Light up the woods. Just be careful you don’t hit Alpha Company.”

The chopper banked gently, then zoomed back across the camp. Rakkim watched, saw where it was headed.

“Eagle Two! Where are you going?” the Colonel shouted into his throat mike. “Eagle Two! Get back here.”

That’s a hearty fuck you, Tiger Six, said Royce.

Rakkim was already gone, racing full out toward the Colonel’s house.

Eight of Gravenholtz’s raiders ringed the Colonel’s dimly lit house, lean, capable men with cigarettes bobbing in their mouths and rifles at the ready. The same hard core that had attacked the Tigards’ farmhouse. The chopper idled nearby, whisper quiet, blades slowly turning, landing struts grazing the ground. Red and yellow landing lights spun erratically from the sides of the chopper, the colors sliding back and forth across the raiders as they waited. It reminded Rakkim of the dance floor of the Blue Moon back home, dancers swaying under the kaleidoscope. No music here, though, just the sound of distant gunfire and shouted commands as the Colonel’s men continued to force back Crews’s End-Times Army.

Rakkim approached obliquely, unhurried, keeping to the shadows. To anyone watching, the house never seemed to be his destination, yet he kept getting closer and closer. The raiders kept glancing at the helicopter, eager to escape. Regular troops occasionally raced past the house on the way to the front, looked over, and were waved on by the raiders. Rakkim never drew attention.

He spotted two uniformed bodies stuffed under the front porch, Baby’s guards, who hadn’t yielded their posts, or perhaps had been suspicious of the raiders’ suddenly taking over. He wondered what the inside of the house looked like, if Moseby and Leo were piled in a corner or stuffed in the crawl space. Baby would be fine for now-Gravenholtz would keep her as insurance, in case the Colonel was tempted to mount a full-scale assault. It was obvious what had happened. The Colonel trusted Gravenholtz too much. The redhead knew about the black-ice weapon. Knew what it was worth. The Colonel had forgotten that for a good Christian to survive in this world, he needed to be able to think like a devil.

Woodpecker Five! What’s going on at my house? said the Colonel.

Just taking care of business, drawled Gravenholtz.

I want Eagle Two put under arrest for insubordination and failure to obey, said the Colonel.

Rakkim heard laughter as Gravenholtz broke off his com link.

A team of soldiers approached the house, serious fuckers too, the Colonel’s best, full-auto and fresh from the line, faces dirty, body armor scored with numerous hits. The lieutenant told the raiders to stand down and surrender their weapons, now, said the Colonel had ordered him to take control of the house and the chopper and the raiders too. The lieutenant’s men squinted in the flashing lights from the chopper, looked like they just wanted Gravenholtz’s team to give them an excuse to let loose.