Mel Odom - Apocalypse unleashed

“If it had been a dud, it wouldn’t have blown up,” Weaver said. “Must have had a fuel problem. Something. Fell way short of the target.”

“No joke,” Owens growled.

“Heinrich, Weaver, Kosheib,” Allen said. “Set up a loose perimeter. Could be the Syrians saw us and may have someone along soon.”

“Roger that.” Heinrich swept the hair from his eyes and set off at once. The other two joined him in setting up a three-post guard, fanning out from the wreck site fifty yards away.

When he checked the rear of the Land Rover, Allen found Purvis disoriented and McElroy just regaining consciousness. With Owens’s help, he helped both of them from the wreck. Newton was a different story. He was semiconscious and in pain. But his right leg was broken in three places.

“Can you walk?” Allen asked.

Fear tightened Newton’s eyes. He was young and desperate. The United States had a murder charge waiting on him if he returned there.

“Sure,” Newton answered. “I can walk.”

Without a word, Allen stood by and waited.

Newton forced his way out of the Land Rover and stood on his good leg. Allen shoved a hand into the man’s chest, catching him off guard. Newton tried to remain standing, but his broken leg buckled and he went down with a scream of pain. He pulled himself back up, clawing at the Land Rover like an animal.

“No! Allen, please don’t!”

Allen already had his pistol in his fist. He held it only a few inches from Newton’s face and pulled the trigger three times. The dead man’s blood spattered Allen’s fist. He wiped his weapon clean on Newton’s shirt.

Allen’s sat-phone rang. Only three people had the number. He answered.

“You missed your target,” Alexander Cody said.

“Do you know that for a fact?”

“I’m looking at video footage of Icarus and two other men falling from the helicopter at the same time the SCUD landed near you.”

Allen turned and looked north. The woods were thick and filled with brush. He suspected there was an underground spring or watershed concealed somewhere within the forest.

“Your fee isn’t going to be paid until you can guarantee the kill,” Cody said.

“Understood,” Allen said. “Are you sure the target is alive?”

“I’m sure I don’t know that he’s dead. It’s your job to get me proof.”

“I will.” Allen closed the phone, looked at his men, and explained the situation.

“More than likely,” Owens said, “all we have to do is find their bodies.”

“Then that’s what we’re going to do.”

Owens glanced back to the south. The loud noise of the Syrian advancement filled the forest around them. “This is gonna be a bad place to get caught by those Syrian soldiers.”

“Let’s plan on not getting caught,” Allen suggested.

Owens still didn’t look happy.

“If you want to hump out on your own,” Allen said, “I’ll understand. I don’t mind finding a dead guy and splitting the bounty six ways.”

Owens cursed. “I’m in.”

Allen called the others in, then explained the situation to Weaver, Kosheib, and Heinrich. They didn’t look happy either.

“I do not like this,” Kosheib said.

“Neither do I,” Allen admitted. “But that missile didn’t take us off the board-”

“Not all of us,” Heinrich said, looking down at Newton.

“-so I figure we’ve got enough luck to get paid for this.” Allen paused. “And no matter how you look at it, we’re going to have to go north in order to keep from encountering the Syrians.”

“The target may still be alive,” Heinrich pointed out.

“Then he’s not going to be that way for long.” Allen slung his rifle over his shoulder, grabbed extra canteens from the Land Rover, and set off into the brush.

Grumbling and cursing, his pack of wolves trailed at his heels.

Outside Harran

Sanliurfa Province, Turkey

Local Time 0829 Hours

Goose lowered his weapon but didn’t put it away. “What kind of trouble?”

“The guys who shot us down are going to come looking for us,” Icarus said. “I know some of them. Their leader, for one. His name is Marcus Allen. They’re all stone killers.”

Reflecting on the explosion outside the helicopter, Goose knew the attack had come from the ground. There’d been no Syrian aircraft around, and they’d been far enough ahead of the enemy ground troops that he hadn’t believed they’d accounted for the attack.

“How far back are they?” Goose asked.

“Six, seven hundred yards.”

“You saw them?”

“Yes.”

“And they’re hunting us?”

“If they aren’t yet, they will be soon.”

“What kind of vehicles do they have?”

“Both their vehicles are disabled. They’re on foot.”

Goose nodded. “Gives us a chance. How do you know them?”

“They work for Alexander Cody. And for Nicolae Carpathia.”

“Where did you get that information?” Goose wasn’t happy with how little he knew about the situation they were all in.

Icarus shook his head. “We don’t have time for a question and answer session. If they catch us, we’re dead.”

“If the Syrian army catches us, we’re dead.” Goose gazed back to the south. “We don’t have anything but trouble all the way around us.”

Icarus glanced at Miller. “How’s he?”

“Just knocked out. I was about to wake him when you came up on me.”

“We need to get him up and moving.” Icarus shifted his arm and grimaced.

“How’s the wing?” Goose asked.

“Broken elbow.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah. I’ve had a broken elbow before.”

“We’re all lucky we didn’t get real busted up coming down through those trees.”

Icarus grimaced. “Not lucky enough.”

“How many men back there?”

“Seven.”

“They’re all the same as this Allen you mentioned?”

Icarus nodded.

“What kind of training have they had?”

“Allen and some of the others were in military and spy organizations.”

Tension washed over Goose. It was a long way to Sanliurfa. “You got anything for pain?”

Icarus shook his head.

Goose rummaged in his medical pack. “I got some stuff in here that should dull it.” He took pain pills from the kit and passed them to Icarus. Goose took a couple himself to ease the throbbing in his knee. He also followed up with some anti-inflammatories to help with the swelling. His knee already felt incredibly tight.

He broke an ammonia capsule beneath Miller’s nose and got him up.

Local Time 0839 Hours

Goose chose a course that would keep them within the trees. To the right, out in the massive open area, the Syrian armor rumbled past. As he limped through the trees, Goose watched the tanks, APCs, and field artillery roll along amid dust clouds. He felt guilty that he wasn’t going to be at Sanliurfa when the Rangers there needed him most.

“Goose,” Miller said, looking anguished, “it’s my fault we’re down here. I should have been holding on better. If I had been, maybe I wouldn’t have knocked us all off the helicopter.”

“If the guy who fired the rocket launcher at us had shot a little straighter,” Goose said, “none of us would be here right now. You can’t fault yourself, sir. This thing-it just turned out the way it did. Can’t go back and change it now. Our job at this point is to get back to our unit as soon as we can and hope they’re still holding their own.”

Miller nodded and kept trudging along.

None of them could forget the men who combed the forest behind them.

Local Time 1017 Hours

Goose called for a breather while they were on the side of a hill. They took cover between rocks and a copse of trees. Overhead, the sky had turned dark with the threat of a sudden storm. The wind had picked up, and the air had cooled slightly. Goose hoped the rain came soon and that it wasn’t just a false promise as it sometimes was in Turkey. If it rained, it might slow the Syrian assault on Sanliurfa.