State Of Honour

Tom felt the urge to go to his aid. But the secretary was in front of him, and his first duty was to her. Besides, it was a rule that one attack tended to be followed by another, and there was no counter-ambush team on hand. He spoke briefly into his mic, part of the restricted radio network linked to the temporary command centre. Two agents dashed to Sam’s aid, quickly followed by a dozen or more policemen who’d taken the initiative.

As he drew the secretary behind his back the woman with the flowers rushed forward and flung them into his face from the side. He parried most of them away with his free hand, but a thorn scratched his forehead, drawing blood. Half squinting, he glimpsed a muscular guy push through the crowd. The man threw a straight right, baring his teeth like a primate. Tom just managed to block the full force with his forearm, the fist grazing over his temple.

Before he had a chance to follow it up, Tom leant forward and ploughed his elbow into the man’s cheek. It wasn’t hard enough to fracture the bone, but he needed to disable him fast. As the man’s head jerked sideways Tom applied an arm lock, slid his right leg behind the front ankle, and struck him just under the throat with his palm, his fingers and thumb split in a V-shape. The man had no option but to fall over Tom’s extended thigh.

As fellow agents took hold of the secretary and bundled her away, Tom decided to keep the lock on. He grasped the man’s shirt, and lowered the body to the asphalt. Experiencing a hit of hormones, he heard gasps and half-muffled cursing, sensed the crowd moving back. The attackers had targeted him, not the secretary, and that had almost caught him off guard.

“Stay down!” he snarled.

Although the man was barely conscious, Tom didn’t have the time or inclination to deal with him again, and he wasn’t carrying cuffs. But the agent shadowing the secretary burst through the line-up, and grabbed the guy in a headlock.

Straightening up, Tom caught sight of the female slinking away, although people were pointing at her and calling out. Before he could get the police to arrest her, the agitated words of agents flooded his earpiece. The secretary, he thought, grimacing. He pivoted around. Two of his team, Dave Robbins and Becky Sykes, were jogging with her, Becky holding her elbow, Dave shielding her lithe but awkward frame. She was wobbling on her high heels, and Tom barked into his radio, told them to remove the damn things or lift her.

Seeing that the MSD team had alighted from the SUVs parked on the dusty roadway, he glanced back to see how Sam was faring. The male agents had restrained a couple of the young men, pinning them to the ground with their suited bulks, although their weapons were still holstered. Sam lay face up and looked to be in bad shape. A pool of dull-red blood had formed around his head, the consistency of mucus. The policemen were beating the other two men with their batons. If they kept it up, they’d either kill them or cause brain damage, Tom thought.

He turned, saw that the secretary had almost reached the nearest SUV. It couldn’t drive up to her due to the fracas on the road. But the MSD agents had surrounded her with their body-armoured chests and backs, their weapons sweeping the crowd and the roofs of the surrounding buildings for any sign of a shooter. Evacuation was the best defence. He knew they’d manoeuvre her swiftly into the rear vehicle and exit at speed.

He had a gut feeling and decided to stay put. A sixth sense that had developed over the years. He checked the windows opposite, the tattered drapes half drawn. After a three-second scan, he saw what looked like the muzzle of an assault rifle disappear from view, although he couldn’t be sure. He shouted into the radio and drew his SIG, releasing the safety. Two MSD agents raced towards the building’s entrance, shoving people out of the way as they went.

He aimed his SIG at the window, deciding that if the image re-emerged he’d empty a full clip into the dirt-stained glass, irrespective of the outcome.

Then his worst nightmare began.

5. (#ue62ef58b-8a7a-512d-828d-c8abbcdc7b94)

Smoke and stun grenades hit the ground first, quickly followed by tear gas and bursts of automatic fire. Flashes of white light erupted, the high-pitched blasts blowing people off their feet. Others flailed about, blood leaching from their bodies. The two agents who were sprinting towards the building were dropped at the double doors. Panic-stricken, the crowd began to stampede, desperate to escape the kill zone. The air was swamped by hysterical screams, the police rendered useless, hunkering down as bullets cut chunks from wooden beams and ricocheted off metal posts and concrete overhangs.

Tom swayed, disorientated, his ears throbbing. Shaking his head in an attempt to revive himself, he glimpsed at least ten armed men rappelling from open windows, their faces obscured by gas masks. They had what looked like HK sub-machine guns strapped to their backs, with scopes, which he guessed were of the thermal imaging variety and would allow them to see in the smoke. He half raised his SIG, thought he was going to black out. Before he had a chance to get off a round, they vanished into the grey haze rising menacingly from ground level. Due to the state he was in, he guessed he would’ve capped an innocent by mistake, even if he’d been able to squeeze the trigger.

He did his best to turn his head. He couldn’t make out the SUVs or the secretary, either, now, and sensed the first tendrils of panic, his heart rate escalating. He just hoped the MSD agents had evacuated her already. As dopamine kicked in, the pain eased, and his muscles began to take in oxygen at an increased rate, counteracting his ebbing strength. He searched the roofs above as best he could. The snipers, he thought. Where the hell are they?

A massive explosion erupted, sending him to the ground. He landed on his left shoulder, the pain making him grit his teeth and moan. Blinking rapidly, he just about made out an SUV somersaulting above the smoke. He knew the car had an anti-explosion fuel tank laced with fire-resistant cladding, and was leak proof. This protected it from a high-velocity round or an anti-personnel landmine. But as flames engulfed it he figured it must have been parked over an IED. That and the force of the blast. He damned the Pakistani ISI. It was either incompetence or complicity. Either way, he blamed them.

Pushing himself up with his grazed hands, he stumbled forward, bursts from sub-machine guns tearing into flesh and bone about him. But he barely heard them, his hearing impaired by the blast. His eyes felt as if soap had been rubbed into them, the tear gas almost blinding him and making him feel nauseous. He began retching, and his shades slipped off. Looking up, he squinted as the bright light hit him.

Move, he thought. Keep moving.

As he got closer to where the SUVs were parked he felt the intense heat from the burning wreckage of the lead vehicle. The armour plating could withstand a grenade blast, but the IED had all but shredded the doors. The car had landed on top of a police motorcycle, the rider spreadeagled under the front right-hand wheel. As the smoke lifted a little he counted five bodies around it, bloody and contorted. But none was that of the secretary.

Another explosion erupted, taking out the façade of an office block, the shockwave flinging people to the ground. Many were hit or buried by falling masonry. As he buckled at the knees his eyes levelled on the bodies of his two agents, Dave and Becky, stacked against the second SUV like effigies. He half crawled, half scrambled over to them. Their heads had flopped forward. They both had centimetre-wide entry wounds in the backs of their necks. Executed, he thought, resisting the urge to gag. He’d known Dave for three years, and Becky had been married just two months.

As grey ash settled on the talc-like dust that already smeared his suit he inched over the rubble. His eyes felt as if they were melting, the stinging sensation so great that he groaned. But he knew he had to focus.

The rear vehicle was covered by chunks of concrete and twisted iron girders. Wincing, he caught sight of four MSD agents strewn around it. They looked as if they’d been hit by a hundred rounds, their bare heads lacerated and unrecognizable. He moved back and rolled under the middle SUV, his jacket tearing on a protruding piece of metal. As he emerged on the other side the smoke had almost cleared.

Then he saw her. An MSD agent ran by her side, pursued by five armed men. They wore ballistic vests, heavy Kevlar helmets, blast-resistant goggles and respirators. He couldn’t risk firing his SIG because, although the crowd had thinned out here, there were still enough people to hinder a clear shot. If it hadn’t been for the pursuers, he knew the agent would’ve flung her to the ground and covered her body to protect it from careering debris. Now the guy was doing the right thing by getting her out of the danger zone in the only manner available to him.

Feeling a surge of adrenalin jump-start his muscles, Tom pushed himself up and broke into a sprint.

As the secretary reached the remnants of a fruit store he saw one of her pursuers kneel. He raised what looked like an M4 carbine, his eye pressed to a scope, a red-dot laser beam showing up on the back of the agent’s unprotected neck. A shot rang out, and the agent fell. The secretary stopped, her hands going to her head, clearly traumatized. When the men reached her, she was lifted off her feet.

“Jesus.”

Rushing up the road, Tom vaulted over clumps of shattered bricks and mounds of concrete and steel. The men carrying the secretary turned down a side alley, flanked by jerry-built buildings. Three re-emerged and crouched down at the entrance, emptying their magazines into a small group of policemen who’d appeared on the other side of the road. They were all killed or maimed instantly. Tom kept close to the building line, his SIG hovering above a low wall. It was a risky position. If there was another catastrophic explosion, he could be buried. If it happened next door, the shock wave could travel down the wall and kill him.

Seeing the men disappear, he bent down and moved forward, just as a Pakistani squad car came screeching around the far bend. It raced up the opposite end of the road, its siren blaring. But the men returned, together with another, carrying a compact RPG. Tom fired a couple of rounds, although he had to dive for cover behind a concrete pillar immediately afterwards to avoid a volley.

After a few seconds, he risked glancing around it. The telltale trail of white-grey smoke was spewing out of the rear of the rocket launcher.

“Jesus Christ,” he whispered, realizing that his hearing had returned to normal.

The police car was shunted sideways, a dust-filled cloud enveloping it. Shards of glass and red-hot chassis shrapnel ripped through the air. He hoped the occupants had died on impact, because the decimated vehicle was engulfed by flames soon afterwards, the tails of burning gasoline curling over the imploded windows and fractured bodywork.

Seeing the men retreat, Tom jogged forward, speaking into his radio to the temporary command centre, his laboured breath resembling an asthmatic’s as he reported what had happened and where the secretary was likely to be. He was told that a helicopter was on its way. On its way, he thought. It was meant to be overhead.

He stopped a few metres from the alley entrance. He heard car engines revving furiously, then the distinctive sound of the helicopter above. He looked up and, squinting against the white sun, saw that it was the Pakistani police. He waved his arms, and pointed in desperation in the direction of the cars.

Reaching the alley, he ducked down as a swath of bullets was fired from a HK, brick fragments raining down on him. But he’d managed to glimpse at least five cars, parked hood to trunk, although it’d been impossible to tell which one the secretary was in. The helicopter hovered low, the wash from the rotor blades creating a whirlwind of dust and litter. Kneeling in the open side door, a police commando scanned the ground through the day-scope on his G3 assault rifle. The helicopter is her only hope, Tom thought.

But then he noticed movement below it. A man had appeared on the edge of the flat roof opposite, the unmistakable shape of a Stinger perched on his right shoulder. Tom shouted out to the commando, his words lost in the cacophony of voices coming from behind him, and the wave of sirens from fast-approaching fire crews and ambulances. He aimed his SIG at the man, but there were a good three hundred metres between them. He let off four rounds, but realized there was nothing he could do. The effective range of the handgun was a third of that on a good day.

Stunned, he watched the flash at the tail end of the Stinger’s launch tube, the small engine falling away after about three metres, propelling the missile at a rate of over a thousand miles per hour. Using infrared to lock onto the heat in the helicopter’s exhaust, the missile impacted the target with devastating precision. The explosion created a fireball and caused the rotor blades to buckle and the windshields to shatter. As the helicopter lost altitude, zigzagging like a massive kite, a second explosion occurred as the fuel ignited. It fell the remainder of the distance to the ground horizontally, black smoke spewing from the tangled metal. When it hit the asphalt, the rotor blades snapped off and splintered, sending a flurry of lethal fragments through the air.

Tom gritted his teeth and ran forward, ducking down as he reached the alley entrance. But the men had disappeared and the cars, half on the narrow sidewalk under awnings and store overhangs, sped away, each one taking a different exit along the rutted track.

He realized he had one option left open to him.

6. (#ue62ef58b-8a7a-512d-828d-c8abbcdc7b94)

Tom turned towards the entrance of the run-down apartment block where the man had fired the Stinger. If he could capture him alive, it might be a start. He pressed the PTT button, waited for the static to clear, and reported his position, asking for back-up. He raced across the road, jumping over chunks of jagged metal and smouldering craters, oblivious now to the pepper-like stinking still in his dark, streaming eyes.

As he got to the door of the building he saw that the security system was one step up from a Yale lock. Phlegm rose in his throat, impeding his breathing. He bent over and spat it out, the taste in his mouth like pure acid. He ejected the clip from his SIG, took a fresh one from the pouch on his belt. Slipping it in, he chambered a round in what appeared to be one smooth action. Deftly.

He shielded his eyes with one hand and shot open the entrance door, the rapid impact of the rounds acting like a ripsaw, the spent cases spinning to his right and clanking on the glass-ridden floor. He ducked in, his pulse racing, his shirt sticking to his aching body. There was an elevator directly in front, a concrete staircase to the right. He decided to take the stairs.

He reached the top in twenty seconds. A slick of sweat covered his ribboned forehead, and he was breathing heavily, the debilitating combination of tear gas, inhaled smoke and the build-up of lactic acid taking its toll. He hadn’t met anyone on the way up, but had heard muted shouts and cries from the apartments he’d passed. There was a solid wooden door leading to the flat roof, but it was padlocked. You don’t shoot padlocks with a round—the ricochet could kill you, he’d told a rookie agent once. It was a good rule. One he wasn’t about to discount now.

He spun around, saw a red firefighter’s axe in a metal case on the breeze-block wall. Below it, a regular fire extinguisher and a couple of gas canisters. He used the butt of the SIG as a hammer on the Plexiglas cover. After the first hit, the plastic broke, and he jerked out the axe from its perch. He holstered his weapon, and held the axe firmly in both hands. He stood to the side of the door, and began hacking at the wood, knocking out the lock with the splintering chunks.

Dropping the axe, he drew his SIG. He kicked open the door, but ducked down behind the wall immediately afterwards. It was a sound move. A burst of automatic rounds tore into the doorframe and lintel, and peppered the wall to the rear. He felt blood run down his face, but felt no pain save for something akin to a paper cut. He brushed his forehead, pulled out a large splinter.

He glanced around the door, seeing a portion of the ill-kempt rooftop: an array of rusted TV aerials, mouldy tarps, and a weather-beaten awning hung over plastic chairs. There was no visible sign of the shooter. He moved back, picked up one of the canisters, and held it before him. Turning, he launched it into the centre of the rooftop.

As he sank down against the wall a second burst was unleashed. But he’d figured out the trajectory of the bullets. Smarting, he aimed his SIG around the doorway at the canister. Fired. The round pierced the metal and a huge mushroom of white smoke spewed out, the safety valve preventing it from exploding into a thousand lethal shards as he’d hoped it would. He stepped back, grabbed the axe and flung it, so that it somersaulted handle over blade to the left.

As it clattered to the concrete floor he darted out from the wall, using the smoke as cover. He dived into a forward roll to the right. Springing up into a crouch position, he glimpsed a man in black fatigues and a gas mask, holding a MAC-10 machine pistol: a stubby weapon fitted with a suppressor and a holographic sight. Just as the smoke was thinning Tom shot him twice in the legs, guessing he was wearing ballistic plates. The pistol fell from his victim’s hands. He ran over.

The man was still, save for his twitching left leg. Tom didn’t have the time to frisk him, the Stinger being nowhere in sight. He spoke into his mic, reporting his position and saying that one terrorist was down. Badly wounded.