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"We're bouncing onto the roof," said Cole to his own team. "On 'go.' Ready … set … "
Cole didn't actually say go, because he didn't have to. They were all in the air at the exact moment he would have said it, and with their Bones working again, they were at roof level in a split second. They grabbed the parapet and flipped themselves over onto the roof, then came up ready to shoot.
Apparently somebody had promised the bad guys that their little EMP weapon would completely disable the Americans, because Cole had never seen such horrified surprise as was on the faces of the bandits on the roof. On his end of the embassy building, where he and Cat were pointing their weapons at the bad guys, there wasn't even a fight. They just threw down their weapons, ran for the edge of the roof, and jumped down onto the low security building that guarded the gate.
There was shooting on the other side, though, so Arty and Babe must have run into some guys with more fight in them. It took only a few moments, though, and there was stillness again. Cole checked only to see that both Babe and Arty were still moving, then flipped to his view of Mingo's team. They were at the back door, having met no resistance.
"Ground floor is yours, Mingo," said Cole. "Remember that only one of the Americans is white, so they might have dressed our other guys up to look like bandits. Be careful who you shoot."
"Yes mom," said Load.
But they all knew that reminders were a good idea in combat, to make sure something didn't slip out of memory in the heat of the moment.
It was quick progress through the building. Cole fired his weapon only three times before he and Cat came through the door of the big conference room and found the hostages tied to chairs, with four men holding automatic weapons to their heads. Cole clicked the code to send the picture to the other guys, which would bring them straight here as fast as they could come. Meanwhile, though, he had no time to wait.
A tall, grinning man in a business suit was holding a pistol. "Just put your weapons down, Americans," he said in French- and African-accented English. "Or we kill your friends. I am Idi Amin Muham—"
He didn't have a chance to finish because Cole put a bullet through his head, then turned and took out two of the guys pointing guns at the embassy staffers. Cat took out the other two.
The other bandits in the room were already throwing their weapons on the floor. With their genius leader dead, what was the point of fighting now?
Cat kept vigil while Cole cut through the duct tape holding the embassy staffers to their chairs.
The first person he cut loose was not the ambassador or the white CIA station chief—it was the sergeant-at-arms. When the duct tape came off the young man's mouth, Cole asked him, "Sergeant Seibt?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good work."
"I had no idea they knew you were coming, sir," said Seibt.
"I know," said Cole. "And we used every speck of info you gave us."
With Seibt helping, it took only a few more moments to get the others unbound, so that everybody was standing up and ready to go when the backdoor team came in. Mingo looked around at the five dead bodies and the cringing not-dead bandits against the walls, and said, "Nifty."
Cole said into his Noodle, "Got all four, safe so far, come pick us up."
Getting out was going to be tricky—anybody set to ambush them out here wouldn't know that Idi de Gaulle had bought the farm. For that matter, it might not be de Gaulle's boys waiting for them. Somebody had given them small EMP devices. That was very, very high tech, which means it definitely was not invented here. So whoever supplied them might be waiting with another set to take them down on the way out. Or even nastier surprises.
"Let's go through the west wall," said Cole. "On the ground floor."
Mingo, Drew, Load, and Benny each picked up one of the embassy guys in their arms like babies. The ambassador protested but Cole just said, "Shut up and do what you're told or we'll leave you here." The ambassador was furious, but he shut up and did what he was told.
The Bones gave them the strength to carry these full-grown men as if they were light as a feather, and with Cole's team leading and following them, they raced down the stairs to the main floor.
Cat found the spot they wanted on the west wall, set four charges, then went back out of the room to where the rest were waiting. He detonated the explosives with a sharp short whistle into his Noodle, and when they went back into the room there wasn't a west wall.
With four of them still carrying the embassy staff, they ran through the gap and into the alley between the embassy and the shops next door. They heard gunfire but didn't stop to fight—none of it was coming close. They bounded into the air to cross Avenue David Dacko and in five seconds they were behind the wall where Cole's team had stashed their supplies.
Using a drone, Cole saw that the chopper was in place beyond the barges, hovering only a foot or so above the river. "We need any of this stuff?" he asked the others.
But instead of waiting for an answer, he picked up his package. The other guys in his jeesh did the same. So everybody had their arms full as they bounded down Avenue Colonel Conus. They leapt over a wall just as the chopper came over the barges and set down on the dirt road that fronted the river inside the boatyard. They got the embassy staffers on board first, then tossed in the parcels and the chopper was already rising as Cole's team clambered on behind them.
There were more shots as they flew down the river, just above
the water, but nothing dangerous, and now it was time to debrief.
"Anybody see anything that looked like the EMP device they used on us?" asked Cole.
