Court kept walking towards Zack’s Yukon, but he glanced back over his shoulder in time to see a pair of men some forty yards back, just outside the rear door of the French bistro. One had a radio to his mouth, held by his left hand, and his right hand reached into his coat at the hip.
The second man was in the process of drawing a pistol, as well.
The man with the radio shouted out, his voice booming in the narrow alleyway. “Federal officer! Stop right there!”
Court didnotstop right there. He pulled Catherine along, began running, unzipping his coat as he did so, and ahead of him, he saw the man approach the rear of Zack’s Yukon. The masked Gauntlet officer raised a pistol at the driver’s side of Zack’s vehicle.
Gumdrop shouted again. “Snare got into an SUV; he’s coming your way. That’s at least seven enemy converging on—”
Court couldn’t hear anything else that his overwatch said because he drew his Glock pistol and fired twice at the man getting a bead on the back of Zack’s head.
He shot the masked Gauntlet man in the right arm with his first shot,and the right side of his knee with the second. The gun flew from the Gauntlet man’s hand, and just then, Zack opened fire with his Staccato pistol, dumping rounds through the front passenger-side window glass, past Catherine and Court, and towards the pair approaching them from behind.
Court continued firing at the threat to Zack, while Zack continued firing at the threat to Court and Catherine.
Court yanked the journalist out of the line of fire, pulling her quickly between a construction dumpster and a little carriage house that jutted out into the alley, and then he holstered his small 9-mil pistol and hefted his 9-mil subgun. Leaning back out into the alley, he thumbed off the safety and first fired a burst at the man just behind Zack’s truck. He was wounded, but up on a knee on the sidewalk, and he’d retrieved his weapon from the ground. All he had to do was fire into the truck he leaned against and Zack would not have been able to engage him efficiently from the front seat.
Court put a burst into the man’s body armor, then a second burst higher, hitting him in the collarbone, shoulder, and right side of his neck. Blood spurted from his body, and the man dropped flat, rolled in pain and in panic, clutching the worst of his wounds and dropping his gun again in the process.
Zack kept firing at the two men over fifty yards away from him, but they’d taken cover behind some concrete steps leading up to the back door of a row house, and all Zack could do from his position was keep their heads down. Court spun and began shooting at the same two men with his subgun, giving Zack time to reload his handgun.
Gumdrop shouted into everyone’s ear. “The men in the Armada are on foot with rifles; they are approaching Night Train!”
Zack only had a pistol, though it held eighteen-round magazines. Still, men with rifles firing from just a dozen or so yards away would be able to chew him up in an instant.
Court shouted to Zack now. “Bail out! Bail out! Come to me!”
Gunfire boomed in the quiet Georgetown neighborhood; the windshield of the Yukon shattered, and all Court could do was divide his fire, sending a burst back in the direction of La Bonne Vache and then a burst up in front of Zack’s truck, striking the wall of a row house with theintention of impeding the men with rifles who were out of view from where he knelt in the alley.
Suddenly, however, the windshield of Zack’s Yukon exploded as rifle rounds raked across it.
Court didn’t have an angle to stop the men in the street from shooting Zack, but he kept firing his Scorpion, and soon Zack’s passenger door opened. Court blasted a couple more short bursts of fire to keep enemy heads down, and Zack rolled out of the Yukon, onto the sidewalk, and then he rose to his feet and began running down the alley in Court’s direction.
Court’s Scorpion ran dry; he dropped it on the sling and yanked his Glock out again. As he fired up the alley past Zack, Zack kept running towards him, again shooting his Staccato towards the men in good cover behind the concrete stairs down by the restaurant.
Zack was slow, limping a little on his left leg, so Court’s Glock emptied quickly, just as a man with a rifle came into view on N Street.
Zack ducked into the cover next to Catherine and Court as a fully automatic burst of rifle fire tore into the garage wall above them, and then all three of them dropped down low.
Zack reloaded his pistol while Court reloaded the Scorpion with his last magazine, and then, while Zack took a quick peek out in both directions, Court quickly reloaded his little Glock 43.
Court looked to Zack now. “You hit?”
“Not recently, no.”
“What did you see?”
“Got one enemy still operational by the restaurant on the south side. Only saw one guy on his feet with a long gun up by the Yukon. A dead guy by the tire; you must have killed him. Don’t know where the other dude with a rifle went. Did you hit him?”
“I don’t think I ever saw him. Might be trying to flank us.”
Gumdrop came over the net now. “Assets, be advised. I think we have a total of ten enemy. Looks like two or three are down now. Others are converging. Two men are on Potomac Street; looks like they’ve entered a row house one unit to your south.”
Zack said, “What about Snare, Gumdrop?”
“He’s in a gray GMC pickup and has bypassed your position. He’s in the passenger seat; someone else is driving. Looks like they are heading to Wisconsin Avenue. From there they can go north up to N, double back, and cause you trouble. They’re…” She stuttered her words. “They…they’re surrounding you.”
Zack said, “You have a vector out of here for us?”
