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“Charlie ready to breach,” his voice cracked over the comms.
“Bravo ready to rock,” Tanner confirmed with Bill’s voice following, “Alpha team ready.”
“Heads up, kitties!” Cruz’s hushed voice indicated he had cut off the comms to the ops teams. He didn't want to alarm the men that the women had approaching danger since they needed to be alert. He had full confidence that the Red Reign kitties could take care of themselves. “There’s a body about to turn the corner behind Brock and three heading your way through the woods.”
The sudden glint of shiny metal caught the corner of Jordan’s eye and turned her cold. A silhouetted figure lifted an automatic weapon and painted the back of Brock’s head with a laser as he concentrated on opening the sliding door. Without skipping a beat, she brought the M4 to bear and squeezed off a single round. The suppressed pop of the exploding shell was swallowed by the chirping of the birds overhead hitting its mark unerringly. The man was dead before he hit the ground.
Brock stiffened as he glanced over his shoulder and then cast a brief glance to the woods. Jordan tapped the comms to open the line. “Told you, babe. I’ve got your back.”
“Remind me to thank you properly later.”
“Oh, I’ll… shit,” she ducked beneath a boulder as Cruz snapped over the comms, “Behind you, kitties!”
Knox took care of one of the approaching men with a bullet buried in his chest but the other two were on Jordan and Paxton before they could raise their weapons.
In that frozen second between standoff and fighting Jordan saw the amused flicker in their eyes. The women’s faces were unreadable, showed no fear, no invitational smirk. They were banking on the two men making the same mistake most did when faced with women in a hand-to-hand fight. They expected it to be over in a bloody flash. It wasn’t to be.
Jordan dropped to the ground as the biggest of the two men lunged with a knife. She grabbed his foot and yanked him to the ground. Her aim was sure as she brought a boot to his face, snapping his nose into a grotesquerie. He bellowed out a cry of pain as he jumped up, charging her with a furious cry. In one fluid move, she dodged to the side as he swiveled in her direction. His menacing eyes were glimmering with rage. Her fingers tightened around the striated handle of a Fairbairns Sykes dagger made famous by elite British commandos in the Second World War. With an economy of movement, she quickly closed quarters with her attacker blocking his knife hand with her left arm then thrusting the eight inch blade up through his throat and backwards to sever the spinal cord. Not a sound betrayed the dead man as his body involuntarily flinched and dropped like a rag doll.
Her gaze swung to Paxton who stumbled to her feet, having eliminated her opponent in a similar fashion. She moaned as she grabbed her arm covered in blood.
“Jesus, he cut you!” From a rucksack, Jordan tore open a packet of combat gauze and began wrapping Paxton’s arm. “Keep your arm elevated. This hemostatic bandage will have you right in no time, girl. Knox and I got this.”
“Talk to me, ladies. Are you all okay?” Cruz’s concerned voice cracked over the comms.
“We’re fine. Paxton’s got a cut on her arm but I managed to stem the blood flow. She’ll be okay. We silenced the bastards.”
“I had no doubt about that, girl!” The relief in Kezlin’s voice was unmistakable.
“Why have the comms gone silent, Cruz?” Knox asked from where she was still settled high up in the tree gazing through her rifle scope at the cabin. “There was a volley of gunshots when they entered but I haven’t heard a peep from the teams since.”
“We’ve been working on it but I have no idea. The drone suddenly doesn’t pick up any heat signals inside the cabin either.” Cruz sounded frustrated and concerned.
“What the hell does that mean?” Knox snapped. “How the fuck are we supposed to know what’s going on in there?”
“The only thing I can think of is that they activated a scrambler… or went underground.”
“Underground? As in a bunker?” Jordan studied the cabin through binoculars. “I don’t see any movement through any of the windows.” She looked at Paxton. “Something’s wrong. There’s no way that seven players and twelve operators just disappear.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” She struggled to her feet. “We’re going in.”
“No! Paxton, you’re not going anywhere. You’re already hurt and Jared is going to have my balls if anything else happens to you,” Cruz hissed over the comms. “Just hang tight. I’ve got another team en route. They should be there in ten minutes.”
“In ten minutes they could all be dead,” Jordan snapped. “Knox, get your ass down here. We’re going in.”
“Jordan, I beg you, just wait!”
“No Cruz, there’s no time. If you want to help, use your drones to scan the front of the cabin, the ravine, and the woods. If they’re underground, they have to come out somewhere.”
“Just be careful and don’t take any unnecessary risks. Is that clear?”
“Got it,” Jordan said as they quick-walked with weapons raised and pointed towards the cabin. With the rush of adrenaline, so too, came a surge in energy and dilated pupils. A combat high was kicking in.
“I’ll take the side door, you two, the front. Stay low and quiet. If you have to shoot, make it count.” Her concerned look focused on Paxton. “You okay?”
“Get the fuck outta here. I’m fine. Let’s go get Jared.”
She knew exactly how Paxton felt, since the same fear had been threatening to choke her ever since Cruz confirmed he had no idea what was happening with the teams. She had just found Brock and she’d be damned if she lost him so soon. “Ready? I’ll see if I can detect a tech scrambler once we’re inside. Let’s move.”
