Black Flagged Apex (61 page)

"Jessica's in pursuit. Move around the back," he said out loud, hoping that Munoz was already driving the Cherokee toward the loading bay side of the building.

Daniel didn't wait. He rushed through the room, pushing aside Bob Wilkins and leaping over the guard with the blade embedded in his neck. When he reached the doorway, he didn't burst through like his wife. He leaned inside, aiming the P90, and formed an image. The loading bay connected to the office contained several pallets of Crystal Source water bottles piled along the wall closest to the opening. A forklift driver, oblivious to the drama behind him, backed his yellow machine from the rear of the semi-trailer. He could see the far end of the loading bay complex through large openings at the back of each bay, designed to allow the forklifts to move from bay to bay with ease. Jessica was in the middle of the second bay, sprinting toward the next opening, ignoring everything but Anne Renee Paulson, who was wrestling an M4 rifle from one of her guards.

One of the men Jessica had passed on her way to the second bay drew a pistol and started to run in her direction. Daniel placed the man's upper torso at the top of the T-shaped reticle and pulled the trigger, firing a burst. He immediately switched to Anne Renee, who had grabbed the M4 and had swung its barrel in Jessica's direction. He didn't weigh his options with Jessica at risk. Jessica was in the open, with little hope of getting behind cover in time. He depressed the trigger, firing a short burst that mostly hit Anne Renee in the upper chest and neck. His next burst struck the guard next to her, who had barely recognized the threat to their facility before several armor-piercing bullets punctured his face and eliminated any future possibility of forming thoughts. The guard's body collapsed to the concrete floor next to Anne Renee, who had fallen to her knees with a confused look on her face. She wasn't dead, but it was clear that her body wasn't sending commands to her limbs. She had already released the rifle's pistol grip, dropping the M4 to the dull concrete.

Jessica reached the wall separating bays one and two, kneeling behind it. She glanced up at him and cursed. They had lost their high-value target, which could be a problem. The sound of yelling started to increase from the bays further down the long access corridor in front of Daniel. All along the back of the complex, members of True America started to realize that something was wrong. A woman peeked around the same corner hiding Jessica and fired some kind of submachine gun on full automatic at his position in the doorway. The bullets slammed into the doorframe and flew through the opening, puncturing the opposite wall and shredding an empty bookcase.

Daniel leaned in with the P90, just in time to see the woman's head disappear behind the wall. He signaled for Jessica to lie flat. Once she cleared the spot where he had calculated the shooter to be located, he depressed the trigger and held it back, perforating the wall above Jessica with the magazine's remaining rounds. At a rate of 900 rounds per minute, the fifty-round magazine could be expended within three seconds, with little loss of control. His weapon fired for roughly two seconds, each armor-piercing round passing easily through the cinderblock and showering Jessica with chunks of the powder-covered debris.

Through the soccer-ball-sized hole blown through the cinderblock, he saw a body lurch forward. A bloodied hand flopped into view past the corner. Before reloading, he drew his USP Compact and slid it to Jessica. He noticed that she didn't attempt to stand up. After what he had just done to the woman behind the wall, he didn't blame her. If the woman past Jessica had been using similar ammunition, Daniel would be lying on the floor bleeding from multiple holes. Her 9mm rounds severely damaged the cinderblock barrier in front of Daniel, but failed to penetrate with the needed velocity to do more than spray cinderblock pieces into his face. He suspected that the True America operatives were using hollow-point ammunition, which would mushroom upon impact and impart their energy over a wider area, further reducing their penetration power. Still, there were no guarantees in the world of projectile ballistics. He'd seen and caused his share of anomalies.

He replaced the P90's fifty-round magazine and sprinted across the bay to Jessica. Gunfire erupted when he left the doorway, but most of the fire was directed at his previous position. He heard the snap and hiss of several near misses, as less experienced shooters poured rounds behind him. By the time they decided to adjust their fire, he had already cleared the open area between bays. When he reached Jessica, she was lying prone, covering the three men who stood with their hands in the air near the forklift. A massive gunfight erupted deeper within the loading complex.

**

Melendez climbed back into the passenger seat of the Cherokee and slammed the door shut. He had just pulled off a headshot with a single, suppressed 5.7X28mm round, at a range of 42 meters using the P90's unmagnified Ring Sight. Given the fact that he had limited experience with the weapon, he was rightfully proud of the accomplishment. They had parked the SUV just out of sight around the next loading bay complex, in a position that allowed Melendez to open the door and brace the P90 against its outer edge. Munoz had parked the vehicle perfectly. The P90's reticle barely cleared the corner of the building, but gave him an unobstructed line of fire to the guard. Munoz had stood behind him to make the determination regarding Wilkins' position. A light tap on the shoulder indicated that Wilkins had entered the building and would not see the man's head splatter the wall. The 5.7 round performed as advertised.

The SUV lurched forward before the door closed, slamming Melendez against the headrest. Munoz drove across the wide expanse of crumbling asphalt that separated the two loading complexes. The large space between buildings was designed to accommodate the semi-trailers that would be navigated into position along the multiple loading bays behind the building. He drove diagonally across the asphalt, ignoring the faint markings indicating a proposed traffic flow. They needed to be in position at the corner of the building within seconds in order to effectively support Jessica and Daniel. Melendez could see the cab of the first semi-rig beyond the corner and hoped that the driver was inside the building. They had no idea how far the conspiracy penetrated, but they assumed the drivers would be heavily armed.

The car reached the corner, and Melendez piled out, following Munoz into position at the corner. They both heard Daniel give the order to move, followed seconds later by the thunder of automatic gunfire. They turned the corner and stared at the first trailer. He could see the next trailer through the space underneath. Their quickest route to the last bay would be underneath the trailers. The gunfire intensified inside the first bay as they approached the trailer. Melendez caught some movement in his left peripheral vision and shifted the P90 to meet the threat. A man jumped down from the driver's door with an MP-5K in his right hand, but collapsed to the asphalt in a heap. Melendez had fired an extended burst from the P90 at his center mass before sliding under the trailer behind Munoz.

Glancing up at the bays as they moved through the fleet of trailers, they could tell that it would be a tight fit squeezing through the openings between the trailer sides and loading dock. They ducked under the second to last trailer, coming up on the last bay. A quick movement to their left brought both P90s up to their shoulders. Neither of them fired at the bearded, pot-bellied Grizzly Adams lookalike standing with his hands in the air.

"Federal agents. How long have you been with True America?" Munoz said, flashing his badge.

"What? I've lived in America all my life. Look. I'm getting paid double for this haul. I don't ask questions, as long as they're just loading water in my rig. If Mr. Mills has paranoid friends that want to guard their water shipment, that ain't none of my business," the man said.

The sound of automatic gunfire and individual pistol shots rang out, slightly muffled by the thick rubber seal linking the back of the trailer to the bay.

"Could you move your rig up a few feet so we can get into the bay? We'll make sure our people know whose side you're on. Stay in your cab until we come back for you," Munoz requested.

"No problem. I got nothing to do with this shit." Grizzly Adams ran back to his cab faster than either of them thought possible.

The diesel rumbled to life and lurched forward a few feet. Munoz and Melendez climbed into the bay undetected and started to clear the complex.

**

Jessica couldn't believe how badly she had fucked up their one chance at grabbing Anne Renee Paulson. She had underestimated the woman on every level. The knee shot to her kidney had come a fraction of a second before she could throw her elbow, stunning her long enough to lose physical contact. Then she had recklessly chosen to pursue her through the doorway into the open bay area. She'd left Daniel with no choice but to kill her. She really hoped her decision didn't jeopardize their ability to track the shipments.

An incredible overpressure filled her ears, followed by repeated blasts, which caused her to press both of her palms against the sides of her head. Muzzle flashes extended beyond the wall in front of her, heating her face. Someone had just emptied an entire magazine on full automatic less than a foot from her face. The ringing in her ears continued when the gun fell silent. Daniel signaled for her to go prone, which she immediately acknowledged by diving to the cold concrete floor, facing away from the corner. She never heard the fusillade of bullets puncturing the wall where she once knelt, but she felt the jagged pieces of cinderblock pepper her back and strike her head.

A black semiautomatic pistol slid in front of her, which she grabbed without wasting the time to acknowledge her generous benefactor. She rose to one knee and aimed at the men near the back of the open trailer in bay one. None of them appeared to be armed. From the looks on their faces, they didn't appear to have any interest in weapons. Their hands flew skyward. A few seconds later, she saw Daniel burst through the doorway, headed in her direction. He reached her unscathed, despite the maelstrom of bullets that struck the bay wall behind him. She felt his comforting hand on her shoulder and could tell he was trying to tell her something.

She looked at him and shook her head. "I can't hear anything," she said, which came out at full volume.

Daniel nodded his head and pointed at the three men. She understood.

**

Daniel grimaced when Jessica yelled at him. The machine-gun blasts had induced a temporary hearing loss that could last most of the day, producing a ringing or buzzing sound that would gradually diminish. This could become a considerable liability for their team if they decided to raid Mills' lakeside mansion. Satisfied that Jessica had this group under control, he spun around and faced the corner, determined to draw this battle to a quick end.

He raised the suppressed P90 and peeked around the corner, drawing fire from a guard hidden behind a forklift parked two bays down. The small-caliber rounds struck the wall in front of Daniel, spraying his face with sharp fragments and causing him to flinch. The gunfire was relatively accurate for fully automatic bursts, but not accurate enough to suppress Daniel. He placed the shooter's head at the top of the Ring Sight's T-shaped reticle and pulled the trigger back far enough to fire a short burst of three rounds. The result was immediate, knocking the shooter back through the red cloud that had exploded from his head. He was starting to get the hang of this exotic weapon.

He detected movement to the left and aimed at a point two feet in, along the inner wall separating bays two and three. He'd seen something low profile peek around the corner. A quick peek from someone being cautious. He depressed the trigger again, holding it down for a second, sending roughly a dozen rounds through the cinderblock wall. A figure stumbled into the open past the corner, holding a standard Heckler and Koch MP-5 in one hand. Daniel couldn't see the entry wounds, but knew the man was finished. He let the man crumble to the concrete without taking further action to hasten his fall.

"Bay six clear. M and M clearing bay five," he heard in his earpiece.

From the far reaches of the loading complex, he saw two men take position along the furthest opening. They started cycling their weapons immediately through targets located in the furthest bays. Daniel couldn't hear their weapons from this distance, but he could tell they were actively clearing the bay. Specifically designed for the P90, the attached Gemtech suppressors reduced the sound produced by the weapon to the gun's own internal mechanism. Standing several feet away, it would sound like someone rapidly pulling the charging handle. At fifty feet, it would draw little attention from someone not attuned to the sound of suppressed firearms.

Determining that the opening directly in front of him was clear, he extended his torso around the corner, peering into the bay. Aside from several dozen pallets of bottled water set against the wall, the bay looked clear. He saw some movement deep inside the semi-trailer, behind a stack of secured pallets, but nobody fired at him from that direction. He motioned for them to come out of the trailer and waited.

"Bay five clear," he heard in his earpiece.

"Bay one clear. Clearing bay two. Watch inside the trailers. I found a few hiding," Daniel replied.

He saw M and M move cautiously through bay five. When they reached the opening to bay four, automatic gunfire thundered throughout the complex. The long bursts of fire concentrated on the corners hiding the two operatives. Dozens of projectiles tore the cinderblock barrier apart, cracking it in several places and exploding jagged pieces across the concrete floor. He was really glad they were using standard ammunition. The industrial-grade walls separating the bays continued to prove effective cover against 9mm projectiles.

The men in the trailer walked out with their hands on their heads. Daniel sprinted around the corner and approached them, keeping an eye on bay three. He didn't see anyone in the brief second he was exposed.