Easy Day for the Dead (32 page)

As Alex inhaled, he aimed carefully, trying to empty his mind. If he emptied his mind then his target wouldn't sense Alex was thinking about him. Adjusting for distance and wind direction, Alex's sights lined up perfectly on Major Khan's upper body. During Alex's exhale, he didn't wait until he expelled all his air. Instead, he held his breath so the movement of his lungs wouldn't throw his shot. If he held it too long, his body would crave oxygen and tremble. Alex squeezed the trigger, building the tension in his finger until his AKMS fired. The recoil thumped his shoulder with a satisfying wallop. It was a perfectly placed shot. The figure of Major Khan remained sitting in his chair as if stunned. Alex shot him again in the chest. Major Khan slumped face-first onto the table in front of him.

Before Alex moved from his position to make sure Khan was dead, Alex sensed something eerie.
Somebody is watching us.
He froze.

“Cat,” he whispered. “Stay perfectly still. Khan's still out there.”

The countersniper wasn't Major Khan. That was one of his Guards—bait.
Alex's eerie feeling changed to fear.
Where's Major Khan?

If Major Khan knew our exact location, he'd already have taken his shot. He may know our general location, but he's waiting for us to move so he can pinpoint us.
Alex remained still, waiting for Major Khan to make the first move. Behind Alex and Cat there wasn't much land between them and Neva Bay. Normally, Alex would consider the water as one of his primary retreats, but with the freezing air temperature,
near-freezing water conditions, and no wet suit, the water wasn't his first choice of retreat. Whether he was winning or losing, Alex always tucked emergency exits into the back of his mind.

Between Alex and the city, a little over a hundred yards away, shots were fired at full automatic from another pile of rubble. Thirty shots sprayed Alex's rubble pile. Some of the shots were so close that snow fell down on him. The enemy knew Alex and Cat were in the debris, but he didn't know exactly where. He was trying to flush them out.

Alex spotted the muzzle flash and traced the rifle barrel to the shooter lying on the ground. He wasn't Major Khan.
Where is Major Khan? Probably waiting for me to whack this Guard and give away my exact position.
The shooter was doing something—probably changing magazines. The shooter stood up and walked toward Alex's position, aiming his AK at him and Cat. As he arrived within less than a hundred yards, Alex realized their discovery was inevitable. Snipers who froze in place too long were dead snipers. Now Alex had to get the jump on the shooter before the shooter jumped him. When the shooter reached fifty yards away, Alex pounded him twice in the chest. The shooter fell back as if he'd been struck by a sledgehammer.

“Follow me,” Alex whispered. He ran across the tracks and into another of the damaged buildings. There would be more options for cover in there. Alex glanced back. Cat was right behind him. When he reached the middle of the narrow stretch of land, he headed southwest toward the city, where the land would expand and give him even more options for maneuvering. Especially after getting shot in the left shoulder, Alex wasn't going to stick around and wait for Major Khan, who had obviously upped his game since their days in Iraq.

As Alex ran southwest, he passed the fallen countersniper's building on his left and a snowy mound on his right. Fortunately, the building and mound covered Alex's left and right from anyone
shooting at him. Unfortunately, he was in a kill zone where he could escape only backward or forward—with little wiggle room in between.
Shit!
After fifty yards, there was a break in the mound to the right and Alex took it.
Bang!
A shot sounded from behind. Alex glanced back to see if Cat was still with him. She was.

Alex's new location was no better than the previous one. Although he had more space to maneuver, he had no cover to protect him from Major Khan's bullets, and he had no idea how many Guards the major had brought with him. Alex nearly panicked trying to find a better place for maneuvering, but he remembered to breathe—deep and slow. His legs pumped hard and fast. He zigged and zagged southwest through the open space.
Bang-bang, bang-bang!
Alex felt one hot round pass the left side of his neck and heard another pop the sound barrier above his right ear. Alex slanted left before continuing southwest. He sprinted through a narrow stretch that opened to several buildings and a large oil tank. The terrain gave him more places to take cover, but it was still limited. Alex ran to the right, behind the tank, looking for a better place to make a stand. Finally, to the southwest, he found a maze of buildings, metal pillars and pipes, and train cars to provide him multiple sources of cover while he maneuvered—
perfect
.

Alex entered the maze, taking cover behind a tangle of metal pipes, and when he turned around to catch Major Khan and his men in less favorable terrain, Alex realized that Cat was nowhere in sight.

“Cat, where are you?” Alex called over the radio. He heard gunshots in the distance.

Meanwhile, six Guards and Major Khan came around a building corner. Alex thumped the first Guard twice in the chest. The remaining five Guards and Major Khan advanced quickly to cover behind a long storage shed. Alex fired at Major Khan, hitting the shed just as the major hid behind it.

Alex moved to a new position so he wouldn't be a predictable target, behind a large metal pole. Two Guards appeared, one on each
side of the shed. The Guard on the right exposed his whole body and peppered lead in Alex's direction. Alex answered the Guard on the right with two rounds. Although Alex was aiming for the Guard's chest, Alex inadvertently leaned into the shot, pressing his muzzle down, and hit the Guard in the right side of his belly. Alex's second shot went higher, but too far right, missing the Guard. The Guard fell on his ass.

The Guard on the left emerged again and fired. Alex squeezed off two rounds, missing him. Alex ducked behind some pipes. He pushed his weapon around the side of the pipes and aimed at the left side of the shed, waiting for the Guard to show his face again. When he did, Alex busted a cap in the Guard's eye. His second round struck the Guard in the forehead.

Major Khan and his three remaining Guards had only two places to stick their heads out from: left of the shed or right of the shed. Between the shed and Alex, the Guards would be in open territory. If Alex allowed Major Khan and his men to advance to his position, they could use the multiple sources of cover and their superior numbers to shoot at him from more angles than he could protect himself from. He had to hold his ground.

Alex hustled to a position behind another tangle of pipes. All three Guards appeared from the left side of the shed, advancing toward his position while shooting. Their shots gave the pipes concealing Alex a severe spanking—oil sprayed from them. Alex flicked his selector switch to full auto and cut into the Guards, stopping their advance.

While Alex focused on halting the advance of the Guards to the left of the storage shed, Major Khan had taken aim from the right of the shed.
Bang!
An AK round struck Alex in the back of the right hand, exiting his palm and knocking his rifle out of his hand. “Damn!” Alex's rifle dangled by its sling.

Alex sidestepped and ducked to the left, avoiding Major Khan's line of fire, but Major Khan advanced while shifting his fire in Alex's
direction, popping holes in pipes that gushed oil into a pool on the ground. Alex kept moving to the left while he gripped his rifle with his left hand. He rose and fired on full auto, emptying his magazine. Alex wasn't accurate enough to hit Major Khan, but he was accurate enough to cause the major to slip in his tracks and fall on his back. Alex attempted to wiggle the bloody fingers on his right hand, but they wouldn't obey. His whole hand felt like it'd been stabbed with daggers. And his rifle had run out of bullets.

Major Khan must have sensed Alex was in trouble, because the major hopped up and charged Alex, spitting hell out of his rifle barrel. Alex crouched down to avoid being shot. The noise alone terrified him, but Alex knew he couldn't let his fear take over. He wanted to reload a new magazine into his weapon, but he wasn't sure he could do that with only one hand and at the same time successfully dodge Major Khan's bullets. Although Alex's customized Zoaf sound-suppressed pistol was in the holster on his right hip, he could reach around with his left hand, draw it, and reposition it for firing. There was also the option for Alex to use his last grenade.

With his left hand, Alex jerked the pin out of the grenade, but the grenade fell out of its pouch, landed on the ground, and the spoon flew. Alex ran away from the grenade and Major Khan. He dodged pipes and took cover behind a cluster of them.

Major Khan pursued.
Boom!

A piece of shrapnel ripped through Alex's trousers and stabbed him in his thigh. He grunted. Ignoring the pain, he sneaked around to the side to see what had happened to Major Khan. Dozens of geysers spouted black oil from pipes, permeating the air with fumes and changing the white snow to black. Slowly, Major Khan rose from the ground, his feet unsteady. The oil had transformed him into a hideous black monster.

Fire. I need fire
. Alex could shoot at metal and hope a spark would ignite. He didn't have a thermite grenade or even a lighter that would stay lit as he threw it. However, he remembered he hadn't used any
of his flash-bangs. Alex put a flash-bang under his right arm and held it tight while he pulled the pins, then he tossed it at Major Khan. More than a million candela flashed, 170 decibels of boom shook the air, and the oil around Major Khan combusted.

Major Khan became a human flame. He ran away from Alex, passing through the fire surrounding him, screaming in Farsi.

With his left hand, Alex reached across his stomach and drew his pistol. Then he manipulated it until he acquired the proper grip. He crouched while moving in Major Khan's direction, limping around the inferno. Fire had replaced the snow on the ground, and pipes sprayed flames like Roman candles. Alex felt the heat, especially on his face. The blaze lit up the surrounding area, helping Alex spot fresh tracks in the snow. He followed the tracks until he came to Major Khan crawling in the snow facedown. Major Khan was black from head to foot, his clothing tattered and smoldering. Maybe he sensed Alex standing there, or maybe he tired of crawling on his stomach, but Major Khan turned over on his back. He had no visible weapon. His badly burned face showed no emotion as he stared into Alex's eyes. Major Khan said something in Farsi.

“This is for Leila.” Alex shot Major Khan once in the left thigh.

Major Khan gritted his teeth and hissed.

“This is for Jabberwocky.” Alex shot him in the crotch.

Major Khan wailed.

“And this is for me.” Alex shot him in the forehead.

Blood oozed out of Major Khan's forehead. His eyes remained open as snow fell on them. Soon a light sheet of white covered his charred body, flickering in the light of the nearby inferno.

Alex sat down exhausted. He knew the oil might explode at any moment, but he was too tired to move.
Just need a little rest.

A minute later, out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. He turned his head and looked up to see an Iranian Revolutionary Guard standing there aiming his rifle at Alex's face.
So this is it. This
is how it ends.
The Guard grinned and squeezed his trigger. Alex closed his eyes.
Pop.
Alex felt a warm spurt of blood on his face.

Something was wrong. The shot wasn't loud enough, and Alex felt no pain. He opened his eyes. The Guard bled from the middle of his face. He swayed once before toppling over. Behind him stood Cat with her sound-suppressed AKMS aimed at where the Guard's head had been. “Sitting down on the job?” she asked.

Alex smiled weakly. “What took you so long?”

“Took the scenic route.” She noticed his right hand. “What happened?!” she exclaimed.

“Let's just get to the car before we run into any more surprises.”

“You need a doctor.”

“Not in St. Petersburg. Not after what we did here.”

“I'll charter a boat to Finland and contact our embassy. Take you to an operating room.”

“Thanks.” Alex stood and limped southwest.

Cat walked beside him. “What do we do about General Tehrani?”

“No idea.”

“Maybe he fell in the ocean and drowned.”

“I doubt it. He'll turn up one of these days, and when he does, he'll be somebody else's problem.”

J
ust before sunset, Alex parked his SUV in the parking lot of a AAA four-diamond steakhouse on the beachfront at Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach. Wearing khaki slacks, a white button-down shirt, and leather car coat, he walked inside and a cheery hostess greeted him. She noticed the bandages on his hand, then pretended she hadn't seen them. “Welcome to Salacia. I'm Jennifer. May I help you, sir?”

“Yes, I have a reservation.”

The waitress waited for a moment. When Alex didn't respond, she inquired, “May I ask your name, sir?”

Alex paused. He had used so many aliases throughout his career that remembering sometimes became a burden, but he always kept his first name the same: “Alex.” Then he remembered the alias for his last name. “Alex Brown.”

“Right this way, sir.”

Alex followed her through the restaurant. They passed patrons dressed in business casual. Alex walked behind the hostess as she went out onto the veranda. Although it was still winter, the day was unusually warm and most of the seats outside appeared full. He could see and smell the ocean—it made him feel peaceful. The hostess sat him at an intimate table for two. “Is this table okay?”