Page 54 of Croatia Collateral

Pulled off balance, the guard stumbled and pitched forward. Before he could regain stability, Dax planted his foot in the man’s back, kicking hard, sending him crashing into a stone wall.

The Russian slid to the ground.

Dax dove through the door with only inches to spare.

He ran along the corridor. Left turn here. Or was it right? Following his gut, he could sense he was nearing the command center. At the next corner, he slowed to a halt and peeked around it.

Two guards stood on either side of a door. One held a submachine gun, the other a rifle. They faced away from each other, each looking down the pathways leading toward them.

Dax ducked back around the corner, trying to figure out how to get past two heavily armed guards without them seeing him.

He had no way to distract them. And no gun to shoot them from a distance. All he had was a stun gun he could only use at close quarters.

That settled it.

Dax stepped into the passage and held his hands in the air. “Don’t shoot,” he called out in his limited Russian, hoping he’d got it right.

Instantly, their weapons were trained on him. He moved forward, trying to remember the word for surrender. When he couldn’t recall the right words, he said, “YA tvoy plennik.” I am your prisoner.

The man with the submachine gun motioned for the other guy to approach Dax.

Dax kept walking toward them. He had to get close enough to both of them to use the stun gun. And he had to get his hands into his pocket to get to the device.

The guy with the machine gun wasn’t chancing it. He stayed far enough away Dax wouldn’t be able to stun him and the rifleman in rapid succession.

All he could hope was that they wouldn’t take away his stun gun and use it on him.

Rifleman reached for Dax’s raised hands.

Machinegun Dude started to type the code into the keypad, keeping his gun pointed toward Dax even if his attention wasn’t.

As rifleman lowered Dax’s left arm, Dax lowered his right, slipped it into his pocket, turned slightly and pressed the pocket and the stun gun into the Russian’s side.

He yelped and dropped to the floor.

Dax dove for the man with the submachine gun, knocking the barrel to the side with his left hand and tagging the man with the stun gun in his right hand.

The man went down like a ton of bricks, his head making a sickening thud against the stone.

Dax hit both men once more with the stun gun and relieved them of their weapons.

He removed the bolt from the rifle and slung the strap of the machine gun over his head.

After one more hit from the stun gun to each guard, he entered the code into the keypad.

As the door swung open, he stepped through. “It’s over Maas.” He aimed the submachine gun at Maas and Yamaguchi, standing at the station behind the plexiglass.

Maas glanced up, his eyes wide. Then they narrowed. “Do your jobs, damn it,” he called out. to the Russians.

Four guards didn’t wait for Rotenberg to translate. They came at him at once.

Dax couldn’t let Maas go through with his plan. He had to stop him, and this might be his last chance. He braced himself and pulled the trigger, aiming at Maas. The burst of bullets slammed into what Dax had assumed was plexiglass.

When it didn’t shatter, he realized his mistake. It wasn’t plexiglass, it was bulletproof glass.

Dax turned the submachine gun on the Russians, closing in on him.

When he pulled the trigger a second time, nothing happened. The gun had jammed.

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