Page 55 of Hot Soldier's Rescue

Chapter Twelve

Ted had been in some bad situations in his life, but this took the cake, hands down. Three hostages was bad enough, but the odds were twenty to one against him. Half that many hostiles he could’ve handled, but the sheer number of rebels around him would do him in.

Lentano spoke almost jovially. “There’s only one little problem, my friend. I think you’re a fake. You talk a good line, have a slick answer for every question I ask. But I don’t think you are who you say you are. You planning to steal my money and disappear, maybe?” His voice rose on a note of anger and the smiled faded from his face. “You think I’m stupid?”

Ted knew exactly how this scenario went. The guy would work himself up into a frenzy and order his men to open fire.

However, he’d spent the past half hour preparing for just that eventuality. He’d arranged a surprise for Lentano and his Army of Freedom. A little something to even up the odds if it came to a firefight. He spoke aloud, knowing the gang at H.O.T. Watch would be listening to the microphone sewn into his collar and knowing they would understand he was actually talking to them. “You guys ready?”

Lentano looked at him as though he’d lost his mind. “For what?”

As Ted spoke, the smile faded from his face until nothing but death radiated from him. “For a small demonstration of why it’s very, very bad form to insult a man like me.”

The hotel’s front door cracked open. Everyone spun to face it, yanking out pistols and pointing them at the empty doorway. A squat silver box about two feet tall and wide and maybe three feet long rolled into the lobby.

Lentano began to laugh. “What the hell is that?”

Ted answered, “That is known in the business as RoboSEAL. Perhaps a small demonstration of its capability would be in order.”

A half dozen doors flipped open without warning and all of a sudden, the box was bristling with gun barrels. The insurgents turned their weapons on the box threateningly. He wondered if they had any idea how silly they looked drawing on a squat little robot. Of course, they didn’t know that RoboSEAL was armored with high-tech alloys and being operated by an entire team of remote warfare technicians at H.O.T. Watch headquarters. It had been designed to withstand better than the likes of them.

Drago dove for Mia and Emanuel, who were on the other side of a sofa from him. Grabbing one in each arm, he rolled to the floor as RoboSEAL opened fire. He could only hope that Grandma had the sense to duck and follow him to cover. Thankfully, she did.

Mia screamed against his chest, and he held her tight as a deafening explosion of noise and muzzle flashes erupted. He was traumatizing an already traumatized child, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t let Lentano kill her.

He shoved the children at Grandma and pulled out his own weapons as he sprinted across an open space to take cover behind a pillar well away from the three of them. He needed to draw the fire in his direction once Lentano’s men realized they were having no effect on RoboSEAL.

Men had scattered in all directions and six were already down in pools of their own blood. The robot was rolling forward, continuing to spray lead in deadly bursts. Another man went down before Ted dived for cover.

“Get Cantori!” Lentano screamed.

Chips of concrete flew past his face as at least several of the insurgents turned their fire on him. Crouching low, Ted spun out from behind the pillar and took two quick shots. Another man down.

A voice in his ear complained, “Tell us the next time you break cover, Captain, and we’ll lay down covering fire for you.”

“Roger,” he bit out. “Now.” He spun out again as RoboSEAL erupted in flashes of light and sound. Ted took out two more men before he had to jump back behind the pillar. A sharp pain in his side announced that his bullet-resistant vest had taken a hit.

He took an experimental deep breath. No problem. He wasn’t injured. By his count, it was down to about ten men out there now. That was the good news. The bad news was the surviving rebels had all found cover of their own. And Grandma and the kids were still pinned down behind that couch out in the middle of the room. As soon as one of the rebels got over his shock long enough to engage his brain, one of them would turn his weapon on the helpless old woman and children.

He slammed new clips into both of his pistols, wielding one in each hand. He announced to H.O.T. Watch, “I’ve got to get the kids. Give me cover.”

“Negative. Too many targets,” someone from H.O.T. Watch retorted.

“Too bad. I gotta go.”

“Don’t be a—”

Whether the voice would’ve called him a hero or an idiot, Ted never found out because he charged out from behind the pillar, shooting simultaneously with both hands. His accuracy dropped considerably when he had to fire like this, and he went through ammunition like crazy, but the shock value was high. More to the point, the bad guys all ducked for cover.

Time slowed to a crawl as he ran. Insurgents locked onto him with eyes and weapons in slow motion as he ran across their fields of fire. And then a tremendous explosion erupted behind him, knocking him off his feet and rendering him partially deaf. His ears rung and white lights danced in front of his eyes as he rolled onto his back.

Holy Mother of God.

Elise. And she looked like an avenging angel, with a second Molotov cocktail at the ready in her right hand. A huge fireball rose up in front of Eduardo Lentano, as whatever flammable substance she’d filled the bottle with burned furiously.

As he finished the roll and came to his knees, she threw the second Molotov cocktail. The men between Ted and the children threw up their arms protectively and fell back from the exploding flames.

It was just the opening he needed. Ted raced to the sofa. Emanuel cowered in Grandma’s arms, and Ted scooped up Mia. “This way!” he shouted over the roaring fires, the shooting robot, the screams of the dying and the chaos of Lentano trying to rally his men.

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