Page 57 of Hot Soldier's Rescue

“When I say to, pop up and fire like mad,” he whispered in her ear.

Lentano’s men shouted and raced forward.

“Now!” Ted shouted as he fired both his pistols.

A tremendous crash of glass breaking intruded upon the firefight. Men swore and jumped in all directions as shards of glass flew. In the chaos, Ted took out two more men with careful shots to the head. Gut shots were easier targets, but a single head shot would stop most men. And by his count he only had a few bullets left.

He slammed in his last clip and gestured at Elise to cease fire. The kitchen went quiet. Lentano’s men retreated to huddle by the kitchen door.

“What are they waiting for?” Elise breathed. “We’re almost out of ammunition.”

“They don’t know that.” After a murmured conversation, most of the men left the kitchen at a run. “They’re coming around to the back door,” he whispered. He smiled as RoboSEAL cut loose in the lobby. Things might not be great in here, but Lentano’s men weren’t having a picnic tonight, either.

“We need to go,” Elise muttered from between clenched teeth.

She sounded close to panic. Which he supposed was a logical reaction to the situation. But he wasn’t quite done with Lentano’s men. “Not yet.”

Thankfully, she seemed to trust him and stayed put.

The gas smell was almost strong enough, but not quite. He gave it a few more seconds and then gestured toward the back door at Elise. She crawled the few feet to it and reached for the handle. He shouted at her to go as at the same time he fired his last few rounds at the stoves.

The ovens made a whooshing sound first, and then great balls of fire rolled out as the gas fumes detonated. Ted dived after Elise, landing beside her as a concussion of searing heat slammed into his back. He leaped to his feet, hauled her up and snatched the pistol she held out to him.

He took the gun and grabbed her hand as they took off running. Two men popped up in front of them, and on the run, he double-tapped shots at both men. They were hard shots and, although he hit both men, only one dropped. The other staggered but raised a weapon as Ted and Elise closed in on him.

At this range, the man stood a good chance of hitting and possibly killing them. Panic for Elise’s safety roared through him. Ted took a flying leap at the other man and slammed into the guy just as the man’s gun fired.

Something hot and hard slammed into his left shoulder as he impacted the man. He grabbed the man’s chin and yanked hard to the right. A sickening crunch accompanied the man’s broken neck. The guy dropped like a stone and Ted collapsed on top of him.

“Are you hit?” Elise’s hands were on him as he rolled over onto his back.

“Shoulder.”

She pressed her palm against the joint, but he shook her off. “I have to stop the bleeding,” she protested.

“Later,” he snapped.

“If you’re losing enough blood, there won’t be a later,” she snapped back.

As he climbed painfully to his feet, he ground out, “If we don’t move, you’ll die.”

“Tough. I’m not letting you bleed to death.”

He scooped up the fallen man’s semiautomatic weapon. It felt heavy, as though it was fully loaded. Praise the Lord. A pair of men rounded the corner into the alley and he fired from the waist, dropping both men efficiently. But hot pokers of agony exploded in his shoulder. The joint was hit. As soon as his adrenaline rush wore off, he would lose use of the limb.

Thankfully, his legs worked and he sprinted for the mouth of the alley. As he passed the two downed men, he paused long enough to pick up their weapons, as well. He passed a shotgun to Elise and shouldered the sling on the automatic machine pistol.

Several shadows rounded the corner and he spun behind the lone Dumpster. Elise had the good sense to mimic him.

“We’re pinned down,” she whispered frantically.

“Not hardly. Just do it like we did it in the jungle,” he instructed her. With as much ammunition as he had now, he wasn’t the slightest bit worried about the men in front of him. He popped to fire above the Dumpster, then spun out from beside it to fire again. He wasn’t one of the top marksmen in the U.S. military for nothing. In under a minute, the alley was littered with bodies and no one stood between them and freedom.

He moved out from behind the Dumpster in a half crouch, weapon at the ready. His shoulder was starting to lock up, and the pain was incredible. Only knowledge that Elise’s life rode on him getting her out of here kept him from crumpling to the ground.

He reached the corner and crouched, peeking around the corner quickly and then ducking back. The street he’d glimpsed was clear. Lentano and his men probably didn’t know what had hit them. What with RoboSEAL going crazy and him doing the whole killing machine thing, the Army of Freedom was down a whole lot of men at the moment.

Finally, he heard the sirens he’d been waiting for.

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