Page 78 of Luck Be Mine
But … no plan works past ten seconds.
It was such a beautiful plan.
The interior sweeps were clear, weapons identified, and data discovered and transmitted. K-Rock had the destruction objectives in progress. Seven minutes on the clock.
Gunfire erupted from the back corridor.
Shit! Hunt jerked upright, finding the correct camera.
“Party of six, Papa Bear.” Stemmons radio report was garbled by weapons fire. His helmet cam jostled wildly. “I’m hit.”
Hunt switched to Hernandez’s camera. The senior chief dashed down a corridor with Carter on his heels. They’d switched search objectives to get to Stemmons, but they were too far away.
“On it.” Baxter’s cool response came amid more gunfire. Hunt fisted his hands, quietly pounding them together while he counted the seconds.
“In position.” Tommy’s competence came through in his tone. “One down.” The open ceilings in the factory left a clear line of sight from the rafters.
A minute later, “two down.” Their sniper was earning his pay.
“Got Stemmons. Thigh and shoulder. Conscious.” Baxter fired his weapon, then grabbed Stemmons by the vest and pulled him to a more defensible spot. Hunt identified the streaks, blood and dust. Knuckles white, he stayed command steady, but fuck he wanted a gun and to be there, not here. This not being able to do anything rubbed against his training and his experience.
Hernandez and Carter arrived, racing down the corridor, weapons raised and firing. The gunmen leap-frogged, shooting,hiding. Every time one popped from behind a crate, the trio of shooters took them down until all was quiet.
Brennan spoke. “Sit-rep.”
Hernandez. “Shooters down. Six confirmed. We need evac, now.”
“Are we ready to execute grand finale?” Brennan’s cool, precise tone returned thoughts to mission objectives.
K-Rock. “Yes. Finished. Let’s get out of this tin can. It’s gonna be a pretty show.”
Brennan. “Exfil. Rendezvous in two. Take down in four. Don’t be in the building.”
Hunt watched as their exit was as smooth as their entrance. Baxter’s camera showed Stemmons over Carter’s shoulder. He identified the men he could see, but Doogie was missing.
“Alpha Two. Location.” Brennan said it before Hunt could.
“Exited a side door. I’ll beat you to the vehicles.”
“Copy.” Vehicles to the extraction point. Chopper pickup to the ship.
The explosion, when it hit, needed no confirmation. The factory blew into the night sky.
Hunt kept his sigh of relief on the down low. “Get our man to the aircraft carrier for medical attention first,” he ordered the yeoman on deck.
“Yes, sir. Confirming with the pilot now.”
Hunt snapped off the monitors and made himself stand in one place. Frustration, anger, and a whole bunch of questions crowded his thoughts.
There was always a shit factor. Always.
Yet….
Mission success. But the man down hit hard.
§§§§§§§§§§
◊ Nightwatch ◊
