Page 69 of Spyder
But Zavala’s ranks at the warehouse have swelled and I’m counting better than three dozen at the moment. That doesn’t include whatever mutts Zavala is bringing up with him from Mex.
“All teams, check in.” Prophet’s voice comes through the comms. “Black team is ready.”
“Red team checking in and standing by.” Cosmo’s quiet voice comes through.
I look to the ridge to the east, knowing Cosmo’s team is out there waiting. To the west are Doc and his team. And to the south of our position, Prophet and his team are waiting to breach from the rear.
“Green team in position,” Doc says.
“Fuchsia team in position,” I crack.
Nitro and I have the demo and overwatch position and will be providing sniper fire as cover. But we don’t have a team designation, so I threw that in just to add a little levity to an increasingly tense situation. I’m sure it annoyed Prophet, but I think the guys appreciated a little chuckle right about now.
“Stow it, Spyder,” Prophet says, though he doesn’t sound too irritated.
As we settle in to wait, I check my weapon again, just giving myself something to do while we wait. Tarantula didn’t have an exact time that Zavala would be arriving, just that it would be sometime after nightfall. So we made sure to get ourselves in position and settled in to wait. I don’t like waiting. I’ve never been great with patience, and I’d rather get this started sooner rather than later.
“You need to learn to relax, man,” Nitro says. “The fight will be here soon enough. No use getting worked up about it.”
“I’m just not as Zen as you.”
“Clearly.”
I double-check to make sure the safety on my weapon is on then turn and look over the compound again. There are guys hustling around, and there seems to be a lot of activity within the fence line in general. More so than ten minutes ago. It’s like kids who are cleaning up really fast before their parents show up. That tells me we’re getting close. The realization tightens my gut even more.
“When you’re tense and worked up, you’re more likely to make a mistake and get yourself killed. Or worse, get me killed,” Nitro says with a grin.
“Sorry, I don’t have the combat experience you guys do. It’s still new to me.”
“I’ve seen you in action. You’re fine, man. You handle yourself like a vet.”
“Doesn’t feel like that.”
“You should always be on edge before a battle. The minute you get complacent is the minute you’re dead,” he says. “But I saw what you did at the cabin when we took out those sicarios. That took balls, man. Serious balls.”
“Yeah, well, I do something like that again and if Zavala doesn’t kill me, Bellamy will.”
He laughs softly. “It’s nice to have somebody worth trying to stay alive for, huh?
“It really is. I never expected that I’d ever have somebody like her in my life, but here we are.”
“Life is funny that way. Throws you a bone when you least expect it.”
“What about you?” I ask. “Got somebody worth staying alive for?”
Nitro opens his mouth to reply, but the crackle over the comm cuts him off, and then Prophet’s gravelly voice comes over the line.
“Look alive, we’ve got incoming,” Prophet says. “Nitro, Spyder, you guys are on. Stay sharp. Red team, green team, stand ready.”
I see the headlights bouncing down the narrow access road that runs in from the highway, and my stomach feels like it’s turning itself inside out.
“Half a dozen SUVs,” I say.
“Copy that. Standing by,” Nitro replies.
I raise my goggles and put the night-vision binoculars to my eyes. From our elevated position, I can see the small blinking light on the back of the IEDs Nitro planted along the access road. I guess what he learned during his time over in the shit, specifically about the enemy IEDs he had defused, is actually coming in handy.
I watch the line of SUVs rolling down the road, timing it so the maximum number of vehicles are going to be caught up in the blast zone. With any luck, Zavala will be killed outright. If so, it may end things before they get out of hand. That would be the ideal. But it’s not something I’m counting on. Things rarely go that smoothly.
