Garrett stayed low while Digger took the upper stance. Both men’s shots were synced as they simultaneously took out the first two targets. With the entrance cleared, Bones and Apollo followed as the four men moved deeper into the moonlit warehouse.
“Your location’s been compromised.” Shadow’s announcement came as no surprise. “Three tangos are headed your way.”
Weapons secured, the team moved past the two bodies through the industrial space. Another rush of adrenaline spiked through Garrett’s veins as he steeled himself for a fight he knew was coming.
Shadow had given them invaluable intel on their opponents’ general locations and movement, but no one could accurately predict the last-minute decisions the remaining tangos might make. For this reason, the men of Tac-Ops kept their guard up and their trigger fingers ready.
In a wave of movements, each team member did as they’d been trained to do.
Bones reached for the door’s handle. Apollo withdrew an M18 smoke grenade from his vest and waited. After another silent countdown courtesy of Digger, Bones curled his fingers around the knob as Apollo inserted his gloved index finger into the thin metal circle at the top of the grenade.
Pulling the pin, Apollo waited for Bones to open the door before releasing the grenade’s safety lever and tossing the metal cannister through the door’s opening. The bursting charge was released, its telltale hiss preluding a billowing stream of thick red smoke.
The instant cover allowed the team to enter the space unseen while their infrared goggles attached to their combat helmets made it possible to locate their targets with ease.
Through the thick, swirling smoke, the team brought the three bastards into their sights. Garrett dropped the first tango to fill his vision.
Almost simultaneously, Bones and Apollo took down the other two while Digger covered the team, sweeping the space for additional threats.
Thirty seconds later, the smoke had all but cleared as Garrett and the others crossed the expansive space toward the room where the remaining hostage takers, or HTs, were presumably located.
According to Shadow’s intel, there were only two tangos left. Both holed up in the same enclosed area as the twelve men Garrett and his teammates had come here to save.
.
“Shadow, tell me what you see,” Digger ordered as they covered the distance toward their final targets.
“I’m still picking up fourteen heat signatures in the room to your left.”
Twelve hostages. Two tangos. Exactly what they were anticipating.
“Perimeter?” Digger double-checked.
“Clear.”
“Copy that.”
Positioning themselves by the door—Digger and Bones on the left, and Apollo and Garrett on the right—the four men readied themselves for what they hoped to be their last confrontation on this particular op.
Just as he’d done for the initial breach, Digger used hand signals to count down from three. When he curled his fingers inward to form a tight fist, the team sprang into action.
Using the same type of low-impact explosive as before, Apollo blew the locks. The door popped open, a smoke grenade was thrown, and the team took out the final two HTs with relative ease.
It had all gone exactly as planned.
Blowing out a breath, Garrett lifted his goggles and lowered his weapon, relaxing for the first time since coming here.
He had no way of knowing what a grave mistake he was making.
The threats had all been neutralized, but what they didn’t expect—what he, Shadow, or the others couldn’t possibly have predicted—was for one of the hostages to pick up a dead HTs gun and aim it directly at Garrett.
“Wait!” Garrett threw up a hand to show the man they were the good guys. But it was too late.
The terrified hostage pulled the trigger, releasing a round of ammunition through the automatic rifle’s barrel. The single projectile tore through the stale air, the heated metal heading straight in Garrett’s direction.
Traveling at 3,300 feet per second, there was no way to avoid being hit.
The bullet slammed into the center of Garrett’s chest, forcing him off his feet. He landed with a hard thud, his back and head bouncing off the room’s cool concrete floor.