Son of a bitch!
For an operation that couldn’t go wrong, this was now an official clusterfuck.
“Cobra Actual, this is Cruz. We’re pinned down across from the warehouse. There’s no way for us to make extract. Twenty or so hostiles are inside the warehouse and headed your way.”
“Copy that.”
The rest of the bastards spread out, surrounding the warehouse. They weren’t regular Venezuelan military.
Sister María looked out the window. “Guachimanes—the Watchmen, Luis Sánchez’s private army. So now we’re stuck here?”
She sounded more irritated than afraid.
“For now.” Dylan could just see the roof of the warehouse, the Sikorsky appearing out of the night and coming in to land. “If they don’t lift off quickly, they’re going to come under fire.”
Then he saw something that made his blood run cold.
Two of the men unloaded a crate from the back of the truck and opened it to reveal an RPG—a rocket-propelled grenade. The thing wasn’t assembled yet, but when it was, it would shoot the helo out of the sky.
“Cobra Actual, this is Cruz. Hostiles on the ground have an RPG. I say again, they have an RPG. You need to get airborne—now.”
“¡Mierda!” Sister María whispered.Shit.
Dylan couldn’t blame her for the lapse. If that helicopter didn’t lift off fast, they would watch while the others were blown to bits. If he’d been by himself, he’d have opened fire and done his best to take out the men in the street.
Tower seemed to read his mind. “Cruz, this is Cobra Actual. Do not engage! We’ll get you out some other way.”
“Copy that.”
Sister María looked up at him, her face hidden in the shadows. “Is the helicopter going to make it?”
“I don’t know.”
The Sikorsky lifted off and nosed into the wind, the team now returning fire.
Ratatat! Ratatat! Ratatat!
In the street not twenty feet away from him, idiots who’d clearly never used an RPG before almost had it figured out.
“¡Puñeta! Fuck!
Seconds felt like hours as the helicopter passed overhead, picked up speed, and disappeared.
Godspeed.
Dylan let out a relieved breath.
Then …
A baby’s cry. Worried voices.
“What’s happening?”
“That’s gunfire. Someone was shooting.”
“Stay down,mi amor!”
The noise had awakened the neighbors, and it was only a matter of time before someone opened their apartment door and discovered them here.