It won’t take them long to figure out we’re behind here, and I’m betting they have the arsenal to blow us sky-high.
I prep another flare and stick it in my back pocket while cocking my MK-17.
“Do I even want to know what you’re planning, Em?” Mori laughs as he bites down on the pin of a grenade and tosses it over the boulder toward the base. His tactical gear is smeared with clumps of dirt and ash, it’s hardly even noticeable since we blend in so well.
The explosion shakes the ground and bright warm colors lash out around us, lighting up those sage eyes of his I find so lovely.Freeze time right here, forever, I silently wish.
The moment is lost the second Gage’s voice comes over the headsets.
“What the fuck was that?!” He sounds frantic and I can’t help but snort at what his face must look like right now.
Thomas’s voice carries from the background. “Three hostiles exiting the lower level and pursuing on ground toward Mori and Morphine,” he says calmly. He doesn’t seem the least bit surprised by my actions.
Funny, because Mikah didn’t either. She was excited to help me set this all up after she hacked into not only the Dark Forces’s drones, but the hideout’s cameras as well. Sneaking around the watch crew wasn’t as easy, but it’s so damn empty out here and they probably never see any action so they were blissfully busy chatting the time away and not paying attention to me as I placed my flares and explosives as close as I could.
I shrug, knowing only Mori can see it. “Lieutenant said we were the diversions, didn’t he? I’m just making a better one than the plan called for.” My partner glowers and works his hand over his jawline in a stressed motion, but it also looks like he’s trying to hide a smile.
Gage laughs. “That sounds about right, but you know we call that insubordination, Morphine.” His mic cuts out and the sound of a high-caliber bullet cuts through the air and hits something soft in the valley. A hard thud follows, and by the sound of it, the guards are about one hundred feet away.
Mori looks me over quickly, hesitation dancing across his gaze before he mutters, “What’s step two in your master plan, Morphine?” A hint of amusement coats his tone.
I jerk my head for him to follow me as I lift the scope to my eyes and shoot the small tag I laid out last night. A mischievous grin pulls at the corners of my lips as the tag ignites into a plume of pink smoke. Fuse rope is attached to the smoker flares, leading across the valley in every which way, igniting more flares every twenty feet.
“Jesus,” Mori mumbles behind me as we run toward the hostiles. “Knives only until the smoke clears.” His voice is clipped and low as we near them.
Gage cuts back in. “Visibility is below ten percent. No firepower from above.”
Perfect.I unsheathe my KA-BAR and pull down the white phosphor goggles.
About eleven armed men rally around the field, they’re walking slow and keeping together in a pretty tight circle.
I glance over my shoulder at Mori. He nods at me, his goggles are already down and his knife braced tightly in his grip, ready to kill without question.
We each take one side of the circle. Mori carefully walks around the group as they pass us about twenty feet away. Would a grenade be too close? We could easily get rid of them being bunched up together like this, it makes no sense strategically.
Unless.
I stop dead in my tracks and whirl, looking frantically for figures closer to the base. There are three guards standing with weapons raised our way. I have a millisecond to respond.
“Get down!” I shout, dropping like a stone in water.
Mori drops just as a shot goes off. If it hit him, he doesn’t make a sound to indicate that he’s been hurt. Another shot. The dirt jumps a few inches from my face.
Fuck this.
I grab a flare from my back pocket and break the seal. It jumps to life as I stand and charge straight into the group of men. Panic arises rapidly as I shove the stick into one of their back pockets. A quick stab in one of their thighs and?—
The man howls, firing his gun into his own comrades only feet away from him.
They all scatter, some firing back, others ducking. The goodnews is that the tightly knit group has been broken, making it hard for the snipers to know who is who.
I look back in the direction of the base. Mori has already slit the throats of two of them. On his way to the third.Oh.Well I guess I didn’t need to do that then.Show off.I blow out a breath and he glides his knife over the last one’s throat. They must’ve been focusing on what I was doing to not have seen him approaching.
Two can play at this game. I unclip a grenade from my belt and nonchalantly pull the pin, I trot ten feet before I release the trigger and toss it behind me. The ground rumbles again with the explosion. A few of the guards who were trying to get around me stumble. I lift my MK-17 and shoot one through the chest and the other through the neck.
“Show off,” Mori teases me, his voice over the headset is smooth and unbothered, like this is a normal day. But I feel completely rapturous. My breaths are fast and my fingertips tingle, excited to pull the trigger once more. It’s overwhelming, and an itch of sorts forms in the way that an insatiable need to continue grows.
Erik whispers over the headsets, “I don’t recall grenades being a part of the plan.” They must already be inside if he’s talking this quietly.
