“Can’t hear myself fucking think!” Bolo bellowed.
“Never thought that was a problem for you,” Relay shouted back.
“Fuck off!”
“Enough!” Ruck said, making a slashing motion over his throat to shut the brothers up.
“No way anyone hears us!” I pointed out.
“Doesn’t mean I want to listen to them,” Ruck barked, glaring at the brothers.
“Why are these machines even running?” Strike yelled.
We all stopped to think about that. Ruck shrugged when we all looked his way. “Maybe these guys are getting rid of something they don’t want found.”
“Thank fuck Flir isn’t here,” Drifter shouted. When Bolo gave him a confused glance, he asked, “What do you think he’d do if he thought they were chopping up bodies in the same machinery used to pack beef?”
“No one tells him,” Ruck ordered. “I don’t want to have to inspect every piece of beef that comes through our doors from now on. Let’s go!”
I pulled my gun out of the holster. With my hearing severely impaired for the next few minutes I wanted to be ready in case we ran into our targets. The next room was more of a loading dock, and much quieter. Thank fuck.
Merc jammed a finger in his ear and wiggled it around as he worked his jaw from side to side. All of our ears were ringing from being in that last room.
Before we had a chance to say anything the loading doors began to open. Looking around, I bolted behind some shelves and then watched as my brothers did the same.
Kilo leaned heavily against me. “Find your own fucking hiding spot,” I muttered.
“Huh?” he asked, squinting at my mouth.
Sighing, I shoved him until he wasn’t leaning on me anymore.
Once the doors were fully opened I could see that two men were coming in from outside. Driver and helper, or two drivers. Whatever. That wasn’t important. Two more men from inside the loading dock were greeting them. That was four unsuspecting targets. I couldn’t see any more from this vantage point, but it was enough.
I made a hand motion to Bolo, who was across from us. Then whispered in Kilo’s ear, “I’ll start from the left, you take the center, Bolo’s got right.” He gave a single nod. With a quick glance at Bolo, I held up my fingers.Three. Two. One.
As one we stood and opened fire. The four men dropped like the sacks of shit they were. Our opening salvo caught them completely by surprise. Then the cow shit hit the fan.
Collective dickheads started pouring out of the woodworks. While we had—emphasis onhad—the element of surprise, apparently The Collective made a habit of their men being armed at all times. Everyone came running in, guns blazing, ready to shoot.
“Oh fuck!” I swiveled away from the loading dock to my left and fired at the lead men from that direction. I fired until the mag was empty, then dropped down to slap in a new one.
“Guess we should have done more recon!” Kilo hollered with a grin.
“Yeah, you always liked playing on easy mode.” I took two crouched steps to my left, then came up firing. One asshole down. A quick scan, then back behind cover. No one was out in the open anymore. They’d all dove behind cover as well. Our men were spread all over the loading dock, hiding behind different objects that just barely managed to be cover.
“Easy mode? We’re out numbered three to one.”
“More reconanda fair fight. You’re going soft.”
“Fuck you.” He stood and emptied another mag while I moved to flank the fuckers he was distracting. I didn’t have to tell him my intent. He knew where I’d be going. We couldn’t stay and slug it out across the loading bays. They had more men and more firepower. We had to get to their sides and roll them up. I knew that Ruck and Relay would be doing the same thing on the right. Kilo and Bolo would keep them pinned in place while we moved. Drifter and Hype would be covering our asses in case any more scumbags came in from behind us.
Of course, the enemy always had a say in any firefight. We couldn’t go into it thinking we were going to win easily. That was how you fucking lost. I ran across an opening trying to get behind a parked truck. Turned out they had the same idea for taking us out. Two men came around the side and leveled their pistols my way as soon as they spotted me.
There was nowhere to dive for cover. I raised my own gun and fired while running. Naturally the rounds went wild, but one round, either through a ricochet or luck, caught one of them in the thigh. He fell, knocking into his partner. It was all I needed.
I leaned into my sprint.Click.My mag was empty. I turned the rifle in my hands and leapt in the air like a fucking barbarian. I swung the gun in a downward arc at one fucker’s head. It exploded like a cantaloupe. I hadn’t been expecting that, but there wasn’t time to marvel at how the hell that had even happened.
Fuck me, now I have to wash blood out of my clothes.
