The target cut right, down a narrow side street. A white sedan blew through the far intersection and skidded sideways, blocking the team’s positions, except for mine and Chris’s.
Doors flew open before the tires stopped moving.
Muzzles flashed.
“Ambush!” Jason shouted.
So, yeah. The run wasn’t random.
It was choreographed.
Rounds cracked overhead. A vendor’s cart exploded in splinters beside me. Josh dropped behind a concrete barrier and returned fire. Dom and Marcus stitched rounds from their rooftop perch. Sammy dragged a civilian to cover.
The target kept sprinting.
It’s a trap, and he’s the bait flashed like a Hollywood marquee.
“Alex, hold the line!” Parker snapped.
I heard him. The words got through, but they didn’t take hold. Pivoting, I shot down an alley to cut off the guy’s escape route. Chris plastered himself to my six, moving with me instinctively without any words spoken.
The target darted into a narrow alley.
“You’re buying beers if this goes sideways,” he muttered as we followed the man.
“Shut up and run,” I shot back.
The alley swallowed the noise from the market. Too quiet. Too tight. And getting tighter with every step.
The target was twenty yards ahead.
He didn’t look back.
A door flew open. A muzzle appeared. I lifted my weapon, but I hesitated. One moment, everything was quiet, and in the space between one breath and the next, gunfire erupted.
The world went loud and ugly. A sledgehammer wrapped in fire slammed into my side, bursting into flames just under my plate. My body twisted. I dropped, hitting the ground hard and forcing the air from my lungs.
My hand slid to the spot, pulling it out a moment later. The glove I wore appeared dark, and wetness seeped through to my skin. My hand dropped to the ground.
“Fuck!”
I took a round. The motherfucker shot me. With the realization came pain. The likes of which I’d never experienced before. It beat at me. I measured my breaths staring upwards. Makeshift awnings partially obscured the dark abyss above me.
“Alex!” Chris called out to me, dropping to a knee beside me. “You okay?” he asked.
I stared up at him from my back. My heartbeat pounded in my ears, my vision blurred, then pulsed. My mouth fell open to answer, but words escaped me.
“All Echo stations, converge alley right. Echo Five is hit! Repeat, Echo Five is hit.”Dom barked through my headset.
“Push!”Parker ordered.
Gunfire erupted again, flying over me. Chris moved, placing himself between the shooter and me.
Shooters, I corrected, clocking a second shooter leaning out, adjusting his angle on us.
I tried to sit up, but my body refused. I pulled my sidearm and rolled, firing on the second shooter, dropping him. Roundsate up the ground around us. Chris shifted, returning fire. Another burst followed. Chris moved again, blocking the rounds pelting us.
“Fucking hell!”
