Jamie readjusted his grip on his weapon while Kyle took out several people beyond the compound’s wall from his overwatch position on the mountainside. Less than a minute later, Kyle came back ontheline.
“Clear!”
Jamie ducked around the corner, sighting down his gun as he cased the area. Madison was right beside him while SF Corps operatives fanned out around them. Jamie advanced toward the main entrance, picking off targets with clean shots as the enemy attempted tostopthem.
Jamie glanced up as someone flew overhead, mentally tagging Annabelle Brown’s flight path. The former Night Stalker pilot was the only flier on the team, her anti-gravity power useful in removing the enemy’s weapons from their grip while she targeted them withgrenades.
Jamie reached the heavy metal door first and discovered it was locked. Madison put her back to him, guarding his six, and said, “Want me to take it out,Apollo?”
Jamie pressed one hand against the seam where the two sliding doors met in the middle. “Igotthis.”
They didn’t know what might be contained on the other side, and an explosion wasn’t a good way to find out. Drawing back his arm, Jamie punched one of the doors off its skids and onto the cement floor with his enhanced strength. The crash echoed in the corridor beyond. Jamie immediately brought up his rifle as he stepped inside the compound. Madison followed after him, the sound of gunfire outside dulled behind the thick cementwalls.
The comms clicked in his ear, Staff Sergeant Alexei Dvorkin’s voice coming through loud and clear. “Am in. Not find heavy security so far.Isodd.”
“Here’s hoping they didn’t set charges like back in Montana,” Donovan Williams replied. Those two were leading the push into the compound from the south in a flankmaneuver.
“Here’s hoping the cartel left their victims alive if they knew we were coming and made a run for it,”Jamiesaid.
“You really think they wouldn’t kill their testsubjects?”
“Trying to think positivehere,Tank.”
“Is cartel. Nothing positive about cartel,” Alexeigrumbled.
Someone rushed around the corner up ahead. Jamie pulled the trigger before his mind even fully processed the automatic rifle the cartel fighter carried. The sound of his and Madison’s weapons going off at the same time echoed dully in the longcorridor.
“Viper, scan status?” Jamie said as they cleared theintersection.
They weren’t on American soil and weren’t technically beholden to the laws governing her telepathic power. Leeway was given in the middle of a firefight, and Mexico had agreed to allow Katie full use of her telepathy for this mission. Katie was one of the most honorable people Jamie had ever known, and while she’d stay completely out of their allies’ minds, she was ruthless when it came to theenemy.
“You still have people inside the compound. Fighters mostly, not any scientists,”Katiesaid.
Jamie grimaced. That was as clear a sign as any they weren’t going to find any survivors. “Do you know if they’ve riggedcharges?”
“Not yet, but a couple of them are destroying theservers.”
“Deal with them. We’ll handletherest.”
Katie was a strong telepath, but she had her limits. Gaining full mental control over a person took effort, and she could only focus her power like that on four or five people at a time under optimal circumstances. Doing so ate away at her concentration though, something she couldn’t risk in the middle of afirefight.
“Bones to Apollo. I’m with Viper,” Trevor announced over the comms, putting Jamie’s mind at ease that someone was watching her six. “Fighting is clearing upouthere.”
Which meant they’d be leaving a lot of dead bodies behind them when they called for an extraction. Autumn in the mountains was still warm enough to make decomposition an unpleasant affair for any cleanup crew the Mexican government might try to send in. Jamie figured they’d probably leave the bodiestorot.
Jamie didn’t know what they would find inside the compound. TheFederaciónCartel was known for control of the border on this side of the invisible line, charging exorbitant fees to desperate illegal immigrants from Mexico, Latin America, and South America looking for a better life in the United States andCanada.
Even with vertical farms to feed the masses, desalinization factories dotting the coasts, and pollution filtration towers in every major suburb and megacity across the world, a safe quality of life was not a guarantee for everyone. Contested borders on nearly every continent ensured criminal enterprises would always prey on the desperate and destitute. Climate change and war had destabilized too many places over the centuries for peace to last long enough to make adifference.
The desperate, Jamie knew, were willing to do anything for a shot at a better lot in life. It was unsurprising they would put themselves in the corrupt hands of a coyote who led them not to a promised land, but into agrave.
Jamie tapped the side of his tactical goggles, switching the maps to a wider view, enabling him to pinpoint their location in thecompound.
“Let’s head below,” Jamie said as they hurried down the longhallway.
“Whatever you say, boss,” Madisonreplied.
Jamie led the way, pausing here and there to exchange fire with the enemy until his people ruthlessly took them out. Most cartel members lived and died by the gun; surrender was a coward’s way out, and the only acceptable way to die was by way of abullet.
