There was a click, and the blue glow from an LED flashlight filled the room. About nine bodies were splayed around him, arms and legs spread, blood seeping onto the floor. “Grab their weapons. That was only round one.” It was easy work for his team.
They armed themselves with more guns and a couple of extra grenades, and Mack snatched a radio from one of the men’s belts. It wouldn’t hurt in the least to be on the inside loop of Mankel’s communication.
They’d taken out all the men on the ground floor, which left only the men up the staircase before they took the basement. Mack smiled. “Time for a little hide-and-seek.”
Merc clicked off his light and the team silently ascended the staircase, avoiding a dead body on the left. There were two doors opposite each other, and that was it. The compound was small by Mankel’s standards. His movements just visible in the dim glow from the doorway, Mack signaled for his team to split. They were dividing to conquer.
The landing was wide enough for them to break off left and right.
Mack crept down the hall, watching Riser and Ethan’s backs, the dim light fading as they approached the door on the left. They looked back; Mack nodded. Riser kicked in the door and they moved in, weapons raised.
Mack was distantly aware of the sound of gunfire in the other room, but all his attention was focused on the cavernous, nearly empty bedroom before him. He was so close to Mankel he could taste the victory. Two years of just missing the bastard responsible for Shane’s capture and death ate at him, gnawing on his soul like a starved dog with a bone.
Now he was minutes from feeding his need for revenge.
Pop. Mack charged back, searing pain ripping through his left shoulder. He rolled. Motherfucker. On the ground, he could see his assailant’s feet beneath the bed.
Mack fired a round, savoring the sound of the bullets sinking into the other man’s foot. Screams filled the air as he hit the ground, and Mack took him out with a single bullet to the head. “Clear.”
Riser fired off another round, and the guy seeking cover behind the dresser on the right fell to the ground.
“Colonel, you’re hit.” Riser rushed across the room and pressed his hand against Mack’s wound.
Mack hissed as fresh blood seeped into his armpit. “It didn’t hurt until you jabbed a finger into it.”
“You’ll live.” Riser said through a grin.
Mack pulled away from Riser’s probing eyes and moved back out to the hallway. “I’m good. Let’s move.”
His men circled up, backs to one another, keeping an eye out for the enemy. The other half of the team joined them with a nod.
“The entrance to the basement is supposed to be on the south corner,” Mack said.
He and his men crossed the hallway, pounded down the staircase, and lined up next to a big-ass metal door with a ten-digit keypad for a lock. Lights flickered overhead and then went out, casting them in complete darkness. “He’s fucking with us.”
Ethan crouched in front of the keypad, working his magic. The guy was like a freaking computer whisperer. “You surprised, Colonel?”
Mack ratcheted his rifle, loading another round. “Not in the least. We’ve got him rattled. I hope he’s pissing his pants.”
A small beep sounded from above and the door clicked open, squeaky hinges and all. “After you.” Ethan grabbed his rifle he’d propped against the wall.
Icy anticipation replaced the blood in Mack’s veins. Mankel was down there. He could feel it in his bones. There was no trickle of light from an open door or a cracked window down here. Just straight-up sinister blackness. “I’ve got the lead,” Mack said. “Night vision goggles on.” He snapped his own goggles in place, and the stairway came into view through a grainy green image. A long, empty hallway stretched out at the base of the stairs, and then opened into a larger room that looked like it held tables and lab equipment.
Mack took the first step down into the hell that Jack Mankel had created.
The only sound was their breathing as they silently descended the steep set of stairs.
Caroline had to be here. The lab equipment all but confirmed it. If Mankel really was running some kind of next-level experiment, this place was certainly set up for it.
They stopped at the end of the staircase, his men lining up with their backs pressed to the wall. Mack craned his neck around the corner. The room was two times bigger than he’d originally thought, lined with large, glass-walled cells. Holy shit. These weren’t cages for monkeys and animal testing. These were the size of jail cells.
His fury ignited, exploding through his body like a hundred pounds of C-4 strapped to his chest. “Y’all seeing what I’m seeing?”
“We found Mankel’s little lab,” came Merc’s low reply.
Hollow tubes seeped from the walls like long tendrils of evil. Empty cots hung in each cell, absent sheets or pillows. Faded blood stains covered the floors in large cancerous splotches, evidence of some horrible atrocity committed and then erased.
“Jesus,” Mack breathed out, shocked horror permeating his words.
