“They’re moving the delivery?” Marcus supposed.
“Either way, the Rangers need this intel,” Aberlour replied.
JD grabbed his transmitter to contact headquarters. He’d packed up everything except for their basic transmitter. They wouldn’t be able to receive any information, but they’d be able to warn them about the technical parked in front of the rat’s nest.
“What’s the ETA on the Rangers?” Aberlour asked, glancing at his watch to start a countdown to their arrival.
“Four minutes,” Oliver replied. He was packed and ready to move, keeping the two girls close to the wall and out of sight of the windows.
“Good. Take them downstairs. JD, go with him. Marcus and Carlos as well. Ghost and I’ll stay to monitor the situation. If the guys in the technical go after the Rangers, we’ll take out their gunner and be right behind you. Either way, as soon as the cavalry starts shooting, you need to move out.”
Marcus backed away from the window carefully and finished grabbing his gear along with the others.
“What about the girls?” Marcus asked Abe.
“Oliver has his orders. If he runs into trouble, back him up but whatever you do, don’t let those girls put a single foot inside that helicopter.”
Marcus acknowledged his instructions with a quick nod and took up his position again.
Aberlour had packed his scope and sniper rifle, and without it, his view wasn’t great. But the rat’s nest wasn’t so far away that it mattered. Aberlour could shoot a man from this distance using his standard issue rifle. It would be a cake walk.
“Do you think they know the Rangers are coming? Or is having the technical parked out front just a precaution?” Ghost asked quietly.
“No clue—” Abe said, shrugging. “But let’s get into position and get ready for the Rangers.”
Ghost gave him a quick salute in response.
Four minutes was a relatively short period of time, but as they watched men exit the rat’s nest like sand trickling down an hourglass, it seemed like an eternity. Aberlour began to worry the Rangers would be missing the party completely when the special delivery guy emerged from the front entrance. Still hobbled and blindfolded, he was surrounded by several men and loaded into the back of the truck, along with several large canvas bags. One of the men took his position behind the Dushka.
“Fuck,” Abe muttered. If they drove off, what in the hell was he supposed to do? Shoot the driver? Shoot out the tires and force the truck to a stop? If he did that, they’d be opening themselves up to retaliation. He didn’t have enough men or ammunition to hold up under a full-scale assault. Not for long at any rate! What if the Rangers failed to show as headquarters said they would? What if the Rangers had been ordered by headquarters to pull back?
“You got a clear shot to take out the driver?” Ghost asked, reading Abe’s mind.
“If I have to, yeah,” he replied.
He didn’t have to. As the words left his mouth, the first gun shot rang out, followed by angry shouts as the truck driver—who’d been climbing into the driver’s seat—fell to the ground, having taken a shot to the head. The street was suddenly crawling with Rangers, deadly and precise, a true weapon of mass destruction. The guy who manned the Dushka didn’t have time to take aim at the Rangers before he too was gunned down.
“Think they got the warning,” Ghost said with a smirk.
“Then it’s time to head out,” Aberlour replied.
They turned simultaneously towards the stairs and raced down the steps to the 1st floor, where large holes from a mortar shell attack left most of that level in plain view of the street. Aberlour caught sight of the Rangers surrounding the rat’s nest, gunning down every man in sight until the only one left standing was the blindfolded man.
“Let’s go!” Aberlour yelled, puzzled by the fact his team was all crowded around the back door. Why hadn’t they moved out by now?
“Rangers came crawling through here. Didn’t want to interfere with their mission,” Marcus responded, knowing exactly what Aberlour was thinking.
Fair enough. If they’d come across the Rangers on their way out, they could have been mistaken for the enemy and that would have been a total shit show.
“We should be clear to go now, so let’s move,” Abe said, shooting one look back at the ongoing war zone. The Rangers had a few men on their knees, and were pulling the blindfold off the man—
“Baba!” Ali yelled, catching sight of the man who had just had his blindfold removed. She slipped through Oli’s grasp like smoke, bolting towards him and weaving her way through the team of Rangers.
Her sister took off after her.
Oliver leaped into action to try to stop them. Aberlour just managed to catch him as he headed out the door, wrapping both arms around Oli’s waist and pulling him back into the house.
“Let me go!” Oliver demanded.
