Logan's rifle barked beside me. Controlled three-round bursts. A Wolf on the rooftop of the outbuilding screamed, folded, and slid off the edge.
A group of five Wolves was advancing from the main building—a large structure at the compound's center, two stories, the front doors still intact. They moved in formation, firing as theycame, their rounds pinging off the van and kicking dirt in front of our position.
Tank's driver door swung open. I saw his arm—massive, reaching out of the van—and his hand, holding two grenades. The pins already pulled. He'd been holding them.
He threw both in a single underhand motion that sent the grenades in a low arc toward the advancing group. One of the Wolves saw them. His eyes went wide.
"GRENADE!"
Too late. The pins had been pulled early. The grenades hit the ground six feet from the group and detonated on impact—two overlapping blasts that turned the air white and filled it with shrapnel. The concussion wave knocked me back against the van. When the smoke cleared, the five Wolves were on the ground. None of them were getting up.
A group of Wolves broke formation. Firing as they ran—not toward us. Away. Back inside.
"Retreat!" A Wolf's voice, high and cracked. "Fall back! Fall back!"
I keyed the comms. "All Phoenixes, do not approach the main building. Take cover."
The response came in movement—men dropping behind barriers, pressing against walls, clearing what was about to be a blast zone.
"Irish. Main building front door. Now."
"Copy. Heads down, brothers."
The whistle came three seconds later—the RPG crossing from the hilltop in a streak of white.
It exploded against the main building's front doors dead on.
The doors disintegrated. The explosion blew a hole eight feet wide in the facade, the fireball rolling inward through the entrance and upward through the second floor. The windows on either side of the doors blew outward in sheets of glass. Wolveswho'd been running through the entrance were caught in the blast—their screams cutting through the roar of the explosion.
The smoke poured from the hole. Black and thick and carrying the smell of burning metal.
I stood behind the van with the Desert Eagle aimed at the main building. Not taking cover. On a hunt. I searched the smoke for Spur. The watchtower had been his position. The RPG had thrown him from it. But I hadn't seen his body since. Not during the gate breach. Not during the firefight. Not among the dead.
Where the hell are you?
The Phoenix teams moved on the main building from both flanks—south team sweeping left, north team sweeping right. They converged at the blast hole where the front doors had been. Inside: smoke, debris, and the charred bodies of Wolves caught in the entrance when the RPG hit.
And deeper inside, visible through the haze—Wolves on their knees. Hands up. Rifles on the ground. Surrendered.
Our men went in hard. Shouting commands. Kicking weapons across the floor. Forcing the surviving Wolves facedown on the concrete. The Wolves complied fast—five men left standing, all of them choosing the floor over continuing to fight against RPGs and grenades and a team that had just blown their compound apart in under five minutes.
Axel directed three Phoenixes—"Montoya, Dan, Meat, cover the rear exits".
I scanned the compound. The collapsed watchtower. The burning gate. The bodies in the yard. The main building, half its facade blown open, smoke still pouring from the upper floor.
"I didn't see Spur." Logan's voice beside me. Low. He was scanning too. "He went off the tower when your RPG hit. I watched for him during the fight. Never saw the body near the base."
No body at the tower. No body in the yard. No body among the surrendered Wolves inside.
Spur was in the building. Somewhere.
I looked at Logan. He looked at me. The rifle on his shoulder. The Desert Eagle in my hand. The Ka-Bar and the custom throwing knife on my belt.
"I'm going in." I drew the Ka-Bar with my left hand, the blade resting under the Desert Eagle in my right. "Stay behind me."
"Right behind you."
I turned to the Phoenix teams. "Secure the prisoners. Hold the perimeter."
