ENCOUNTER by Hep Aldridge (bill gates books recommendations .txt) 📕

“What?” I blurted. “Dimitri, Dimitri do you copy?” No response.

The moment Marco had been waiting for arrived as his target broke cover for only a moment, but it was long enough. He fired and saw him go down. With a brazen satisfied smile, he thought, now for the boy as he turned his rifle and put Eduardo squarely in his sights. Too bad they have to die so young, he thought as he began applying pressure to the trigger.

Chapter Twenty-Five

At that instant of satisfaction, the lens on the front of his Hensoldt scope shattered as a 7.62 NATO round pierced it, entered his right eye, and exited through the back of his skull. The gun fell from his lifeless hands as he was thrown back, and his weapon clattered to the ground unfired.

“Take that, you rotten bastard,” Reggie thought as she spoke on her Comm, “Colt, their shooter is neutralized; you’re clear to get to Dimitri.” The sun glinting off the front lens of his scope is what had given his position away, and that’s all she had needed.

I had heard the shot and knew what had happened. “Roger that,” I replied as I began moving in Dimitri’s direction. However, I immediately drew fire from below and ducked for cover.

“Joe, need you to do something about those guys down there. I can’t get to Dimitri.”

“Copy,” he said and turned to Doc. “You were in theater in college, right?”

“What?” Doc incredulously replied, “yes, but what’s that got to do with anything?”

“This has got to be your best performance. You only have one line; don’t screw it up.”

A quick consultation, and he, Doc, and Eduardo opened fire on the mercs and then stopped. The mercs returned fire, and as their last rounds were fired, Joe stood up, grabbed his chest, and fell to the ground in plain view. At that moment, Doc earned his Oscar nomination as he called to Colt above in a loud, terrified voice. “Colt, they got Joe, and we’re out of ammo.”

There was a pause, and just like the next scene of a play unfolding, the five mercs came charging from behind their cover to finish the unarmed men. They had also clearly heard Doc’s call to Colt. Four were out front, and one held back for some reason. As the four got in range, Joe, from his prone position, squeezed the clackers on the Claymores and unleashed Dimitri’s “Alamo surprise,” a wall of death. It was an ugly sight as the four men were decimated by the hundreds of steel balls penetrating their bodies from multiple directions—instant death.

Doc’s call had gotten my attention, and I looked out from behind my cover and watched the scene below me unfold. After the blast, my attention was immediately drawn to the only thing moving in the canyon. The fifth man, who had held back, was now running away. I started to shout to Doc when I saw O’Reilly stand up and bring her M-16 to her shoulder, take a deep breath, and fire off two rounds in quick succession. I looked back at the running man, some seventy-five yards away, and watched as the two, .223 rounds, hit their mark and spun him in a slow pirouette; once facing us, two more shots rang out, and he flew back as they finished the job. There was no further movement from any of our attackers.

Breaking away from the grizzly scene below me, I turned my attention back to Dimitri and said, “Doc, I need you up here; Dimitri’s down.”

“On my way,” came the reply over the Comm.

I had put my M-16 down and was scrambling in Dimitri’s direction. I still did not have eyes on him. I crawled over a particularly large rock, and, down below, in between two large boulders, I saw Dimitri’s motionless body. The bloodstain on the front of his vest was large, and my heart sank. You better not be dead, you son of a bitch, I thought as I called his name again, “Dimitri, can you hear me?”

A low moan came across the Comms, and a weak voice said, “It took you long enough,” then he coughed and said, “what did you do, stop for beers?”

“He’s alive,” I said, then realized everyone heard his comment as I did on the Commlink.

I heard Joe’s somewhat labored voice as he was finishing his rope climb to the top, “Hell, no, we didn’t stop; we had to wait for you. Remember? You said you would buy the next round.”

A chuckle with a sickening gurgle, “I’m afraid that’s gonna have to wait,” Dimitri said, and then silence.

I heard Doc coming up behind me as I made my way down the last ten feet or so. When I got to Dimitri, he had passed out. Doc pushed his way past me and started unstrapping his tactical vest and pulling his shirt open, revealing the wound. It was a gut shot, and it was bleeding like hell.

I heard Joe from behind us, “How is he?”

“Bad,” Doc replied, “we’ve got to get him out of here, but I’m afraid if we move him, it will make things worse.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to work on him here,” I said as I started to push past him to get to Dimitri’s other side.

It was then that the air around us started pulsating, and the feeling of static electricity permeated the air. Jeannie’s voice came through clearly, “Please, move back; I will get him to the Citadel.”

I looked at Doc, who looked just as surprised as me. We both moved back and looked around for Jeannie’s familiar form; none was there. A mist began engulfing Dimitri’s body, and we soon lost sight of him. Seconds later, it disappeared along with Dimitri. Jeannie’s thoughts came to us, “Meet me back in the Citadel, in the building next to our meeting place.”

Dimitri was gone. I retrieved his Barrett .50 caliber that he had dropped there and started the climb back to the top