Lady Death by Brian Drake (good e books to read .TXT) 📕

They continued the leapfrog movement until they were twenty yards from the cottage. They found plenty of places to conceal themselves, but no solid cover.

Raven felt his black combat uniform clinging to his sweating body. He breathed hard. They rolled into the overgrowth and looked twenty yards ahead at Tanya’s cottage.

The landscape around the little house had been cleared. Tall grass swaying in the breeze remained. Railed porch. No light behind the windows. Tanya and Omar were asleep inside.

Raven checked his watch. Three hours till dawn. Three hours till the Navy showed up.

A long way, but the goal was within sight.

And then Hayden jabbed Raven’s left arm.

“Chopper incoming.”

16

The chopper’s spotlight swung around the cottage grounds. Raven and Tiger Joe yanked off their night-vision goggles.

The rotor wash whipped at the grass, exposing their position. The light flashed over them. A burst of automatic weapon fire crackled. Bullets tore chunks out of the soil as Raven and Hayden rolled away in opposite directions.

Raven shouted for Hayden to run as he rolled onto his back. There was no solid cover; he was in the open, exposed. He extended the M4 and fired two long bursts. The chopper drifted left, and the salvo didn’t appear to cause damage. The carbine clicked empty. The chopper began to descend again as Raven rolled to his feet and ran.

Hayden raced up the road they’d followed to the cottage. He jumped off the edge into a crevice of dirt and grass. He braced the M4 against his shoulder.

The chopper landed near the cottage. Four troopers jumped out, two from either side of the cabin. Lights snapped on inside the cottage.

Hayden cursed as he started shooting. Everything was going down the tubes and Raven had no cover. The M4 hammered against his shoulder. The troopers split into pairs as the chopper lifted off. The chopper’s engine noise faded as it flew over the hill to the barracks. They’d bring reinforcements. He and Raven were toast.

But he wasn’t going down without a fight.

Tiger Joe tracked his targets, but they moved too fast, and the 5.56mm stingers missed their marks. He dropped down to reload. Rising again, he fired. Two of the troopers broke off. The other two started crawling through the overgrowth toward him.

“Joe!”

Hayden dropped from sight. “Still kicking!”

“We go for broke!” Raven shouted over the com link. “If we die here, we take Tanya with us!”

“Copy!”

Hayden jumped up again and worked the trigger. His burst drove the two troopers into bushes. They were halfway to him. He was at a disadvantage without his NVGs. Return fire smacked the soil behind him. The crevice was no place to stay. Hayden plucked a grenade from his vest and pulled the pin. He tossed it toward the enemy. Springing from the crevice, he ran across the road toward Raven.

The grenade blast thumped and unleashed shards of metal at lightning speed. The two troopers’ bodies broke apart like a dropped Lego toy as the force of the blast smacked them. They fell in dead heaps.

The remaining two turned their guns on Hayden as he ran. He fired back, driving them to concealment. He joined Raven on a down slope. The cottage lights snapped off again. What was happening inside?

One of the troopers jumped from cover, ran toward them, and dropped and rolled again. The two rounds Raven fired missed. He and Hayden ducked as the gunners fired back. Nobody could see anything. They were shooting at shadows on black backgrounds.

“Chopper will bring more bad guys,” Hayden said. He grabbed for another grenade.

“It’s a party for sure.” Raven pulled one of his grenades. “On three!” He counted. They tossed at the same time and pressed into the ground. Debris rained overhead as the explosions tore up the terrain. Chunks of wet flesh and burning scraps of fabric fell with the debris.

Raven reloaded his M4 with one eye on the cottage. Now or never.

“Joe, put a grenade on the front porch.”

The sea breeze brought them the sound of whipping rotor blades. More than one. Getting closer.

Hayden tossed. The grenade landed short, but the explosion gave Raven the desired effect. The explosion knocked the front door out of its frame and shattered the front windows. The concrete steps cracked and fell to pieces. The porch wood splintered and snapped.

Two more helicopters passed in a long turn behind the cottage. Troops fired from the cabins. The projectiles rained on Raven and Hayden. Raven waited for the choppers to pass completely behind the cottage. The firing stopped. He sprinted for the wrecked porch. One of the choppers landed and let off four more troops. It lifted off and executed a sweeping left turn over Hayden’s position. The wind from the rotor blades kicked loose ground ash into his face. He shut his eyes tight.

The chopper passed over. Hayden fired controlled bursts, shifting his aim with each squeeze of the trigger. The suppressed M4 whispered death. One trooper fell, the gunman behind him tripping over his body and tumbling. The others found cover. Return fire forced Hayden down. The rounds zipped overhead.

The second chopper landed. Four more troops exited. Hayden tossed one grenade, then another. He hoped Raven was clear of the blast. One boom, then another. Pounding footsteps joined strangled screams. He’d killed some but not all. Shadows rushed him.

Hayden fired on instinct. The M4’s near silent salvo brought down one shadow. He pivoted left and shot another with a triple-tap to the chest. The body fell, sliding across the ground to knock him over. He landed with a cry on his right arm. He pushed the body away, rolled, and jumped to his feet. Hayden swung the butt of the M4 into the head of another gunman. The impact rattled his body and the weapon. He spun right, the figure ahead shuffling to one side, then the other, as Hayden fired from the hip. A miss. He swung the muzzle to the target again, but another flash of flame filled his vision first.

Hayden remained standing