GROUP OF MEN formed up on the lawn, in position behind a low concrete balustrade. Rolling up the driveway toward them was a line of black Hummers with machine guns bristling from the blacked out windows. Behind them a couple of Toyota pickups had grenade launchers in the back.
Although all of Carmine’s men were putting up a good cover of fire, from the windows and on staircases as well as on the ground, now that the invaders were through the gates, it was going to be tough to turn them back.
I figured there were enough men guarding the ground floor entrances. They could have benefitted from some leadership but I didn’t think they’d be likely to take it from me, so I turned back to the stairways and I ran to the roof.
On the way I released the men on the second floor. “We’re on the same side now.” I told them.
One asked me, “For how long?”
I liked him for that. “At least until we win,” I told him. “Do you have heavy weapons here?”
“How heavy?”
“Show me what you’ve got.”
He and his pal took me up an iron ladder out onto the roof. They clambered out and opened up a small hut, inside were mortars, shoulder launched rocket tubes and a heavy machine gun.
I shook my head in appreciative disbelief. “You folks obviously like a party.”
One of the men took the machine gun to set it up by the edge of the roof.
I dragged a mortar out and dropped a round into the tube.
“Might as well give them a couple of these before we show them where we are.” I said and fired off the first.
When the guy beside me uncovered his ears he said, “These aren’t very accurate. We looked over the balustrade. The second Hummer leaned on one side and smoke poured out of the back.
I smiled. “Let’s try again, then.” The mortar tub was too hot to move, but I dropped another round in and fired it off. It hit the first Toyota behind the driver’s cab. The vehicle buckled in the middle.
Some automatic gunfire came up from the ground.
The guard was almost ready with the machine gun. I told the guy with me, “I guess that’s our surprise bonus used up.” I took out a shoulder tube and handed him a few grenade rockets.
I beckoned him to follow me, crouching low, toward the edge of the roof, on the side away from the machine gunner. “Your buddy is going to need cover as soon as he gets ready to open up.”
My guy dropped a rocket in the tube. I knelt and sighted up, waiting until the machine gunner was ready to fire. As soon as I saw the he was, I aimed between the front tires of the lead vehicle. When I hit the button and the rocket whooshed toward the Hummer, all the armed invaders looked up and aimed at us.
The rocket went under the Hummer, but exploded a few feet to the other side of it. Gunfire came at us as we readied another rocket. Then the big machine gun opened up and the attackers all dove for cover. The second rocket lifted the Hummer on a retching carpet of flame and flipped the blazing hulk backward. It tipped onto the vehicle behind.
With the big machine gun crackling, the ground force was turning. I got off another rocket and placed it on the empty lawn behind the fleeing force. Sod flew up like a black flower. It left a hole in the lawn and encouraged them to leave with haste.
I was loaded up with another rocket and the machine gunner tracked the retreat, but neither of us needed to fire again. There didn’t seem much point in giving Carmine more bits of broken mercenaries to clear away.
We watched through the smoke and dust and listened to the sounds of retreat. The gunner said, “They might try leaving a few men for a late surprise.”
“True,” I called back. “It would be smart to search the grounds pretty hard.”
The drone of a helicopter heaved up from the horizon and its floodlight stabbed us in the eyes as it lifted above the house. The gunner and I trained our sights on it. An amplified voice bellowed, “Put down your weapons. This is the FBI. We will not warn you again.”
I nodded to the gunner and, unhappily, we did as we’d been told. I was thinking, How could this possibly go wrong? The downdraft from the helicopter blades made me crouch and the noise drowned out everything. that kind of a thing, in combat, you can lose track of things. I had been out of the field too long and I felt like my skill set was rusty.
A chain ladder dropped out of the chopper. I relaxed some when I saw the lithe figure scaling nimbly down. Vesper crouched as she ran across the roof to me. The helicopter was already sweeping up, around, and away.
I stood and opened my arms, “Ah, the cavalry,” I said, “Just in time to witness the aftermath.” Even in the noise, my voice dripped with sarcasm. It took all the effort that I could summon to keep my voice steady. As well as I could, I kept down every trace of the leaps that my heart made from the moment I saw her. That didn’t help my concentration, either.
Leather jacket, black tee-shirt tucked tight into her leather pants, she drew a gun as soon as she got to the bottom rung and jumped the last four feet down to the roof. She was a sight to see.
“Leather pants and heels?” my eyebrows wouldn’t stay down.
“Yeah. I didn’t have time to change.” She looked past my shoulder and nodded down toward the lawn. “You sure we’ve reached the aftermath?”
I followed her gaze. In the trees at the edge of the grass, something moved in the darkness.
“Damnit.”