Harbinger liked the guys. Ramp reached out and tapped Halo on the shoulder. They both studied the train through sniper scopes. “You seeing what I’m seeing?”
Halo lifted his head and then dropped to the scope again. He spoke while looking through the scope, “Yo, Harbinger. Could four dead men hanging off one of the railroad cars be your signal?”
Well, shit, that was not Val’s style. His opinion of Smithson leveled up about twenty notches. That was a hell of a statement. Hell of a signal, too. “No doubt about it. Throw the switch.”
Ramp, Halo, and Hoot jogged across the tracks and threw the switch, moving one set of tracks into the other. “They’ll have to slow down, but we’ll still have to hustle.” Hoss looked at him. “Recovered enough from that horse ride to run?”
Harbinger flipped off Oscar Team’s leader, and Squirrel cackled from where he sat. “I ain’t never seen anyone ride that poorly. I felt sorry for that horse.” Hoss chuckled.
“I hate horses,” Harbinger grumbled.
“Dude, they hate you, too.” Hoss laughed. “If you ever want to learn how to ride, my old man has a horse ranch in Kentucky. He raises thoroughbreds. He’s my fucking hero. Built the ranch from the ground up. He’ll teach you how to ride or get one of his people to do it.”
Squirrel pointed to the train. “Ah, damn. Now I see them. Dude, they look like they’ve been put on hooks. They’re flopping like dead fish on a stringer.” He handed Harbinger the binoculars. He found the car and the bodies and focused the binoculars as the train approached and slowed. “That’s Komal.” He scanned the rest of the bodies.Don’t recognize that one, or… Nope, no idea who that was …“That’s Blanton. Mission complete. Now we get our people the hell out of Dodge. Or Russia.”
“We’re in Mongolia,” Hoss reminded him.
He slapped the binoculars into Hoss’ chest. “Whatever.”
“Wherever, actually,” Squirrel corrected him as he jumped down from the junction box.
“Screw all of you. Ready to run?” Harbinger laughed and slipped on his backpack as the rest of the team did the same.
“Front of the train.” Halo pointed. “Someone is hanging off that car. This one is big, and he’s definitely alive,” he amended.
Harbinger glanced up. “He’s ours. That’s our up point, gents.” They all trotted toward the rail. “Let’s go.” Harbinger turned and sprinted as the locomotive hummed past. He reached out, and Smithson literally pulled him up to the step. He hustled up and watched the giant man swing each team member up. Squirrel, the second to last up, damn near flew over Smithson’s shoulder. Hoss clasped hands with Smithson, and the team was on board. Harbinger looked around. “Where’s Val?”
* * *
Smith pointed up the ladder.“She’s in the locomotive, ensuring the engineer doesn’t change his mind and hit the brakes.” He glanced at the team. “Someone needs to relieve her.”
Hoss turned to Halo. “Make it happen. No stopping. Period.”
“On it.” The man climbed the ladder and was gone seconds later.
“Status?” Harbinger asked him.
Smith started up the ladder. “Blanton and Komal are dead.”
“Yeah, we saw. Hell of a signal, by the way. Who were the other two?” Harbinger asked as he followed him. Smith looked back when he stood on top of the slow-moving train. Hoss and the rest of his team followed them up the ladder.
“They worked for Komal.” Smithson shrugged. “If we get the staff out of this car, we can uncouple it and let the rest of the train stop.”
“What about cell phones?” Hoss asked. “They could call ahead.”
“No service,” Smith said as they stood on top of the train.
“That doesn’t mean they don’t have access to a Satellite phone or Ham radio. There has to be some way for emergency communication even out here. The people in this country aren’t in the stone age, and more and more of these villages are getting internet.” Hoss put his hands on his hips. “We need to ensure there’s no way for them to communicate.”
Harbinger turned to him. “How many people are on the train?”
“Twenty-three passengers, half that in staff. They aren’t at full occupancy.” Smith rattled off the information.
“We push the staff back, pull the passengers out of their room, and take them to the back, to a single car. Hoss, you, and your team search the cars after we clear them. We’ll hold them in the back until you’re done.” Harbinger turned to him. “Are you carrying?”
Smith lifted his sweater, exposing his weapon. He waited while Hoss and his team decided who would do what. When they were ready, he led the way.
He opened the door to the crew's sleeping quarters, and as quietly as possible, he and Harbinger opened doors and rousted people. Several of the rooms were vacant but obviously lived in. “Cooks,” he muttered to Harbinger. The man nodded as they shoved the terrified crew into motion. Daria looked at him like he’d killed her puppy. He pushed her toward the rest of the crew. Harbinger led while he motivated from the rear, holding a weapon on the crew as they advanced through the luggage to the supply car. “Kitchen car. Get the staff. I’ll give you one minute.” Smith motioned to Harbinger.