We slipped out through the front door, guns at the ready. The pincer attack meant that they were closing in on us with two flanks. And that meanttheirflanks were exposed—all four of them.
We raised our weapons and opened fire as soon as we spotted the idiots. Two of them dropped right away, and the others scrambled for cover when they realized what was happening.
“Get some!” I shouted, taking my eye off the scope just long enough to speak the words before going back to it.
“Hell yeah!” Kid added.
We ripped through our first mags, taking cover for just enough time to switch them out. The enemy opened fire, but their shots didn’t come anywhere near us, revealing more evidence they were rank amateurs.
My eyes were on the panic room. Ajax was secure in there, and he’d be fine for the time being. But that place wouldn’t hold up forever against a group of bad guys, even if they barely had a clue what they were doing.
More of the guys from the flank we’d ripped thro2ugh raised up from their makeshift cover, but Kid and I were on them before they had a chance to squeeze off a single round. We sprayed gunfire in their direction, two more of them going down as we reached the back of the panic room.
We both dropped into a prone position, our guns pointed toward the western woods.
“Two more in this flank,” I said to Kid. “And I’ve got a feeling they’re not going to resist.”
Sure enough, they popped out of their cover near the woods. I shot at one, who dropped like a sack of flour. The other, scared out of his mind, threw down his gun and high-tailed it for the woods. He made it as far as the fence. He tried to vault over it, but he was zapped as soon as he put his hand on the wire.
“What now?” Kid asked.
“You lay down cover fire. I’ll go round and extract our boy. Got it?”
“Got it.”
I prepared to make my move. But before I did, I pulled back and turned to Kid.
“Hey, Kid.”
“Yeah?”
“Sorry about back at the gym.”
He snorted, a small smile forming on his face.
“It’s fine.”
“No, I’m serious. I didn’t mean to kick your ass so hard like that. You must’ve felt like a total idiot when I laid you out so easily.”
He laughed. “Get your ass out there, Pyke. Or I’ll shoot you myself.”
I clapped my hand down on his shoulder before sweeping out from behind the panic room. I raised the gun and opened fire, shooting controlled bursts in the direction of the bad guys. I didn’t see any of them drop, but our cover fire worked.
I banged on the door of the panic room.
“You in there, dumbass?”
It took a few seconds, but the door opened, and Ajax yanked me inside, shutting the door behind me.
“Nice work, boys,” he said. “Most of ‘em down.”
“That’s right. Now, are you going to sit on your ass in here all day, or are you going to help us get rid of these guys?”
“You know I’m ready. What about the girl?”
“Hud’s got her secured downstairs. She should be—”
Gunfire erupted before I could finish, followed by wild laughter that I knew belonged to Hud.