“And now it’s time for Pyke to do his thing,” I said.
One of the guards dropped. Then another, then another. By the time they realized they were being picked off by a sniper, nearly half the outdoor guards had been wiped out. Two ran in our direction, Kid and Hud wasting no time raising their guns and taking them down in a spray of fire.
“Alright,” I said. “We’re in. Now, let’s go rescue ourselves a princess.”
38
HUD
The stealth shit was over. This was an all-out assault.
I laughed wildly as I kicked the back doors open to the villa, slamming my size thirteen boot into the wood and crashing it open. A pair of guards were on the other side, and I took aim with my rifle before they even knew what had happened, dropping both of them in a hail of gunfire.
“Come on, lads!” I shouted to the rest of the crew. “Let’s do this!”
There were plenty of guards in the villa for all of us to have our fun with. We moved through the place with methodical precision, the boys and I expertly dispatching any of the guards we came across as we moved from one side of the house to the other.
As we cleared each and every room, however, there was no sign of Jurgen or the princess.
“Where the hell is she?” Kid asked, a tinge of worry in his voice. “We need to find hernow.”
Ajax nodded. “Shit.” Worry crossed his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Hank’s explosion blocked the front gates, but there’s a helipad on the roof. If Jurgen called for an air evac…”
“Then he can take her anywhere,” I said, finishing his thought. “Come on—we’re going up.”
The three of us finished clearing the first floor, making damn sure that each and every guard was down before we moved to the second. When we reached the stairs in the entry hall, however, a yell sounded out from behind us.
We turned to see a massive guard, a chain gun in his hands. The barrel spun and he prepared to fire. He didn’t get off so much as a single shot, however. Abangsounded, the guard stiffened, then he fell forward in a heap.
Hank stood behind him, a shotgun in his hands.
“Figured you boys could use some backup.”
I gave him a thumbs-up.
“Come on!” Ajax said. “We’re going to need all the guns we can get!”
We filed up the stairs, dropping another pair of guards who sprang out in an attempt to get the drop on us. The shock and awe tactic had worked, and it took no time at all for us to clear the rest of the floor and take down the rest of the guards. The boys and I worked in perfect harmony, not even needing to coordinate fire. A guard would appear, and within a split second, they were down.
“Looks like Jurgen’s really hiring from the ass-end of the merc world,” Kid said once the second floor was cleared.
“He’s about to learn the hard way,” Ajax said.
We reloaded and the whooping of helicopter blades on the roof sounded through the house. The boys and I shared a look that indicated we needed to move now.
Together, we marched up to the third floor and took out the three guards who waited in the main room. The long hallway led to a set of stairs that went up to the roof, and we headed up.
“We can’t just burst out there,” I declared. “Jurgen knows we’re coming.”
Hank grinned, reached into his pack, and pulled something out that appeared to be a grenade.
“That seems a little excessive, Hank. We want to save the princess, not blow her into chunks.”
“Not a grenade,” he said. “What munitions school did you flunk out of? This is aflashbang. Watch.”