Days Of Perdition: Voodoo Plague Book 6 (24 page)

We moved single file, me on point with Dog at my side,
Zemeck behind me with Rachel and Martinez watching our rear.  First step was to
take out the roving sentries.  I’d already gotten one of them on the way to
meet up with my group, but there were two more that I’d spotted.  Both were
armed with AKs and needed to be taken out before we began our rescue effort. 
Leaving guards running around behind you with automatic weapons is never a good
idea.

I heard the first guard before I saw him.  We had angled
over to be close to the wall farthest from where Katie was being held and as
the man walked he dragged the heel of each foot on the carpet.  In the tomblike
silence of the cavernous building it was easy to hear him coming.  I signed for
the group to stop, held a hand in front of Dog’s face to tell him to stay and
moved forward to meet the man.

As I spotted him around the corner of a row of ATMs he was
just pushing through a door into a men’s restroom.  Padding silently, I ran up
and pressed my ear to the door.  I couldn’t hear well, but managed to pick out
the sound of his zipper coming down, followed a moment later by the glassy
tinkle of a urinal being used. 

Raising my rifle I pushed the door open with my shoulder and
stepped into the brightly lit room.  The man stood with his back to me, legs
spread apart and hands in front as he relieved himself.  His rifle was leaned
up in a corner, well out of his reach.  He hadn’t heard me enter the room and
died with a bullet in his head.  The body collapsed to the floor with more
noise than I liked, but overall it was a very quiet kill.  The new Sig rifle
was every bit as silent as Zemeck had made it out to be.

Exiting the restroom I formed back up with the group and we
began hunting the other guard.  I had observed them making full circles of the
perimeter of the casino floor, so I knew he’d be coming along in the wake of
the one I had just killed.  We stayed one row in from the outside wall and
moved forward to meet him.

Covering almost half the distance to the holding area I
called a halt when I heard voices approaching from the front.  Crawling
laterally I took a peek down the perimeter row and was dismayed to see four men
strolling towards us, all armed with AKs.  This was not how they’d been
patrolling when I’d been snooping around, and while I had no doubt that Zemeck
and I could quickly take the whole group, I was afraid to risk one of them
getting a shot off and alerting everyone in the building.

I pulled my group another row away from the wall and quickly
told them what was coming our way.

“You need them distracted so you can get close,” Rachel
said.  “I’ll take care of that.”

Rachel was still wearing the extremely short shorts she had
used to distract the Rangers at Tinker so we could escape, and now she reached
up and peeled her vest and shirt off, leaving only a thin, nearly transparent
tank top covering her bare breasts.  Handing her clothes to Martinez she went
down our row until she was past the approaching men.  Zemeck and I moved to a
corner at the perimeter row, rifles up and ready.

“What are you doing here?”  We heard one of the men ask in
surprise a moment later.

“I was lost and this looked like a good place to hide.  Are
you the Army?”  Rachel was getting quite good at putting the right amount of ‘ingenuous’
in her voice.

“How did you get in?”  The same man asked.

“That door right back there.”

That was our cue.  I knew they were already facing away from
us, looking at Rachel, but now she would be pointing at an area behind her and
all of them would be looking for a door that they had somehow missed.

I was closest to the row, Zemeck tight against my back with
his left hand on my shoulder.  When I moved he came with me, both of us
stepping into the open, rifles already up and ready.  As one we fired, the two outside
men dropping from headshots that killed them instantly.  We adjusted aim and
both fired again as the first set of bodies hit the floor, the remaining two
dying instantly as well.

Rachel stepped around them and ran to us, retrieving her
clothing and gear from Martinez.  She dressed as we started moving again.  I
had originally planned to head directly across the casino floor once the second
sentry was dead, but something had changed to send four of them together. 
Maybe they were all friends and had decided to keep each other company, but I
wasn’t going to bet ours and Katie’s lives on that assumption.

We circled the building but didn’t encounter any other
guards, roving or static.  Soon we were opposite the guard that was sitting
outside the door marked as private.  His post was around a corner from the
guard watching the captive women, as were the doors into the kitchen area where
I’d heard movement earlier. 

Ignoring him for the moment we kept moving, turning into a
new row to stay hidden.  It didn’t take long to reach the well-lit poker room
where the women were being held and I wasn’t at all surprised to find the guard
sound asleep, head tilted back and snoring.  I intended to rescue all of the
women that were being held, but I took the time to single out Katie and make
sure everyone knew which one she was.

Moving on we came to a stop in front of the two glass walled
rooms that were full of people sacked out in sleeping bags.  We had already
discussed the plan and Martinez took up position.  If things went well we’d
take out a couple more guards and make a quiet exit with Katie and the other
women.  If they didn’t, Martinez was there to make sure these people weren’t
able to join the fight.

Back at the sleeping guard, Rachel, Dog and I stopped as
Zemeck continued on.  When he was in position to take out the guard at the
private door he’d let me know over the radio and we’d both attack at the same
time.  He and I would then clear the kitchen first, followed by the private
room while Rachel and Dog woke the women and got them ready to move.

It took him a couple of minutes then I received a single
click over the radio.  I clicked once in response then began counting in my
head as I sighted on the sleeping guard.  When I reached five I pulled the
trigger, punching a bullet through the man’s forehead.  The body was already
relaxed and supported as he slept and other than a twitch from the impact of
the bullet it didn’t move, remaining seated in the chair.  Rachel and I both went
into motion, her heading for the closed glass door that opened into the room,
Dog at her side, as I headed to meet Zemeck at the swinging doors into the
kitchen.

We arrived at the same time, each of us putting our backs
against the wall on either side of the opening.  First Zemeck, then I, we
leaned forward slightly and peered through the oval windows into the large room
beyond.  Zemeck shook his head to indicate he didn’t see anyone but I held up
two fingers.

There was an older woman and a large young man seated at a
long stainless steel counter.  They looked to be halfway through a meal.  The
meal I’d heard them preparing earlier that had smelled so good.  At the sight
of the food my stomach growled loudly in complaint of being so empty.

Zemeck looked at me and pulled a face.  I was sure he had
something incredibly witty to say at my expense and was glad we were in a
situation that required stealth.  Taking another look, each of us confirmed
that nothing had changed.  With a nod I held up my left hand, three fingers
extended.  I began folding a finger into my fist at regular intervals, Zemeck
bobbing his head as I reached each count. 

When I folded my second finger in I moved my hand to the
front grip on my rifle.  We bobbed our heads in unison for the one count, moving
on zero.  I was first through the door, immediately moving to the right as I
sighted on the male, Zemeck following through right behind me.

The woman noticed us first, her fork clattering onto the
stainless steel surface.  The young man looked up, froze for a beat then went
for a pistol that was holstered at his hip.  I squeezed the trigger twice and
he fell to the tile floor, dead.  The woman looked down at him for a long
moment then turned her gaze back to us and took a sharp breath.

Maybe she was going to scream, maybe not.  Regardless,
Zemeck and I both thought that was what she was about to do and the last thing
we wanted was noise that would wake up the sleeping people.  There were over
fifty of them and I didn’t want to have to fight them, nor did I feel the need
to kill all of them.  The thought flashed through my head in a fraction of a
second and I pulled the trigger in tandem with Zemeck. 

Both of us had gone for headshots and the woman pitched
backwards off her stool, dead before she hit the floor next to the body I’d
already put there.  I was starting to turn to go to Katie but spun back at a
noise of someone moving deeper in the kitchen.  Zemeck and I looked at each
other and spread apart as we started to move farther into the room.

Roach tried begging and pleading, but that didn’t deter the
man.  When Jimmy dragged him into the room he drew him into a crushing embrace,
lifting his feet clear of the floor as he planted his wet lips on Roach’s
face.  Squirming and trying to bite his attacker only earned him a slap that
left him seeing stars and a hard punch to the stomach.

Swaying on his feet and gasping for air, Roach tried to
reach for the corkscrew but couldn’t get his hand in his pocket before Jimmy
stepped in and grabbed him by the wrists, forcing him to his knees.  Hands numb
from the pressure of Jimmy’s grip, Roach began to cry as he pleaded for the man
to stop but he was slapped again.

“This is going to happen, bitch.”  Jimmy said, fumbling his
belt buckle with one hand as he held Roach’s throat in his other.  “If you bite
me I will beat you so bad you’ll wish you were dead, then when you heal I’ll do
it all over again.”

Pants open, he pulled out his fully erect penis and pressed
it against Roach’s face.  “Understand me, bitch?” 

Roach nodded, tears streaming down his face as Jimmy forced
himself into his mouth.  When the reality of what was happening, and what was yet
to come, hit him, Roach’s mind shut down.  He did what Jimmy told him to do, no
longer crying or trying to resist.  A few minutes later the big man stepped
back and lifted Roach to his feet, violently stripping his pants off.

Roach neither resisted nor complained.  As if he was a
bystander, his body cooperated as Jimmy spun him around and pushed him over the
edge of a table.  When Jimmy grabbed his hips his mind suddenly screamed at him
to fight, but before he could even react he was violently penetrated.  He tried
to turn away, tried to move, but the man was at least a hundred pounds heavier
and kept him pinned as he savagely thrust into Roach.

Screaming and crying again, Roach reached out with a hand
and felt his pants lying on the table where Jimmy had discarded them.  Grasping
the fabric he pulled them to him and frantically searched for the pocket with
the corkscrew.  Finally finding it he ripped it free as his attacker thrust
deep inside him and shuddered with his release.

The corkscrew was a large tool that the wine stewards used
to open bottles with a flourish.  Six inches of coiled, chrome steel ended in a
needle sharp point, the other end firmly embedded in a thick, round wooden T
handle.  Roach gripped it in his right hand; the steel portion sticking out
between his two middle fingers, holding it so tight his arm ached.

“That’s a good little bitch.”  Jimmy said, sighing with
contentment as he withdrew from Roach and stepped back.

He was leaning in to slap the bare ass in front of him when
Roach suddenly spun and with every ounce of his being stabbed the entire length
of the corkscrew into Jimmy’s neck.  The man’s eye’s went wide in shock as his
hands flew upwards, but Roach was enraged and moving fast.  Ripping the six
inches of steel out of Jimmy’s flesh he changed his target and stabbed into the
man’s groin, again burying the full length into his body.

Releasing the weapon he easily ducked Jimmy’s clumsy attempt
to wrap him up in one arm and stumbled across the room, putting the table
between them.  A thick jet of blood was pulsing out of his attacker’s neck, more
blood coursing from the wound to his crotch.  Jimmy tried to step forward while
holding a hand pressed to his throat, but stumbled and looked down at the tool
still embedded in his body.

With his free hand he ripped it out, pulling a chunk of
flesh and a fresh gout of blood with it.  Looking up at Roach he took another
step, then his knees buckled and he fell to the floor as his life continued to
jet out of his neck.  Roach stood there and watched as the man died, the fury
inside of him growing.

This wouldn’t have happened if Katie hadn’t attacked him. 
Her attack had made him vulnerable when these people showed up.  Rage blocking
out the pain radiating from his anus, Roach pulled his pants on and stepped
over Jimmy’s corpse.  The man had been carrying a small weapon that he’d laid
on a chair when they’d entered the room.

Roach would normally have been happy to pick up a fully
automatic Uzi pistol, but all he cared about was exacting his revenge on
Katie.  Stepping to the door he paused when he heard a gurgle from the man on
the floor.  Surprised Jimmy was still alive, he turned and looked down. 

Jimmy’s eyes were still open, staring up at him.  Pleading
for help.  Roach looked around until he spotted the corkscrew and came back to
stand over the dying man.  With a smile he bent down and drove the steel into Jimmy’s
right eye until his knuckles came to a stop against his face.  Still smiling,
he stood up and headed for the door to finish his business with Katie.

Rachel and Dog dashed past the dead guard to the heavy glass
door of the room as John and Zemeck disappeared into the kitchen.  Pulling the
door open carefully, she waved Dog inside, followed him and quietly closed the
door.  The six women were all asleep, and even though they all needed to be
awakened she rushed to Katie first.

As soon as she touched her shoulder, Katie’s eyes flew open
and she turned to sit up.

“It’s OK,” Rachel said.  “I’m here with John to get you
out.”

Katie’s eyes went wide and shifted to the windows, looking
for him. 

“Rachel?”  She asked when she didn’t see her husband.

“How do you know my name?”  Rachel was surprised.

“Roach told me about you,” Katie said.  “Said you and my
husband were a couple.”

“Don’t believe anything that little shit told you.  Here. 
Present from your husband,” Rachel said in a rush, pressing the pistol John had
given her into Katie’s hand.  “Help me wake everyone.  We’re leaving now.”

Rachel didn’t wait for an answer, dashing to the far side of
the room and shaking two of the women awake.  Katie was on her feet by now,
pistol in her hand as she began waking the others.  They quickly had all the
women up and ready to move and Rachel went to the door, pausing before she
pulled it open.

“No noise,” she said, making sure everyone understood.

Exiting the room Katie was right behind her, Dog moving out ahead
of them into the first row of slot machines.  Rachel glanced around but John
and Zemeck hadn’t come out of the kitchen yet.  Where the hell were they? 
Turning to the front she checked on Dog, then glanced over her shoulder to make
sure the women were all still following.

Movement in her peripheral vision caught her eye and Rachel
turned her head, expecting to see John.  She froze for a heartbeat when she
recognized Roach, walking towards her with a weapon in his right hand coming up
to target them.

Katie looked to her left when the tall woman paused, her
breath catching in her throat.  Roach was walking directly towards them,
raising a pistol.  The woman was trying to bring an M4 rifle around but she
could tell Roach had the drop on them and would start firing well before the
rifle could come into the fight.

Reaching out, Katie shoved the woman in the middle of her
back as she spun to bring her pistol up.  Before she could raise the muzzle
high enough to fire, Roach pulled the trigger and the small Uzi began spitting
bullets.  Time slowed and Katie heard two of them zip past her head before
something slammed into her chest and she was falling.

Martinez cursed when she heard the burst of automatic
weapon’s fire.  They’d been found and someone was in trouble.  None of them
were carrying an unsuppressed full auto weapon so she knew this was someone
from the group occupying the casino.

Knowing what she had to do, she flipped the fire selector on
her rifle to burst and aimed for the glass wall of the room to the right. 
Pulling the trigger twice she shifted aim and sent six more rounds into the
windows on her left.  The bullets shattered the heavy glass that crashed to the
floor and left a wide opening into each space.

Dropping the rifle, Martinez picked up the first of four
fragmentation grenades she had already lined up on the carpet.  Pulling the pin
she threw it hard at the right hand room, watching it sail through the opening
she’d just created as she reached for the second one.

People in the two rooms were shouting and screaming now, struggling
to get out of their sleeping bags.  One enterprising soul didn’t bother to do
anything other than pick up his rifle and start firing blindly.  Martinez
ignored the bullets that were sailing wide around her location and threw the
second grenade into the left room, quickly following with one more to each
room.

Snatching her rifle off the floor she rolled behind a slot
machine and onto her feet.  A second later the four grenades detonated in
sequence.  The sound and concussion was ferocious, even with room in the
massive space for it to spread out.  All of the remaining glass shattered and
was blown outwards, becoming thousands of pieces of razor sharp shrapnel that
peppered the slot machines around her.

Glass screens cracked and imploded.  Dust billowed and
somewhere a loud bell began ringing as the blasts ruptured a sprinkler pipe and
water began flowing through the fire suppression system.  Five seconds after
the final blast Martinez looked around the bank she was sheltering behind,
rifle ready to engage anyone that was still wanting to fight.

There were no targets, but not everyone was dead.  Screams of
pain were coming from both rooms, and as the dust began to clear Martinez could
tell there was no one on their feet.  Stepping around she walked towards the
carnage, rifle up just in case someone was still capable of aiming a weapon at
her, but she stopped halfway when she got a look inside.  Swallowing bile, she
turned and ran towards Rachel’s location when she heard screaming.

Rachel fell to her knees when Katie pushed her, cursing and
rolling as she tried to get her rifle aimed at Roach.  Then he fired and Rachel
turned her head to see Katie fall backwards as a bullet struck her chest.

Screaming, Rachel finally got the rifle up and began pulling
the trigger in burst mode.  She kept pulling it until the magazine ran dry but
didn’t manage to hit Roach as far as she could tell.  When she’d started firing
he had turned and ran, heading into the maze of the casino floor.

“Oh my God, no!  No, no, no, no…” Rachel dropped her rifle
and dashed to Katie’s side, Dog rushing up to stand guard next to her.

Katie had been shot in the upper right quadrant of her
chest, the bullet entering just above her breast.  Blood was welling out of the
entrance wound and Rachel grabbed her shoulders and rolled her up to check for
an exit wound.  There was one just inside her right scapula.  Putting her flat
on her back she pressed both hands on Katie’s chest and screamed for John as
Martinez ran up and dropped to her knees on the other side of Katie.

Zemeck and I were pushing deeper into the kitchen, searching
for whoever had made the noise when the sound of weapons fire reached us.  We
exchanged a quick glance and he tilted his head at the door, telling me to go. 
I shook my head, hesitant to leave him alone to clear the room.  No matter how
good you are, trying to find a potentially armed opponent in a cluttered area
by yourself is extremely dangerous.

He shook his head and we continued, but had only covered a
few more cautious yards when I heard Rachel scream my name.  Looking at Zemeck
I yanked a grenade out of my vest and pulled the pin, palm holding the spoon in
place.  He nodded, pulled one out and together we tossed them in the direction
we thought the sound had come from, turned and ran.

Blasting through the swinging doors I had my rifle up and
ready, Zemeck on my heels as I made the turn towards where I had left Rachel. 
The twin blasts from our grenades sounded behind and I involuntarily ducked but
kept running.  As I rounded the corner I could see Rachel and Martinez bent
over someone on the floor, a small group of lingerie clad women clustered
tightly together watching them.

“No, no, no…” I began repeating to myself as I let my rifle
drop on its sling and ran as hard as I could.

Martinez moved aside and I fell to the floor beside Katie. 
She was awake and looked up at me and smiled.

“I waited for you.  Where have you been?”  She asked with a
weak smile on her face.

“I’m sorry, babe.”  I said, leaning down and kissing her as
tears began rolling down my face.  “I got held up a little.”

“What happened?”  Zemeck was squatting behind me.

“Hi, Andre,” Katie looked at him and tried to smile.  She
had always refused to call him Matt, preferring to poke him a little about his
stature and call him Andre the Giant.

“Hi, pretty lady.  Good to see you.”  He said, placing a big
hand on my shoulder.

“It was Roach,” Rachel said.  “Came out of nowhere with a
little machine pistol.  She pushed me out of the way and took a round.”

“How bad?”  I asked, holding Katie’s hand with one of mine
and brushing a stray strand of hair off her face with the other.

“I don’t know, but I need to get her back to Tinker.  Now. 
I can work on her on the way.”  Rachel turned to Martinez.  “Will that
helicopter on the roof fly?”

“No,” Martinez answered.  “I checked it out when we were on
the roof.  But there’s a field medic kit in it.”

“Osprey is twenty minutes out,” Zemeck said.

“Tell them to get the lead out,” I said without taking my
eyes off my wife.

“I’ll take care of her,” Rachel said to me.  “You go get
that fucking psychopath before he turns up again.”

“He can wait,” I started to say, but Rachel cut me off.

“No, he can’t.”  She said.  “Every time we think we’re done
with him, he shows up.  This needs to end now.  Trust me.  I’ll take care of
her.”

When I looked back down at Katie her eyes were closed. 
Leaning over her I kissed her lips, told her I loved her and stood up.

“Andre, pick her up,” Rachel ordered, adopting Katie’s
nickname for Zemeck.  “I’ll need to walk next to you to keep pressure on the
wound, so don’t walk too fast.”

I stepped back as my friend kneeled and scooped my wife up
in his arms.  Rachel never took her hands off Katie’s chest and she looked back
at me as they started to head for the stairs to the roof.

“You’ve got twenty,” Zemeck shouted, adjusting her in his
arms.  “We’re getting her back to Tinker as soon as our ride arrives.  If we
miss you, I’ll come back.”

“Kill that son of a bitch and cut his heart out so he can’t
come back!”  Rachel said, turning and yelling for the women to follow her.

I stood watching them walk away and let the tears flow down
my face until they dried up and turned to a ball of white-hot rage seething in
my chest.  Roach.  I’d let too many opportunities to kill him pass me by.  Not
again.  Time to end this.