Net Force - Tom Clancy [47]
Then one of the terrorists screamed something, certainly a curse, even if Howard didnt understand the words. The screamer dug his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small chrome-plated pistol-
Somebody cooked off a double-tap-pop! pop!-and dropped the pistoleer.
It all went south. Most of the other terrorists tried to get their guns out.
One of them saw how stupid this was, yelled Nyet! Nyet! but too late.
Howards orders to his troops had been clear-take them alive if possible, but if somebody is going to get shot, do not let it be you.
Time stalled, stretched, and Howard saw part of it in his suddenly tunneled vision, as if it were a movie being run in slow motion and he was in the front row. His vision narrowed, but there was nothing wrong with his hearing: Even amidst all the gunfire, obscenely loud in the enclosed warehouse, he distinctly heard the sound of men yelling, actions cycling, chunk-chunk! and brass clinking on the concrete floor, tink, tink, clink-
-a big bearded man pulled what looked like a World War I Luger from his belt and swung it up, only to catch several rounds from a submachine gun in a neat horizontal row across the center of his mass-
-the man yelling Nyet! dropped to the floor, covered his head with his hands, curled into a fetal position, still repeating his panicked yell-
-the men on the stairs turned to flee back the way they had come-
-a thin, balding man missing a front tooth came up with a sawed-off bolt-action rifle, a.22 maybe, and thrust it toward Howard. So keen was his vision that Howard noticed a ring on the mans right forefinger as he wrapped the digit around the trigger-
No time to raise the assault rifle to aim. Howard point-indexed the thin man, stabbed the weapon at him as if it were a bayonet and pulled the trigger. The big weapon bucked, once-twice-three times! and recoil lifted the muzzle with the second and third rounds. The first bullet struck at high solar-plexus level, the second the base of the throat, the third at the top of the receding hairline. Howard saw the spray of the heads exit wound, a balloon full of dark red fluid bursting-
One would have been enough. That was the thing with a.30-caliber rifle, a good solid body hit was a one-hundred-percent-fight-stopper. No handgun could claim that, but a 7.62mm, yeah-
The thin man fell, already dead, taking nearly forever to reach the floor. Land masses rose and sank, life came and went, time wore away mountains
By the time the dead man lay flat on the concrete, the battle was over.
Howard noticed his ears were ringing, and the stink of burned gunpowder filled his nostrils. Jesus!
His troops moved, covering the surviving terrorists. Two had made it up the stairs, only to find the other exits blocked. Hands raised, they came down the stairs again.
The yelling man had survived. When the smoke cleared and the counts were done, of the twenty-one terrorists, nine were dead, six were wounded-two seriously enough so that Howards medics didnt give them much hope, four with survivable injuries. The units medical transports had already pulled up and were hauling the bodies and wounded out.
None of Howards troops had sustained a scratch.
And he had killed a man, face-to-face, who had tried to kill him.
Sir, Fernandez said, we oughta skedaddle.
Affirmative, Sarge. He glanced at his watch. Not yet noon. Amazing.
According to Hunter, they had about ten minutes before the local authorities would have to quit pretending they didnt know anything and take action. Pack it up, Howard said to the troops. Oh, and good work.
That earned him a few grins, but his adrenaline was fast fading. He felt tired, old and suddenly depressed. He and his troops had been better trained, better armed, and theyd had surprise on their side. This wasnt a battle, it had been a complete rout. These so-called terrorists had never had a chance.
How much pride could you take in winning a battle of wits with an idiot? A footrace with a man wearing casts on his ankles? Not very much.
Still-he hadnt screwed it up. That was something.