Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [101]
As the men bent and lifted some of the brush, the SEALS struck. In a sudden rush, Harris and Jackson moved in and seized the two men. With their faces covered in green and black camouflage, the SEALS’ appearance froze the two aliens in midmotion. Jabbing with the muzzles of their weapons, the two humans knocked both of the prisoners down and quickly searched them. Flipping them over, Jackson got down into the faces of the two men as Chief Harris covered them from a few steps away.
The two prisoners started to yammer in their native language until Jackson stopped them with a curt gesture. “Chief?” he said. “You still got that earpiece? Let’s loan it to one of our new friends, here. But do it on the QT.”
“Sure thing, sir.” Harris turned his head and stepped behind the truck. Out of sight of the two prisoners, he removed the translator and came back, slipping it into the officer’s outstretched hand.
Jackson indicated the passenger, who was a fairly stout fellow. “You take Hardy here around to the other side of the truck. I want to have a little talk with Laurel.”
Harris prodded the chubby Eluoi to his feet with the suppressor on the barrel of his G15. Looking between the two men with a defiant glare, the prisoner reluctantly let himself be pushed to the far side of the truck.
The officer handed the earpiece to the driver, who had watched the whole exchange in wide-eyed fear. With simple sign language Jackson instructed him to put the device in his ear, which the Eluoi did as quickly as his trembling hands would allow him to.
“It would be really good if you would talk to me,” Jackson said as he pressed the muzzle of his suppressor against the driver. “Otherwise, you’re of no use to me and I’ll just kill you where you lay.”
“I will talk,” the man said in a shaky voice.
“Good,” Jackson said. He called out in a louder voice, “Chief, bring Ollie back over here.”
The chief complied. The heavier prisoner glared defiantly and looked down almost in contempt at his companion, who still lay on the ground.
“Now tell me,” Jackson said to the driver harshly in English, “are you making another ammunition delivery to the guns inside?”
The alien under the muzzle of Harris’s weapon must have been braver than average. He babbled a string of alien words to his companion. Of course, he had no way of knowing that the SEALS officer had the translation device in his ear.
“Tell them anything,” the prisoner said rapidly. “Once they’re inside the perimeter, they won’t know which way to turn, and the guns will cut them down.”
“That was the wrong answer,” Jackson said as he straightened up. He raised his G15 and pulled the trigger. A single suppressed round smashed into the overweight alien’s head, and the Eluoi toppled hard to the ground. The body twitched once and lay still.
Jackson’s Team was at risk, and the officer had no reluctance to be as ruthless as the situation required.
“Don’t tell me just ‘anything.’ Tell me the truth,” Jackson said to the surviving captive.
The other prisoner couldn’t talk fast enough. After Jackson indicated that Chief Harris and Falco should move the body and dump it in the brush pile, the alien driver explained how they had been delayed en route and were delivering another load of ammunition for the automatic defenses of the facility. There should have been another truck that delivered its load along with them, but it had gone on ahead.
While the SEALS made fast work of pulling the brush out of the way, Jackson had the germ of a plan hatching in his head.
“Get in the back of this thing,” he said quietly. “Bring all of the gear. Fast now. That other truck will be coming back soon, according to our prisoner.”
There was an external control that lowered the ramp, and the other two SEALS