Chapter 44
Sarah grabbed Ava’s arm, practically dragging her and Nora behind the heavy metal storage racks. She pulled a rusted lever, revealing a dark, narrow dirt tunnel that smelled of frozen earth and rot. They crawled inside, disappearing into the shadows just as the heavy steel trapdoor above began to give way.
"Get ready, Sergeant," Cole murmured, racking the slide of the shotgun.
"Always ready, Boss," Donovan grunted, aiming her weapon at the ceiling.
With a deafening crash, the melted steel trapdoor collapsed inward, falling heavily to the concrete floor.
Before the operatives could drop their flashbangs, Cole stepped directly beneath the opening. He raised the shotgun and fired two devastating blasts blindly up into the breach.
Agonized screams echoed from the floor above as the heavy buckshot tore through the operatives attempting to secure the hole.
"Now, move!" Cole shouted.
Instead of waiting for the retaliatory strike, Cole and Donovan abandoned the center of the room, diving into the dark entrance of the smuggling tunnel.
They crawled rapidly through the freezing dirt. Behind them, heavy explosives detonated in the cellar, collapsing the entrance of the tunnel in a massive shower of rock and dust.
"That bought us some time," Donovan coughed, spitting dirt from her mouth.
They emerged into the freezing night air at the edge of the frozen creek bed. Sarah, Ava, and Nora were huddled beneath a heavy snowbank, shivering violently.
"They blocked the tunnel," Cole reported, his eyes scanning the tree line. "The main house and the guest house are swarming with hostiles. We are cut off from the vehicles."
"We can't survive out here in this cold, Cole," Ava wept, wrapping her coat entirely around Nora. "She's freezing."
Cole looked at the little girl, his heart clenching. He knew Ava was right. Hypothermia would kill them faster than the bullets.
"I need to thin their numbers and secure a transport," Cole decided, his voice cold and absolute. "Donovan, Sarah, you hold this position. Do not engage unless they step into the creek bed."
"What are you going to do?" Sarah asked, terrified.
"I'm going hunting," Cole whispered.
He slipped away from the snowbank, vanishing completely into the dark, frozen woods. He didn't use night-vision; the glowing optics would give away his position. He relied entirely on his mastery of the environment.
He circled back toward the guest house, moving like a phantom through the deep snow.
He spotted a two-man patrol moving through the trees, their thermal scanners sweeping the darkness.
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Cole didn't shoot. He dropped from the low branch of a pine tree directly behind the trailing operative, snapping his neck with a brutal, silent twist. As the lead operative turned, sensing the movement, Cole drove his combat knife into the man's chest, lowering him soundlessly to the snow.
He stripped the operative of his encrypted radio and thermal goggles, a dark, terrifying smile touching his lips. The ghost was back in the machine.
