Rourk (Keegan's Chronicles Series Book 4) (7 page)

Mirko reached over, and they tapped fists.

Most guys had some sort of good luck charm or habit. Rourk always looked at an image of Keegan. Mirko rubbed his Thor’s hammer, while Jamison always wore the same socks. Stitch’s was the strangest: he walked around a chair. He said his grandmother did it at bingo and won all the time. If there wasn’t a chair, he would pretend there was. Rourk smiled to himself. He worked with a great group of guys.

“You ready?” Rourk asked Stitch.

Stitch nodded, but looked preoccupied.

After final checks of all equipment, the team loaded their gear into the vehicles. Because they were trying to keep as low a profile as possible, they were using their highly modified Toyota HiAce vans for tonight‘s mission. At first glance, they looked like a normal vehicles an Afghan would drive, but on closer inspection, you’d find they’d had lots of extras installed. Limited armor plating inside for protection, a hinged sun roof to allow top access for observation and firing, swing-arm mounts for machine guns that would pop out of the open side and back doors, and a decent communications package to allow them to talk to whomever they might need to.

Rolling up on the villa at zero three hundred, they found the streets were empty and almost all the lights in nearby villas were out. The team quickly exited the vehicles and headed towards the primary breach point while the drivers repositioned the vans for departure and took up security positions.

Keeping it as quiet as possible, Mirko used a portable thermal torch and cut away the locking mechanism on the outer gate, then flowed into the inner walled compound to the side door of the villa. Lance was their resident lock picker; he got to work and they were quickly inside. The team crept into the dark villa and started to systematically clear each room. Half of the team focused on the first floor and the other half made a beeline for the second floor.

Rourk moved up the stairs, everyone in synch where they needed to be and what they needed to do as the situation developed. As they moved into position to enter a closed room, Rourk saw a shadow pass under the door. His eyes flicked up to Jamison, but he didn’t acknowledge. Had Rourk imagined it? No, he knew what he’d seen. He wasn’t going to second guess himself.

He made a hand signaled to Jamison. His fingers pointing to his eyes and back under the door. Jamison shook his head no. A sinking feeling washed over Rourk. If Jamison hadn’t seen anything, that meant only one thing. Whatever Rourk had seen pass under the door was supernatural.

They entered and cleared the room. Empty. They repeated the process until the whole second floor had been searched. They went onto the roof and cleared that as well. Maybe he had imagined it, or if it was the d’jinn, he could take on any form including a spider crawling on the floor.

“First floor clear,” Mirko’s voice came across on the radio.

“Second floor clear,” O’Grady said.

“Roof clear,” Rourk added.

“Objective secure,” Said Jamison.

Everything was going as planned, which was never a good sign.

“Let’s get this shit and get the hell out. This place is giving me the creeps. It’s too quiet, you know what I mean?” Jamison muttered under his breath. Rourk had to agree with him.

Discretion was not part of the plan. They pulled out papers and threw them into the duffle bags they had brought specifically for that purpose. Stitch grabbed hard drives from the computers, thumb drives, and cell phones. Anything that looked like it could have potential intel was to leave with them.

Even though several team members had GoPro video cameras recording while they worked, two guys pulled out compact digital cameras and started to take pictures to document location and status of collected material, as well as the villa itself. You could never tell what might become important later on.

“Well, look at this.” O’Grady let out a low whistled into his head piece.

“Whatcha got?” Jamison asked.

“Opium bricks, and lots of them.”

“My, my. Grab what you can.”

“Roger.”

It wasn’t unusual to find stockpiles of guns or drugs, but it always made the higher-ups happy.

“Five more minutes! Let’s wrap it up!” came over the radio from O’Grady, the team sergeant. Everyone moved with a practiced efficiency, doing last minute sweeps of their area, securing what they’d collected as well as quick checks of personal gear to make sure nothing was missing.

As they exited through the gate towards the vehicles, O’Grady counted them out. He keyed his mic: “All pax out. Sound off by vehicle.”

“Victor One up.”

As O’Grady shut the passenger door, Rourk said over the radio, “Victor Two up.”

Jamison called out, “All Victors up, move out.”

The vans pulled away from the villa fifteen minutes after they had arrived, the surrounding homes in the neighborhood still dark. Everyone was alert and ready, knowing full well that the mission wasn‘t over and they weren’t safe until they were back in their base camp.

As if to punctuate that very thought, as they rounded a corner, they first saw what appeared to be a single vehicle accident fifty meters in front of them. A small pickup truck was on its side, with large canvas bags and other random items spilled out of the bed and strewn across the road. The tension in the truck ratcheted up several notches.

“Possible ambush, moving left” came over the radio from Jamison, who was sitting in Victor One‘s front passenger seat. What appeared to be the driver stood in front of the overturned pickup, waving his arms for the approaching vehicles to stop.

Yeah, right.

Victor One veered around the left side of the vehicle, driving over the shoulder when the enemy machine gun opened up from a covered position off the right hand side of the road.

“Contact right! Contact right!” Could be heard over the radio. Rourk watched as Victor One fishtailed as several rounds impacted the right side of the vehicle. Jamison thrust his M4 through the passenger window, firing a burst into the accident‘s “driver,” who was swinging an AK-47 towards their speeding van.

In Victor Two, Stitch gunned the engine, speeding up to bust through the ambush site right behind Victor One. Rourk slid open the side cargo door and opened fire with the machine gun, trying to suppress the enemy position firing at Victor One.

O’Grady keyed the radio. “Victor Two almost on the X. Supporting fire.”

On cue, the rear window of Victor One exploded outwards as one of its machine guns began to engage the enemy position. An Afghan fighter was seen bringing up an RGP rocket to fire, only to be cut down by Rourk. The man spun, before dropping to the ground from the impact to his head and shoulder.

Rourk’s nose flared from the stench of gunpowder and smoke. He continued firing, and the machine’s fire tore at the earth. Next thing he knew, the over turned truck exploded in a fireball.

Stitch skidded around the pickup, sliding back and forth on the shoulder until the tires gained traction on the road and the van shot ahead. They sped forward, leaving the ambush site behind. They all exhaled in relief.

O’Grady came over the radio. “Victor One, this is Victor Two, we are clear. Status report, over.”

“Victor Two, this is Victor One, all pax up. A few dings but nothing major. We‘re riding rough but should be able to make it back to base.”

“Roger, Victor One. Victor Two, pax all up. Out.”

Jamison called up to the next higher headquarters and informed them of the ambush site while the two vans continued to speed through the night, heading back to their base camp. Everyone was keyed up and on edge, but no further incidents occurred.

The normal hooting and fist bumps from the guys that always came with the brush of death followed their arrival at base camp.

A couple of the guys had some shrapnel that would have to be removed. Hurt like hell, but left bragging rights in the form of a scar.

“Another day in paradise,” Stitch said wryly.

Rourk couldn’t help but wonder if the d’jinn had somehow been involved in the ambush. It was a bit too coincidental for his liking—because of the shadow that passed under the door.

CHAPTER 11   

“So what do you want to do on your last day?” Keegan asked, letting her hair down from the towel.

“Gavin told me about a gym nearby?”

“Well, it’s not that nearby. More like forty minutes away, but sure, we could go there if you wanted. It’s pretty cool, and I haven’t been in a while.”

“Let’s do it. I’m getting lazy hanging out with you all day.”

Keegan rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You run every morning, and I’ve seen you doing push-ups at least three times a day.”

“I have to keep my skills sharp. Go get dressed. We don’t have all day.”

“Actually, we do have all day. You don’t leave till tonight, but I’ll hurry. You’ll love Mack’s, and you never know what kind of creature you’ll run into.”

Thaddeus shooed her away, and Keegan threw on a pair of black capri workout pants and a teal tank top, and covered up with a hoodie. Thaddeus was going to put her through the ringer. Truthfully, she was excited. She tended to slack a bit on her training when Rourk wasn’t there to push her past her comfort zone. Okay, maybe more than a bit.

For once the sun was shinning, and it actually looked and felt like spring. They made the forty-minute drive mostly in comfortable silence.

Keegan turned off the main road onto a narrow gravel road flanked with trees, and in the distance, they could barely make out the cabin. “There it is.” She pointed.

“I see it. Both hands on the wheel. I don’t trust your driving.” Thaddeus smirked.

A few moments later, Keegan rolled the jeep to a stop.

“It’s in the basement. Mack gave us the code so we can use it whenever we want.”

“It’s pretty cool they are Guardians.” Thaddeus said as he unclipped the seatbelt.

“Yeah, they’re all really nice, but as you can imagine, not around too much. So we’ll probably have the place to our selves.”

“Well, maybe next time I visit, they’ll be here.” Thaddeus said as he followed behind Keegan. They walked down a gently slopping hill and went behind the cabin.

“You really do need to visit more often,” Keegan scolded.

Quickly, she entered the code and the green light turned on. She pushed through the heavy steel door holding it open for her brother. “It’s pretty bare bones, but has everything you can think of.”

She watched her brother take in the large gym. Off to the left were a couple of weight lifting platforms with Olympic weights, pull-up bars, medicine balls, atlas stones, and kettle bells. To the right was a huge rock climbing wall, and the rest of the space was used for sparring.

“Wait till you see this.” Keegan’s eyes lit up, and she crossed the gym with Thaddeus close on her heels.

Another panel was set up, and Keegan once again entered a code and the door slid opened.

Thaddeus stepped through and smiled. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

Weapons, rows and rows of every sort of weapon one could think of from any era. Sending a warrior elf into a room like this was like sending a kid into a toy store and telling them they could have as much as they wanted.

Slowly, Thaddeus walked around the room, picking up swords, daggers, throwing stars, battle axes, cleavers and weapons she couldn’t identify. “Very impressive.”

Without warning Thaddeus picked up a sword and tossed it to Keegan. Her hand shot forward, and she grabbed it by the hilt.

“Nice to see you still have your reflexes.”

“Uh huh. You would have felt bad if you’d cut me by accident.”

“Bad? No. Disappointed with Rourk for not keeping up with the hours I was forced to train you, yes. Besides they are not that sharp.”

Keegan laughed. “Right… You ready, little brother?”

“Oh, yes.” He smiled and lifted another sword from the wall. He turned it side to side and ran his hand along the top. “Many great fighters held this sword.” He smiled to himself, and Keegan wondered if he was seeing the ancient warriors in his mind’s eye. “Let’s go.”

Thaddeus lead her through a short warm up, and then some basic Katas. She had grown to love Kata. It was like a dance. The fluid movements and repetitive manner were relaxing to her. It was funny, but not long ago, Keegan had hated working out, much to the chagrin of her parents. After preparing for the Great Battle at the age of sixteen, Keegan had grown to love training.

Plus it gave her something fun to do with Rourk. Hopefully, she could impress her brother today. It had been a long time since they had squared off against each other.

“Ok, now let’s do some basic kihon.” Thaddeus said, moving to one side of the gym so they had plenty of room to move across the floor  utilizing different techniques. “We‘ll start with upper zone strikes, left side first. Ready?”

“Ready.”

“One. Two. Three. Four…”

With each count, Thaddeus and Keegan advanced and executed a strike from their left to the right side of an imaginary opponent. Once they had crossed the floor, Thaddeus said, “While giving ground, one. Two. Three…”

After two or three trips up and down the floor, Thaddeus would announce the next technique to practice and start counting again. They did this for fifteen minutes before taking a short break.

“Ok, one step kumite. I‘ll attack.”

Thaddeus and Keegan faced each other, weapons ready, held as if to attack each other. Thaddeus started to circle Keegan, sometimes closing the distance a bit, other times backing away to create a bigger gap between them.

With no warning, he exploded forward, attacking Keegan with an overhead strike. Keegan swiftly parried the blow and counter-attacked. Thaddeus did not try to block her blow, and Keegan stopped the blade an inch from her intended target, shouting a loud “KIAAA!” They paused, backed up away from each other, then started circling again. Thaddeus changed his tempo, strike speed, and types of strike so Keegan had to constantly be prepared for anything.

After fifteen minutes, they took another short break. “You ready for free style?”

“As ready as I‘m gonna be today.” Keegan said wearily.