Apache Dawn: Book I of the Wildfire Saga (26 page)

The hallway beyond the stairs was dark with only one emergency light, hanging from a wire and swaying drunkenly.
 
The corridor was strewn with bodies.
 
Some were clearly patients, dressed in hospital gowns and still trailing IV lines from arms and wrists.
 
Others were in scrubs and a few had white coats, stained with blood.
 
The North Koreans had clearly moved down the corridor guns blazing and killed everyone in their path.
 

The doors along the hallway had been forced open, some shot through, and debris and equipment was scattered everywhere.
 
Cooper could hear the eerie, spine-tingling wails from multiple medical monitors shrilly calling for attention from dozens of rooms.

Muzzle flashes accompanied by the deafening sound of gunfire in confined quarters at the end of the hallway painfully split the darkness.
 
Cooper flipped up his night-vision goggles and let his eyes adjust.
 

When he could see again, Cooper found himself looking down a long hallway.
 
About halfway down the hallway, at the junction of the main corridor to the left, was a large circular desk littered with computer monitors and phones.
 
There were two North Koreans taking shelter behind the desk, shooting their rifles over the top of the bullet-ridden desk. The tactical lights on their weapons were lancing all over the place with their movements.
 

“There’s the nurse’s station.
 
Secret Service is down that left-hand corridor,” Cooper whispered to Charlie.

Charlie gripped Cooper’s arm and pointed—on the other side of the nurse’s station a few flashlights winked with movement.
 
Cooper could hear muffled shouting over the noise of the firefight.
 
He squinted and could just barely see North Korean marines kicking down doors on the left side of the corridor.
 
There looked to be at least twenty of them.
 
When they didn’t come back out, he realized what was going down.
 
Flashes and the sound of more gunfire.
 
A few bodies in hospital gowns tumbled out into the hallway.
 

The North Koreans are going to cut through those rooms...they’ll flank those Secret Service pukes if they can find a way to jump out down that left cooridor.
 
Cooper had seen enough.
 

He signaled to Charlie and pointed at the nurse’s station.
 

Both men opened up their weapons and in an incredibly loud few seconds, the North Koreans hiding behind the circular desk were on the ground, painting the floor red.
 
The rest of the SEALs then advanced up the stairs and moved down the hallway, finding no survivors.

Cooper keyed his throat mic.
 
“Secret Service, Striker 1 advancing on your position.
 
Do not shoot, I say again,
friendly forces turning the corner
, your twelve o’clock!”

He stepped to the corner and looked left, almost expecting to take a bullet in the face.
 
Instead a flashlight beam pointed in his direction.
 

“Thank
God!
” someone said in the smoke.

“Charlie, go!” he said, pointing down the main hallway where the North Koreans had entered rooms and disappeared.
 
Charlie instantly peeled off with his fireteam and vanished into the darkened corridor.

“Direct your men that way,” said Cooper as he trotted toward the besieged Secret Service Agent.
 
“You got at least ten NKors working through the rooms and advancing fast on your nine o’clock!
 
They’re trying to flank you.”
 
The Agents nodded and faced the doors on the left side of the hallway.

Cooper, satisfied that the Agents were prepared, turned to his fireteam coming up fast behind him.
 
“Spread out and anchor the line.
 
Jax get in the center.”

“
Team 2 in position
,” Charlie whispered, dead calm.

Without a word, Mike pushed past and vaulted the make-shift barricade the agents had cobbled together.
 
He raced on down the corridor toward the far end, watching the doors on the right side. Jax, right behind the smaller SEAL, shouldered past carrying his massive twenty pound M60 light machine gun.
 
Swede scaled the barricade, dropped to a knee and covered the hallway, the smallish MP5 looked like a toy next to his large frame.

“Everyone, reload and check weapons, they’re not done yet!” Cooper ordered to the half-dozen steely-eyed agents.
 
A few Agents, dressed in battle load-outs, rummaged grim-faced through the gear still strapped to their fallen comrades.
 
The odd thing in Cooper’s mind was they did not hesitate or question his authority at all. They recognized the wisdom of his order, stranger or not.

“They’re going to come straight at us,” Cooper said quietly, “So get to the side of these doors here in front of you.
 
Get ready…”

They could hear some noise and shouts from the other side of the three doors on the right side of the hallway.
 
“They’re almost through,” Cooper whispered.
 
“Charlie, go on my mark.”

The tiny bone phone in Cooper’s ear broke squelch twice: Charlie was ready.
 
He shifted his carbine and raised it to his shoulder, waiting.
 
The hallway was deathly quiet.
 
Dust swirled in the air but was barely visible in the emergency light’s cone of illumination.
 
Cooper’s vision, through his night-vision goggles, was bright as day, albeit green-tinted.

The door directly across from Cooper suddenly flew open with a crash, propelled forward by a foot.
 
The North Korean soldier coming through never got his foot back on the ground.
 
He landed flat on his back with two rounds to the face.
 
Two more men charged forward to take his place, screaming like banshees.
 
The next two doors down the corridor were smashed open with similar results.
 
The SEALs and Secret Service Agents easily dispatched the first targets to emerge.

“Go, go, go!” yelled Cooper.
 
Suddenly, Charlie’s fireteam, advancing through the rooms behind the North Koreans, opened up on their unprotected rear elements.
 
The flanking maneuver was crippled before they had a chance to execute.
 
The rooms lit up with the sounds of gunfire and screams, accompanied by staccato flashes of light.
 
Above it all, the booming voice of Jax’s M60 reverberated down the corridor.

Caught between Cooper and the agents in front of them and the meat grinder of Navy SEALs behind them, the North Korean squad was quickly dispatched into a bloody, quivering mess, adding to the already extensive carnage on the floor.
 

A few of the agents whooped in victory but not a single SEAL showed any sign of celebration.
 
Always on mission, Cooper was gratified to see, his men immediately secured the perimeter and prepared for the next wave.

“
Left flank secured
,” reported Mike from down the hall.

“
Right flank secured
,” said Swede, watching the nurse’s station at “T” intersection of corridors.
 

“
Center secured
,” called out Jax.

“Friendlies coming in, hold your fire!” a voice yelled from inside one of the rooms used by the North Koreans in their ill-fated flanking maneuver.

“Hold your fire,” called out Cooper. “That’s my men coming in.”
 
Four shadows silently moved through the butchery in the rooms in front of the defenders and emerged, scanning for threats, weapons up.

Cooper disengaged his night-vision goggles and stood, stretching his knee.
 
The damn brace squeaked and he winced.
 
“Mike, check the wounded.
 
I don’t want any surprises.”

“
On it
,” replied Mike from down the corridor.
 
He stood and methodically checked each body on the floor for a pulse.
 
The third one he checked was alive.
 
Without hesitation, he pulled his dive knife and plunged the 8” darkened blade into the soldier’s chest.
 
The man stiffened and gurgled, a bubble of blood forming at his mouth.
 
After the body relaxed, Mike twisted the blade and with a savage motion, ripped it free from the corpse.
 
He moved to the next North Korean casualty in a low crouch and checked for a pulse.

“Jesus!” one of the wounded agents said, nursing a bandaged arm and propped against the wall.
 
“What the hell was that for?
 
That guy was half-dead already…”

“Well, now he’s
full
-dead,” was Mike’s grim reply.
 
He crouched next to another body and checked it.
 
“Chief said ‘No surprises’.
 
Only way we’ll be surprised now is if these assholes turn into zombies.”
 
He grinned, his teeth white against a sweat streaked, grimy face and moved on.

“I’m Sheffield, head of the President’s detail,” said the agent with the flashlight.
 
Agent Sheffield looked back down the hallway where the partially destroyed nurse’s station sat in silence.
 
He gestured at a North Korean body.
 
“You guys sure know how to make an entrance.”
   

“Master Chief Braaten,” said Cooper.
 
He scanned the battle-scene and was rather impressed by what he saw.
 
The handful of agents had held off a vastly superior force, judging by the numbers of bodies crumpled along the corridors in every direction. “Looks like you and your men put up a helluva fight.”
 

Sheffield grunted then blew out his breath and winced in pain. “We sure that’s the last of ‘em?
 
Don’t have much ammo left.”
 

Cooper nodded.
 
“Slipknot?”

Agent Sheffield looked at Cooper, as if deciding whether he could reveal such information.
 
He smiled and wiped the blood from his cheek with the back of a grime-covered hand.
 
“Not here.
 
We’re the front line.
 
We’ve got him in the basement in a makeshift ICU with a few doctors and the rest of my team.
 
We wanted to draw their attention up here to the Critical Ward until we could get him out of the hospital.”

“Is he alive?” asked Cooper, switching magazines on his weapon.

“Yeah, but he contracted that super-flu that’s going around.
 
He’s in bad shape.”

“Shit.”
 
Cooper looked around the demolished corridor leading to the bullet-riddled nurse’s station at the “T”.

“This is
no bueno
, man.
 
We gotta move.
 
Can you get your wounded on their feet?
 
We need to regroup with the others and get Slipknot out of here—like, yesterday.”

“Something to do with the explosions we heard?
 
Our comms went dead a while back and we haven’t heard from anyone till you guys showed up and tore through these assholes like Sherman through Atlanta,” said the President’s chief bodyguard as he helped another agent to his feet.

“Those weren’t just explosions.
 
Fuckin’ missiles from offshore, hell maybe from orbit or something,” Cooper said.
 
“We spotted at least one jet doing ground-attack runs.
 
We lost comms just before we got here.”

Cooper paused.
 
When he spoke next it was in a quiet voice.
 
“Walked into a damn trap and lost half my men.”
 
He stared right at the SAC and added, “Last thing we heard was Apache Dawn has been activated.”

The agent paled, noticeable even in the dim, murky light.
 
“Oh my
God
.”
 
He turned to his men.
 
“Apache Dawn is in effect!
 
We have to get Slipknot and evacuate
now!
”
 
Turning back to Cooper, he said, “Follow me, I’ll get us down to the basement.”
 
The agents kicked themselves into gear rushing to collect what weapons and ammo they could find before gathering up their wounded.

“
I got our six
,” said Charlie.
 
“
Sparky, on me!
”

“Take ‘em out,” said Cooper to Agent Sheffield with a brief nod.
 
He backed up against the wall as Agent Sheffield limped past.
 
The remaining agents and SEALs followed closely queued-up behind Cooper.
 
Charlie and Sparky took up trailing positions, walking backwards and scanning for threats from the rear.
 

It only took a few minutes of winding through darkened, deserted hallways and stepping over the bodies, busted-up equipment, and trash to make it to the basement.
 
The North Koreans had really shot the hell out of the hospital.
 
Cooper imagined the upper floors of the hospital must be crammed full of terrified civvies: patients, family members, doctors, nurses, and staff.
 
He didn’t like leaving them behind, but his mission was to secure the President at all costs.