Patriots Betrayed (26 page)

In less than ten minutes, they had sorted out the good ammunition from the planted rounds and reloaded all of their magazines for their pistols and full-auto weapons. Raylan checked the big fifty caliber rifle and found nothing suspicious. The Russians were not likely to have ammunition for it, and he was confident they hadn’t planted any dangerous fifty caliber Browning machine gun rounds. Not even the barrel had been tampered with. Having a suspicious mind, he checked the firing pin to make sure it had not been disabled, but there seemed to be no problem.

As they drove away and approached the corner of the building, they were blocked by a black SUV full of rough-looking men. Raylan glanced at the rear view mirror and saw another SUV coming up behind. He punched it and rammed the SUV in front, bulldozing the vehicle out of the way and doing considerable damage to the front end of both SUV and van.

“Party crashers,” Carla said. She grasped her MP5.

Slipping around to the front of the building, Raylan eyed a police cruiser parked in front of a department store. The officer was chatting through his window with a private security guard. Slamming on his brakes next to the cruiser, Raylan yelled in an excited, high-pitched voice, a false story of a black SUV full of thugs mugging an old lady behind the store. Carla joined in, her hysterical pleading to help the lady adding to the sense of emergency.

The officer radioed the situation in.

Raylan screamed, “Here they come!” He hit the gas, just as the damaged SUV and its twin came racing toward them. The officer switched on the overhead lights and pulled into their way, blocking their pursuit of the van. Fortunately for him, the Russian killers aimed for his tires and not him. They left him there with a cruiser that could not pursue them, but he was alive and unhurt.

A high-speed run through back streets proved successful, shaking their tail. Raylan slowed to avoid attracting the attention of more law enforcement personnel and looked for a likely vehicle to steal. They had to dump the van ASAP.

Thirty minutes later, they had all of their equipment transferred to a Jeep Liberty. Not their first choice, but it would do. Raylan insisted they take the C-4 and planted ammo, which probably had C-4 stuffed in the cartridges to blow up their guns when the primers were set off by the firing pins. He might have a use for them.

Carla was driving, so Raylan jumped out while they waited at a light and got into the back seat. There, he removed all the guns, magazines, and extra ammunition, piling it all on the floor. They pulled into a parking lot, where Raylan threw the empty duffel bags into the back of a pickup. Both of them were concerned there may have been a homing device they hadn’t found during their earlier search planted in the cloth. It wasn’t worth the risk, as more bags could be bought easy enough.

Raylan waited until they were out of the area before commenting, “We now know Janowski’s reinforcements were not just for protection; he’s stepped up his hunt for us.”

“We’re making it easy for him by coming to his mansion.” Carla turned off a main artery and onto a road she knew led into a rural area. “That allows him to call in all the thugs that were searching in other states. Not only does he know what state we’re in, he knows what town we’re in.”

“Yeah. Unless we run for it again and forget about going after him, this thing’s going to come to a violent end soon.”

Chapter 19

“Up ahead on the left,” Carla said. She purposely switched the bright lights on to blind them and help her see farther down the road. “Another ubiquitous black SUV.” She pulled her MP5 to her and slung it from her neck. “This night’s stacking up to be real exciting.”

“Nice of the Russians to choose the same type of vehicle several fed agencies use. It gives them a split-second edge, while we hesitate to fire on what may be our own people.”

“The bastards never miss a trick.” Carla saw a driveway ahead. “Maybe I should turn off rather than just try to pass them by and hope they can’t see us in here with night vision goggles.”

Raylan chambered a round into his M4. “Yeah, go ahead and turn off. If they follow, we’ll know we have a fight coming. We’ll use the com equipment to keep in touch.” He handed her a throat mike and earphone set. After waiting until they were down the long drive a ways and had passed a curve, he said, “Stop.” He got out and stuffed two spare magazines for the M4 in back pockets. Leaning in with a smile, he said. “When the shooting stops, come back.” His smile faded. “Just be careful, because they might get me. Wait until I give the all-clear.”

“Bullshit,” she said. “I never believed all that macho crap about how tough Russian Spetsnaz killers are. They bleed like any other man.” She sped off.

“That’s reassuring,” Raylan muttered to himself, as he looked around for bullet-stopping cover and a good place to ambush the Russians.
I doubt all of Janowski’s thugs are ex-Spetsnaz, anyway.

Five minutes later, a black SUV came inching along the dirt drive with its lights out. Raylan smelled more trouble than he had bargained for.
Could be men out there on foot, flanking the SUV and combing the woods for anyone waiting in ambush.
“Shit!” He backed off and hid. A man carrying a Krinkov came hoofing carefully along, his head swinging back and forth, scanning the woods for a target. Raylan could just make out the silhouette of him wearing a night vision device, as he let the killer pass. After giving the Russian time to put distance between them, he rushed to the drive to hit the SUV from behind. The SUV was almost out of sight in the dark when he sprayed the rear with his M4 on full auto. The horn blared and the SUV veered off into a stand of trees, the horn continuing its monotone wail. He switched to semi-auto and flattened both rear tires, then hit the woods, desperately looking for cover.

All hell broke loose, and the woods came alive with full auto fire. Muzzle flashes blinked like fireflies in the dark. The man Raylan let pass by turned back and bulled through thick brush. Raylan saw him coming when he burst out into a small opening, holding his Krinkov in the assault position. He was met with a double tap to the head from Raylan’s carbine. The firing stopped, but he could hear men running in the woods, positioning themselves to come in for the kill. They didn’t know which muzzle flash to shoot at – yet. They had stopped firing sooner than he expected. These men were trained, not the kind to panic and shoot at every muzzle flash in the dark and kill each other.
They just may be ex-Spetsnaz after all.
He gripped his carbine tighter and slid into the shadows to await developments, praying that Carla would stay put. He didn’t want to worry about accidently killing her in the dark.

Two men came running up the drive wielding weapons that appeared to be Krinkovs. He wanted to take them while they were in the open, but knew as soon as he fired other men would fire on him before he had time to reposition. Switching back to full auto, he let the two come on. When they were only a few yards away, he stood up from behind cover and pumped a short burst into them, then immediately rolled behind a windfall.

The woods erupted in gunfire from four different directions. Several rounds slammed into the log, throwing splinters over Raylan’s head. Rather than shooting back and giving away his position, he crawled and kept crawling until he was fifty yards from where he had killed the two men in the driveway.

Crashing brush warned Raylan more danger was heading his way. He waited as long as he could before firing two rounds into the professional killer’s face at only four yards. Hearing the telltale whistle of bullets slicing through the air and past his head, Raylan dove behind a pine tree. More bullets chewed away bark and threw splinters. He crawled as if his life depended on it, because it did.

While slamming a fresh magazine into the M4, Raylan heard a bullet smack flesh, followed by a grunt, then the distinctive bark of Carla’s MP5 came to his ears.
I hope she’s using a night vision monocular and can recognize me in the dark. I didn’t have time to look for the damn things when I left her and can’t see that well out here.
He crawled for better cover, keeping as low as possible, knowing he would have to be very careful about who he shot, since Carla had entered the fight and was in the woods.

Whispered words came to his ear through the earphone. “I guess you know I’m out here now,” Carla said.

“Yep.” Raylan scanned the dark woods for danger. “Keep me apprised of your position. Remember, I don’t have my night eyes on.”

“You rushed into this without proper preparation,” she said. “These are ex-Spetsnaz we’re dealing with. Mistakes are fatal.”

“I’m doing okay. Can’t be that many left. How many thugs could they have stuffed into one SUV?”

She stifled a laugh. “There’s the old Raylan I used to know.”

“I’m getting old alright.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But not too old to kill a few more Russians and get the hell out of here with you.”

“That’s the spirit.” She caught a blur of motion under a wide oak that shielded anything under it from starlight, making it difficult to see, even with a night vision device. Drawing her MP5 tight against her shoulder, she waited for a shot. Instead of a man, a buck emerged from the oak’s dark shade and timidly made its way toward another shading tree forty yards to Carla’s right. The buck suddenly froze, lifted its tail, and sprang away in alarm — a sure sign a man was hiding there.

She flinched when a burst of gunfire down by the driveway caught her by surprise, but she kept her weapon aimed at the shaded area under that tree. Little by little, a man appeared as he inched into the starlight. As soon she saw the AK74 he was carrying, she tightened her aim and fired. The man’s head erupted into crimson mist just before he dropped so fast all she saw was him disappearing into the gloom of the night forest.

Expecting return fire from another killer, she fast-crawled, keeping as low as possible, to another position that offered cover. Using the throat mike, she spoke to Raylan. “I’m still seventy yards east of the drive. You want me to work closer so I can back you better?”

There was no answer.

“Raylan?”

A sound came back, “Sshh.”

She kept quiet and listened.

Raylan waited until the killer was only feet away, then fired a shot into his head. Wasting no time, he moved fast, keeping under the shade of trees, and found a position with cover on two sides. Looking around in the dark as he spoke, he said, “Go back to the Jeep and wait for me to clear the woods. I think we have taken them all out, but can’t be sure.”

“There’s a home at the end of the drive. You know they’ve called the Sheriff’s Department.”

Raylan moved slowly through the woods. “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll have company soon. Go ahead and bring our ride up here. Can’t be sure we got them all, but we’ll have to risk it.” He crept to the edge of the drive where he would be well-hidden and waited.

Ten minutes later, Carla’s voice broke the silence of the night. “I’ve got an idea. This thing’s got four wheel drive, and I found an open area with only a few scattered trees we can cross to get back to the road instead of taking the driveway. It’s muddy in places, but we should make it okay.”

Raylan was pleased. “If I head due east, will that get me where I need to be?”

“Yeah. You’ll come out into the clearing. I’m heading there now with the lights out.”

“Great.” Raylan moved slowly and stayed in the shadows until he felt he had left the killers behind and it was it safe to move fast. After racing through the woods for what seemed like forever, half expecting a bullet to slam into him at any moment, he reached the meadow. To his right, he just made out the Jeep and ran that way.

Using her night vision monocular, Carla saw him coming at one hundred yards and stomped the gas pedal, reaching him in seconds and slamming on the breaks just long enough for Raylan to jump in.

He caught his breath. “Punch it. I hear sirens. They’ll probably have a chopper out here soon.”

They bounced along, tires spinning in the wet spots. As they approached the road, a speeding sheriff’s cruiser slowed and turned into the dirt drive. The deputy switched off the siren and overhead lights before continuing on down the driveway. He couldn’t see them because Carla had the Jeep’s lights off.

“Damn ditch is full of water here,” Carla said. “I don’t think we can make it without getting stuck.”

Raylan reached over the back of the seat and pawed around on the floor behind him, searching for the other night vision monocular. “Parallel the road, and we’ll look for a better spot to cross.”

Carla hit it, not sparing the Jeep, running over brush and knocking down small trees.

Raylan found his night eye and turned it on. “The land becomes higher and drier up ahead.”

Coming up on drier land and seeing a place to cross, Rayland expected her to turn left and jump the ditch, but instead, she suddenly veered to the right and stopped behind a stand of pines.

“Another deputy coming,” she said.

It was two sheriff’s cruisers, one following the other, both with sirens off but lights flashing. She waited until they were out of sight before backing up and heading for the ditch.

Raylan strained to see how bad the ditch looked as his head bounced off the roof. Strapping himself in, he said, “Looks rough, but we can make it with enough speed.”

She floored it. All four tires slung mud, and the engine roared. They nearly flew across. The tires never touched the bottom of the ditch. Landing on the road shoulder hard, she jerked the wheel over and had the Jeep pointed down the road before Raylan had time to recover from the impact.

He looked back and didn’t see anyone following. The speedometer told him they were doing eighty-five. “We’re clear.”

Carla backed off to sixty and switched the lights on.

Both of them switched their night vision monocular off and swung them up out of the way.

A few miles down the road they came to a hamlet and turned onto a side road, trying to mingle with the neighborhood. A helicopter flew by at a distance, heading for the scene of the gunfight. More law enforcement cruisers sped through the hamlet on the main road, sirens blaring and lights flashing.