Prime (Chess Team Adventure, #0.5)

Zelda stamped the brake, stopping the minivan in the middle of the road.

King half-turned so he could see everyone. “All right, kids. The new boss is watching, so let’s make this look easy.”

The team had been outfitted with equipment and weapons from the cache at the safe-house: PVS-14s; sound-suppressed Heckler & Koch MP5s with M68 Aimpoint red-dot aiming sights and tactical body armor vests with load carrying pouches for spare magazines, grenades and their radio sets. They exited the vehicle in silence and made their way on foot up the final hill, with King in the lead and Somers bringing up the rear.

King called a halt at the top of the rise and radioed the sniper teams for a final visual report. Just as Shin had reported all afternoon, the compound was quiet.

King brought them all forward for a final brief. “We do this fast, quiet and by the numbers.”

There were four buildings in the compound. Buildings Two and Four were two stories each. The helicopter, which had arrived at midday, was still parked on the roof of Building Two, but most of the activity Shin had observed occurred in and around Building Four. Based on his description, Zelda felt certain that Building Four was a holding area for the triad’s captives—future slave laborers, child soldiers or organ donors. It was also where the team would probably face the stiffest opposition.

She couldn’t begin to guess what business Chinese gangsters had with rogue Delta operators. ‘By the numbers’ meant Building Four would be the last one they entered.

“There is one presumed non-hostile—”

Zelda recalled her brief glimpse of Sasha Therion at the airport the previous day. She had no doubt that the CIA cryptanalyst was a hostage.

“—so positive ID before you pull the trigger. The good news is, she’s the only one you need to worry about not killing.” He looked at each of them in turn. “Any questions?”

There were none.

“Irish, this is King. Give me a weather report?”

Zelda heard the echo of his transmission a millisecond later in her radio earpiece, followed by Parker’s voice. “Nothing moving on the south side. Nighteyes, how’s the north look?”

“All clear. Watch yourselves. It’s spooky quiet.”

King took a breath and then spoke again. “Deep Blue, this is King. Give the word.”

A weird electronic voice burbled in Zelda’s ears. “The word is ‘Go.’ Give ‘em hell, team!”

“Well, I guess it beats ‘break a leg,’” Tremblay muttered.

King gave the signal to move out. They walked in a straight line, staying about twenty feet apart. Tremblay took point, followed in turn by Silent Bob and King. Zelda was next in the formation, and Somers brought up there rear.

They reached the gate, where it took Tremblay all of ten seconds to cut away a section of wire mesh big enough for even Somers to slip through, and then they were moving again, dashing across the open ground to the front of Building One. As soon as they were all lined up outside the door, King gave another hand signal and they swept inside.

The reception area, like the rest of the structure, was dark and deserted, but they methodically cleared each room just to be sure.

The same would not be true of Building Two.

Although there were no windows, a thin strip of light was visible beneath the front entrance of the two-story building. King gave the order for everyone to switch off their night vision, and then he threw the door open.

Tremblay rushed inside, sweeping the area to the left with his weapon. Silent Bob went right and did the same, but there was no one to shoot at. The brightly lit hallway beyond was as quiet as a cemetery, but Zelda saw closed doors on either side.

King waved them all forward. “Juggernaut, Bob—take the right. Legend, Eastwood—left side. Leapfrog.”

Tremblay and Roberts hastened forward, and moved through the first door in the same dynamic way they’d come in through the front entrance. Zelda waited for the noise of battle, but heard only Tremblay’s voice in her earpiece: “Clear.”

Now it was her turn. She advanced to the next door and felt Somers tap her shoulder with the ready signal.

That was when it finally hit home for her. She had done this more times than she could count in training, but she had never been given the opportunity to test herself in combat. This was the real deal; this was what she’d been waiting for.

And she was ready.

She gave the go signal, and in a single smooth motion, she turned the doorknob, threw the door open and moved into the room.

This room was not empty.

She processed what she saw in large chunks of information. There were two people, right in front of her: a woman, sitting at a table staring at the screen of a laptop computer, and a man right behind her, mostly hidden from view. Zelda recognized them both; the woman was Sasha Therion and the man was Kevin Rainer.