LITMIR.BIZ

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the sphere. A few seconds later, the grenade detonated and several men shrieked in pain.

      “Black Five,” a different man shouted in an oddly feminine voice, then added the belching roar of the 30 mm grenade launcher.

      The sage brush disintegrated under the assault, and a cactus was pulverized, but nothing much else happened. Then an MP-5 chattered briefly in savage counterpoint and the drug smuggler crumpled over sideways.

      “They got Uncle Chollo!” another weight lifter snarled, insanely marching out of the protective smoke. “Gonna kill you—”

      Which was as far as he got when there came the sound of distant thunder from the Barrett. His khaki shirt ballooned out the back as his chest erupted, the fabric splitting apart as his internal organs sprayed into the darkness.

      “Red ten!” the first man shouted, and the X-18 began chugging shells into the sky. The rounds came down whistling like bombs and hit the ground to form fiery geysers that banished the artificial cloud cover and laid waste to large patches of the sandy desert. Dead bodies flipped into the air, along with rocks and plants.

      Trying to drive the gunner into view, James laid down a barrage from his MP-5. But the smuggler stayed within the roiling smoke and continued to pump out high-explosive death.

      Unable to proceed in that direction, McCarter and Hawkins separated to try to get around the incoming barrage. But as they did, there came an unexpected explosion from the burning garage. Sounding like a crumpling soda can, the sheet metal roof buckled, then the walls shattered, cinder blocks tumbling away to expose a raging inferno with some sort of machine sitting in the middle on the conflagration, the chassis completely covered with flames.

      Ducking behind a cluster of cactus, McCarter recognized the charred wreckage as a Russian T-80, one of the toughest vehicles in existence. The Stony Man commandos couldn’t have stopped the juggernaut if it had managed to get rolling. It was a good thing that they had taken out the garage in the opening strike.

      Listening closely to the sound of somebody trying to get a cell phone to work, Hawkins simply could not get a definite fix, so he pulled out a grenade and threw the unprimed sphere in the most likely direction. It hit the ground and rolled into some tall weeds, near a sand dune. A split second later several men abruptly appeared, scrambling to get away. Ruthlessly, Hawkins mowed them down, then grunted from the impact of incoming lead from the other direction. Outflanked! However, the NATO body armor held and the hardball rounds did not achieve penetration.

      Badly bruised, but still breathing, Hawkins fired a single round, then began to curse, and started working the arming bolt as if his weapon had jammed. Almost instantly a dark form appeared from within the smoke, rushing his way. But as he cleared the protective smoke, the Barrett spoke once more, and the man doubled over, unable to stand with most of his spine removed.

      Realizing the battle was not going their way, the gunner dropped the exhausted drum from the X-18 and fumbled in a bag at his side to produce a spare one when James rose from the smoke to fire the MP-5 only once. Hit in the head, the gunner staggered, and the Stony Man commando was gone before the criminal fell.

      “Two one, two one!” a tall man shouted, firing short, controlled bursts from his AK-47 into the thinning smoke. “Delta ten!”

      Now the remaining criminals started retreating to the cinder-block building, their assault rifles hosing the smoky darkness in wild desperation. Keeping their backs to the blockhouse, they dropped spent clips to quickly reload when Encizo stepped into view from within the building, holding his MP-5 in both hands. Without a word, he cut loose, the weapon chattering nonstop and chewing the criminals into hamburger until the clip ran empty.

      “C-clear…” Encizo panted, then dropped the weapon and collapsed.

      Rushing over to the man, McCarter scowled at the sight of fresh blood welling from underneath the commando’s body armor.

      “Cal, man down!” the big Briton bellowed, ripping the vest open to inspect the damage. There was a line of holes right along the man’s abdomen. He grimaced, but said nothing.

      Suddenly, James and Hawkins arrived with weapons at the ready. At the sight of the blood-soaked Encizo, both men scowled. Then Hawkins assumed a defensive position while James knelt to lay aside his gun and look over the wounds before ripping open a med pack to sprinkle the wounds with sulfur.

      “These are pretty bad,” James stated, rummaging inside a medical pack to extract a field dressing and press it gently to the man’s bloody abdomen. “There’s nowhere near enough blood showing.”

      Which meant internal bleeding. McCarter had thought so, but hoped he was wrong. “Okay, what do you need?”

      “Fast transportation to a decent hospital,” James replied, pulling out a syringe and checking the contents. “The medical supplies that we have in the Hercules won’t do for this kind of injury. He needs immediate surgery.” He injected Encizo’s thigh, the pale man giving no response.

      “Done.” But starting to reach for his throat mike, McCarter cursed in frustration, then looked around. “There! Take the Cessna and fly him to Chetumal Airport near Cancun,” he directed. “We’ll race back to the Herc, kill the jamming field and radio the doctors to let them know you’re on the way.”

      “T.J., lend a hand,” James commanded. He lifted the unconscious man in his arms and took off at an easy run across the littered desert.

      Shouldering his weapon, Hawkins charged over the fallen bodies and blast craters to scramble into the plane and start the engine. It caught with a sputtering roar, and then smoothed to a sustained purr. Working together, the two men gently placed the unconscious Encizo on top of the packaged heroin, then they clambered inside. James stayed with his patient, while Hawkins took the controls and immediately began taxiing along the runway for a fast takeoff.

      Turning away, McCarter started around the dune when Manning appeared from the darkness.

      “I’m faster,” he said bluntly, the Barrett resting on a broad shoulder. “I’ll meet you there.”

      “No, I’m going back to the plane,” McCarter countered, already in motion. “You stay with our friend in the hills, and don’t lose him! Keep with him at all costs.”

      Confused, Manning narrowed his eyes in annoyance, then realized that if there was any trouble, a Barrett was the only weapon that stood a chance against another Barrett. Accepting the inevitable, Manning broke into a sprint, heading deeper into the desert to approach them from the side as the Cessna lifted off the ground and McCarter disappeared behind the sand dunes.

      Gradually, the sounds of the engine and boots faded into the distance, and the desert airfield was still once more, the cooling corpses illuminated by the moon and the crackling blaze in the ruined garage.

       CHAPTER FOUR

       Patagonia Desert

      A cold wind blew across the frozen land, carrying away the last vestiges of heat. Pristine white snow frosted the ground and the small lake was a solid sheet of ice. Along the curve of the horizon, rough mountains rose in jagged peaks as if they were new and not yet completely finished. Majestic condors flew among the craggy tors, forever on the hunt for anything edible.

      Standing near the edge of a cliff, a woman in a brightly colored parka was setting a camera onto a tripod when she heard the crunch of snow under boots. Out there? A stranger was approaching from the direction of an old jeep, the heat visibly radiating from the engine.

      “Hello,” she said hesitantly, a hand going into a pocket to touch her cell phone.

      “Goodbye,” the man replied, raising a gloved hand and firing.

      Hidden inside the glove, a silenced .22 Remington snapped off six fast shots, the tiny bullets almost leaving through the same hole in the quilted material.

      Recoiling as if hit by sledgehammers, the woman staggered away from the camera, blood gushing from her ragged throat. Clutching the ghastly

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