Bullet 4 Part 2

The hours clicked

1200hr

The streets were still in chaos but the hotel still stands regal there. It has a squad of soldiers guarding it from any looters.

But it did not take the Cartel long to find me once Henry dropped me at the hotel. I saw the duo standing at the corner of the block, and there is another standing across the street. I alighted from the Land Rover and Henry passed me a small bag. Its a blue plastic shopping bag and it contained something heavy.

"Marius, for old times. It has a spare clip inside." I nodded my thanks and grabbed the bag.

I managed to come in and up to my room unharmed. All I need now is how to do the same getting out. I took out the SIG 226 and placed the spare clip into my shirt pocket. Its all I can managed for now. I went to the window and looked out. The guy across the road is missing and presumed on his way up. If they are predictable, they will be knocking soon. They did and it was the next room. I can hear them kicking at the door and swarming in.

I opened mine and walked out to the corridor. The shot came almost hit me on my shoulder. They staged the break-in and I fell for the trick. The guy who was kicking the door was standing at there to fire at me. The other guy was standing behind me was aiming but not shooting. Yet.

I jumped back to my room and am now in a crossfire from two assassin. So much for the trick of having two rooms on the same floor. Whoever they are, they know the same tricks as I do. I have less than five seconds before they come in with gun blazing. I grabbed the pillows and threw them out. That did the trick to divert their aims but not mine. I pecked the guy who kicked the door, but not the second. And the third. They had been reinforced since then.

But I have my unplanned reinforcement.

Henry came in blazing with the shotgun; they blast nasty holes in people at close range. He took them out from behind and splattered them to the wall.

"I had to come, Marius.Three against one is not right. So can you move now."

But our trouble did not end there.

The Land Rover was at the back of the hotel. I met Dion there, who is with Henry. Dion is Henry's current affair, and she is dressed in blouse and jean with jungle boots. Dion is also packing a belt with a SIGP226 9mm in her hips, and one in her shoulder holster on 15 rounds clips. I was told that Dion besides being a nursing expert is also a trained elite soldier. Her heavy power weapon is the AK47 slung over her shoulder; her army days leftover.

I was given guns to carry on me beside the SIG 226. I also have a S&W Model 36 with a five shots tucked into my boots. For my long range sniping works, Henry gave me on the of the best; Remington 700 with Night Vision Scope and chambered in the .308 for the works. The cartridges are the same as the AK47 7.62mm.

"Henry, what's the score here?" I am sure the rescue does not come free.

"Marius, do the frag mission. I can only protect you if you are on the job. You know Gavin could be the one who planned it and if you are back in, all are forgiven." Henry made sense and somehow I know when I am cornered. I nodded my approval.

I met the rest of the team in a nearby warehouse.

There are seven more of them, but their names are not important to me as they all sounded the same to me. I only concerned myself with one; the Sarge. He is ex-military Sargeant and is a demolition expert. He has no name but they all called him Sarge. He is a short but stout man due to his years of training, but he's packed with explosives now. The men all looked to him for directions and what he say goes well with them. I told Henry to lead them; I will be his soldier like the rest.

Our vehicle is the Land Rover Defender 110 and its packed with some essentials and one extra spare tire in the back for the times we may need it. We will travel in three Land Rovers over a route that us close to the border through the jungle to reach the manor where the King has hidden his daughter. According to the intel which we had, the airport is locked out, and so are the exit points by the border. Claudia best hope is upriver by boat from there and then trek over the jungle.

I knew Henry for twenty years and he is one loaded person when its come to self protection. He is armed like us but he carried onto the vehicle his trademark; a nasty looking FN Minimi Para complete with the shorter barrel that comes with the belt ammo clip. He removed the part of the windscreen in the front and stacked the gun's tripod on the bonnet. He had three boxes of his belt ammo on the back of the rover.

Henry Worth III; island born to a family of rich manors but by his time, it was only the family crest that was left to identify the family heirloom. Henry was the third in his family to carry the tradition of being name after the greater known grandfather. Like his predecessors, Henry served the military but he was sent packing on charges of insubordination. He called his commander, the colonel a pompous peacock among the eagles. But Henry served his expertise in the new conflicts around the world with credit of his heritage of a fine ,military strategist until his last stint; he bungled it with the commander's wife and was imprisoned for five years. Since then he walked with a limp on his right leg but he is still the feisty man he once was. He stands at six foot and a body frame that does not show his age of fifty five. His once mop of red hair is now down to strands but its covering his top distinctly well. Henry is not a rifleman but an indestructible mad man behind his FN MG. He boasts of firing non-stop for six hours on his FN when his drinks gets into his head. But no one dispute his claims as his fists are still quite a punch.

Dion; the nurse as I could lay my eyes on her, is a woman of her middle age but she has kept the body trim with workouts from the looks of the tautness in the muscles. She stands at just above five feet but she seem to be light on her foot telling me she may know how to kick high and hard. She keeps her hair short under her green beret and I noticed those eyes. They observed and records everything around her and her care. She is one careful bitch and she would not give you the time to bitch about it when she shoots you in the eye.

The seven men under the Sarge took the other two Land Rover. They also have a Browning 50 caliber mounted on the passenger side onto the bonnet.

We left at 1245hr by the rear gate along the river banks. We hit if off on the river banks slopes can be about steep but the rover held on for us. At about a hundred meters, we revved up onto the side road and was on our journey. We can hear the sounds of gunfire and explosion in the city but our trip will be skirting it on the outside.

But our journey may be cut short, as I see looming ahead is a road block by some men wearing army fatigues but they lack on thing; army personnels do not have a pickup with a .50 browning machine gun on the top. I swerved the Rover to the right and into the side road skirting some squalid huts with the others following me. Its about a fifty meters drive before we hit the main road. I came to stop at the junction to the road and looked to both my directions for option. The road leads to the right onto the main highway which I am trying to get on. It may not be the best options but that is the fastest. If I take to the left, I am backtracking but there is another five miles down which will take me the next intersection that can joined to the highway. Around us now are the huts which is the homes for the common folks as their occupants worked in the lavish cities establishments.

But my choice was made for me as the two pickup trucks I saw earlier came out in front of us on the left at about five hundred yards. The pickup truck has machine gun on it, and its armed with its gunner ready and three more men in the rear seats. Its coming towards us. I can see the second pickup truck following close behind and it also has a gunner with a machine gun on it.

"Henry?" I am asking for opinion.

"Take the right and I will take the gunner off the top."