As the group got to the end of the hall, I made my move. I took aim and fired a few shots, catching the one man in the chest. He stumbled back and I fired again, hitting his skull. Blood sprayed back as he collapsed onto the floor.
The group retreated through the door at the end of the hall, slamming the door shut behind them.
I moved into the hall, sticking close to the wall, my gun up and ready. I made it to the door and pressed myself against the wall. I took the radio from my belt.
“Travis,” I said. “In position. Over.”
“Roger that, cap,” he said. “I can see the buggers. Over.”
“What do you see? Over.”
“It’s Omar all right. The parents are there, looking scared but fine. Six other men, serious firepower. Over.”
“Fire when ready. Over.”
I could hear the joy in his voice. “Roger that, cap. Over and out.”
I took deep breaths, waiting. This was the plan, what we’d wanted the whole time.
I was never meant to stop them from getting to the control room, but I was supposed to slow them down if I could and eventually herd them in there. Unfortunately, I was too late to slow them much, but I was able to thin the crowd a bit while Travis got into position.
The control room was built in one far wall overlooking the core. Around the core was scaffolding for maintenance crews to do routine fixes on the core itself. There wasn’t any radioactivity in that room, only deeper down beneath the shielded concrete layers.
That scaffolding was perfect for a sniper. The control room’s front was all glass and totally exposed. We’d never have known this if it weren’t for those blueprints, and I mentally thanked that strange little man.
I heard the first shot. Well, not the shot, but the accompanying panic. There were shouts as Omar’s men tried to find cover from Travis’s bullets, but there was nowhere to go.
The door flung open and three men stumbled through. I killed the first two easily, my bullets tearing them to pieces. Their bodies fell on top of the third man, and so I was forced to get up close. He fired back at me, missing, hitting the ceiling as I kicked away one of the bodies and plunged my knife into his heart.
I whirled, gun ready, as the man beneath the bodies expired. Nobody came out, but the shouts were still happening. I looked in through the window and saw Omar’s group scattered, down to three men, the parents, and Omar himself. They were pressed up against the wall, and it looked like Travis couldn’t get a line on them.
But I could. I kicked open the door and fired at the thugs, killing two instantly as I rolled, coming up behind a control console. They returned fire, but it bit uselessly into the steel panels.
“Hold your fucking fire!” Omar yelled out. “You fucking idiots!”
The gunfire ceased.
“Is that you, Emory?” Omar called out.
“Omar Hooth, so nice to finally meet you,” I answered.
“And you have a friend out there with a sniper rifle, yes?”
“I think the bodies are proof enough of that.”
“Seems we are at a standoff then.”
“Standoff? Seems that I have you all cornered.”
“Ah, but we have hostages.”
“Don’t worry about us. Kill them,” Tara’s dad yelled.
“Ignore the dumb American,” Omar said. “I think you and I should negotiate.”
I came up fast, gun aimed, and killed the last thug. I dropped back into cover before Omar could return fire.
“I don’t negotiate with terrorists, Omar.”
That left just Omar and Tara’s parents. The threat was done, but her parents weren’t out of danger.
“Do you want to save these two civilians?” he asked.
“Give it up, Omar,” I called out. “Your men are dead. You’re trapped in this room.”
“Yes, so I am. But I am prepared to die, and to take these Americans with me. Are you prepared, Emory Rush?”
“Enough talk. Let them go.”
As I moved up to check on them, I heard something rolling toward me. I looked down, wide-eyed, as a grenade stopped near me.
“Fuck,” I said, and covered my body.
The explosion was loud and the light was blinding, but it didn’t physically hurt me.
It was a stun grenade, just a stun grenade. It was meant to confuse and to blind, but not to kill.
But Omar was meant to kill.
“Goodbye, you bastard. This is revenge for my family.”
I dove forward, rolling blindly. I heard Omar curse and stumble as I moved wildly.
And then he screamed in pain. I kept rolling as my senses slowly came back to me, the room going from a fuzzy blur to full resolution.
Omar was on the ground, clutching his shoulder, bleeding. His gun was just out of reach.