“What kind of guns?”
I reserved a glimmer of hope that it was civil war relics or old war memorabilia. I had reached a point that I was afraid that it didn’t matter. There wasn’t much I felt that he could say or do to change the fact that my heart was on fire and a knot was building inside my stomach.
A knot I was sure would be there for a lifetime.
He shrugged again. “It’s really something...we should...we just need to talk later.”
“No. Now!” I demanded. “Guns like the ones you had in that room? Do you sell those? Don’t lie to me.”
He nodded.
Tears rolled down my cheeks.
He reached for my face.
“Don’t touch me,” I barked. “I know what those guns are. You sell machine guns? Assault weapons? Don’t fucking lie.”
It seemed I was prying information from him that he didn’t want to reveal. After a moment of what was obviously an inner struggle, he responded. “Yes, I sell assault weapons.”
“I can’t fucking believe this,” I cried.
“Terra...”
“Don’t Terra me.” I raised my hand between us. “I can’t believe this. I should have known.”
I could forgive him for not telling me exactly what he did for income—hell, I hadn’t been close to truthful with him, either. His chosen profession of dealing in machine guns, however, was simply too much for me to accept.
And I couldn’t help but feel that he knew what he was doing was unacceptable, or he would have told me the truth.
I stomped out of the office and into the hallway.
“Terra, it’s...”
I spun around. “Save it. And, I suggest you tell the next girl the truth from the beginning. Then she can decide if she wants to be with someone who sells death.”
“Terra...”
“I hate you.” My stomach convulsed. I fought to breathe. My. Heart. Hurt. I stumbled toward the exit, blubbering and crying as I walked away. As I reached the door I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand and turned to face him.
Covered in black, he stood at the end the hallway and stared back at me.
“Don’t ever come near me again!” I shouted.
And, as hard as it was to believe, I meant every word I said.
Chapter Twenty
Michael
Through thermal imaging surveillance, we learned there were three people in the building, and that two of them were mobile. Based on the stationary position of the third person, we assumed he was our objective.
“Northwest and southwest entrances will be blown simultaneously. Lucky will toss two M84s in the southwest. We’ll enter northwest, extract the target and be out in thirty seconds. ROE are clear. If you’re identified or threatened, engage. Shoot to kill.”
It was the plan for Lucky to throw flash-bang grenades into the area where the two mobile targets were positioned. When the devices detonated, it would disorient anyone exposed by subjecting them to a two-hundred-decibel explosion and a one-million-candlepower flash of light. The two occupants would then be blind and deaf for five seconds, and they’d experience loss of balance and disorientation for several seconds beyond that.
I believed the time we gained from their inability to function would be almost enough for Cap and me to get in and out of the facility without the need to harm anyone. “You’ll blow the doors on my command.”
“Roger that,” Lucky said.
“Now’s the time,” I said. “If anyone wants out of this clusterfuck.”
The two thumbs-up replies were all I needed to see. In a matter of seconds, we were positioned at our respective doors.
“M1 to M4, I need a status of the tangos,” I said.
Trace’s voice came over the headset. “This is M4, we have two tangos currently at number one entrance three meters from exterior wall. Tango three is stationary, over.”
I placed the explosive charge on the door. “M1, charge in place.”
“M3, charge in place,” Lucky said.
“On my three count.”
“Roger three count M1.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
The small explosive charge blew the locking mechanism completely off of the door. Immediately following, the sound and concussion of the two flash-bangs rang out through the building.
Although thermal imaging will show hot spots, there is no indication of where walls, doors, rooms or any other interior surfaces are located. Cap and I entered the building blind to the layout, aided only by the night-vision goggles we wore.
As fate would have it, the corner of the building we entered was well lit, making the use of our night-vision equipment impossible. Upon entering, we each flipped the goggles up and cautiously worked our way to the corner of the building.