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Brock wasn’t sure what tipped the hostiles off to their presence.
He, Cerberus, Sonny, and Vic had been silent entering the stairwell, and the music playing below them should’ve been enough to cover whatever noise they might have made as they crept down the stairs.
Whatever it was, one minute they’d been descending stealthily – the next they were being shot at.
Great. Just Great.
He tugged Cerberus backwards and behind him, keeping him clear of any bullets that could strike him thanks to the shooters below, before sticking the muzzle of his gun over the railing and firing off two shots at the hostiles on the lower level.
“I count three!” Sonny yelled, after taking a quick look at what they were dealing with. He drew back, and Vic slid neatly in to cover him. Brock nodded, impressed with how well their new brother worked with the team. He knew Clay hadn’t been convinced, but he saw no reason to doubt Bravo 7.
Vic swapped out with Sonny, and Sonny fired off a single shot. “Make that two!”
“Show off,” he muttered, but there was no reprieve for them when something metallic clattered against the concrete.
“GRENADE!” Sonny roared, kicking it back down to where it came from. Brock had moved to the opposite site of the stairs, ready to add his own bullets to the mix – but his new position gave him a clear view of the ammo cache hidden in the basement.
He threw himself backwards, covering Cerberus as he went. “AVALANCHE!” He yelled – the only warning they got before the building seemed to heave from underneath them; filling with fire and light.
Cerberus’ whining cut through the ringing in his ears. He had to grope blindly at his face to clear it of the dust that seemed hellbent on suffocating him, but once he could see Brock knew that it was a miracle and then some that they hadn’t been killed.
He coughed, and a cloud of dust went billowing out from his face. “Sonny?” He croaked, looking around. ”Vic?” Thanks to the lone light that had somehow survived the explosion, he could see they were alive and moving – albeit slowly. “You two okay?”
Vic sounded like he was trying to cough his lungs up, but managed to give him a thumbs up. Sonny was slowly picking himself up off the ground, and looked very confused. He tried again. “Sonny, you good?”
“I’m good, Floret Nightingale,” Sonny wheezed, grabbing his gun from where he’d dropped it. “Holy shit.”
“Bravo 3, this is 1; radio check.”
Sonny wiped the grit from his eyes, coughing as he did so. His radio went off again, and it wasn’t hard to miss the concern in Jason’s voice. “Bravo 3, this is 1; radio check.”
“Better answer him,” Vic wheezed, rubbing at his ears.
Sonny gave their youngest brother a look as he activated his radio. “That’s a good copy, read ya Lima Charlie.”
“What the hell happened down there?”
“A frag went off in the basement, setting off a sympathetic detonation.” He aimed his gun up to shine the light attached to it at the stairs above them, and Brock followed his eyeline. Oh, shit. “Oh man,” the Texan muttered. “That ain’t good.”
Not only was the stairwell leading to the basement in pieces, the stairs above them had been blown to shit, too. It was a minor miracle their little corner had survived the explosion, but they were trapped three levels up from the basement, unable to move anywhere.
“What the hell was down there?”
“Ammo cache,” he told Sonny when the Texan looked at him. “Big one, too.”
Sonny swore. “Might as well have been a wildfire,” he told Jason. Brock could understand it; knowledge of the ammo cache wouldn’t do them any good now that there was nothing left of it. Blackburn had said in their briefing that the building was a safehouse for Costerov, not a storage depot, and yet a storage depot was exactly what it had turned out to be. “The floors above have collapsed, all the way down to the basement, blocking the stairwell.”
“Need help getting out?”
“Ah, that is a negative. We’ll work the problem.”
“Copy that.”
The radio went quiet, and Brock looked at Sonny. “So, fearless leader; what’s your plan?”
“That’s a good question,” Sonny grumbled, wiping more dust off his face. Brock thought it was a wasted effort – that shit wasn’t going anywhere until they hit the showers. “Gimme a minute.”
He shrugged and moved over to Vic. “You all good?”
“Aside from the ringing in my ears, I think I’m okay,” his little brother replied, giving him a small smile. “You?”
“Same here.” He peered up the stairs; not a single level of stairwell was unscathed. “How in the hell did we survive that?”
“Good luck?”
He smirked at that, clapping Vic on the shoulders. “Whatever you do, don’t ever say that anywhere near Jason or Trent about a situation that I happen to be involved in. That’s a surefire way to get stuck in a twenty-minute lecture, and I’d rather spare you if I can.”
“I thought the rumours of you attracting trouble was a joke,” Vic said, looking at him with wide eyes.
“I promise you, Trent and Jase wish that were the case.”
“Alright boys,” Sonny said, turning to them. He was two stairs down from the landing he and Vic were on, which Brock thought was rather risky, given there were only four stairs left on that section. If they weren’t careful, what remained could break away at any given time. “Quickie saw is upstairs, we’ve gotta sledge our way outta here. Unless y’all got any better ideas?”
“You got breaching charges, right?” Vic asked as he fiddled with his helmet. “Can’t we just blast it? Give us a head start?”
“That is such a sweet thought there, Vicky Spears – but unless you wanna bleed outta your eyeballs from the over pressure, I’d start swinging.” Sonny pulled the sledgehammer from his pack, looking at it fondly. Brock rolled his eyes – he’d never understand his brother’s obsession with smashing things.
“Yep, it is sledge-o’matic time.” Sonny gave the sledge a loud kiss before slamming it into a section of the wall.
Sonny and Vic took turns smashing the concrete. Brock offered to help, but because Cerberus was attached to him, Sonny told him not to bother. There wasn’t all that much to smash through, so two of them wouldn’t have too many problems sharing the work between them.
“Bravo 3, sitrep.”
“Still working the problem, boss. Almost through.”
“Copy that.”
Brock watched as Vic made steady progress on the wall. Sonny checked his watch, before turning back to the demolition at hand. “Vic, one more good hit right there.”
Vic did as instructed, but the concrete didn’t break as expected. His second hit was harder, and Brock cursed as smoke started pouring in through the hole the sledge had just made.
“Oh, c’mon now,” Sonny groaned, grabbing a coughing Vic and dragging him back to where they were both standing. “That is not good. Not good at all.”
“Shit,” he coughed, grabbing the bandana he carried around for Cerberus and tying it round his head, before donning his own. There wasn’t much he could do for his boy, but it would at least make a little bit of difference.
“Smoke is getting thick,” Sonny said between coughs. “We need to get this under control, and when we do, we will de-jock and conserve our oxygen.”
Vic was back at the hole, frantically trying to plug it up. It wasn’t hard to guess by the smell and the heat that the room on the other side was on fire. Sonny had told Vic to try plug the hole; figuring that doing so was better than doing nothing at all. Not that it was making a blind bit of difference.
“Argh, the heat is melting the plastic,” Vic reported, dropping whatever it was he’d been using when it disintegrated in his hands. “There’s no way we can stop this.”
Sonny swore, and activated his radio; trying to suppress a cough and failing miserably. “Bravo 1, this is Bravo 3; we got a problem. I... I need some help down here, buddy.”
Brock grabbed Vic when he joined them on their little platform and told him to hold still. He dug around in Vic’s pack and found the bandana he’d packed, handing it over so Vic could tie it over his face. Brock then started digging in Sonny’s pack for his one when Sonny’s radio came to life. “Bravo 3, say your last.”
“We got... we got smoke coming through the hole in the wall. We can’t seem to stop it, and it’s getting really ha – ugh, hard to breathe.”
“Okay Bravo 3, standby.”
“Here’s hoping we’re not standing by all day,” Sonny muttered, taking the covering he was handed and tying it into place. “Otherwise we’re not gunna be standing up for too much longer.”
Brock and Vic just coughed in reply.
Ray led Full Metal and Trent down the corridor, gun poised and ready, but his focus was on finding a way below.
The explosion had been so unexpected, that it had taken Bravo a few minutes to get back on their feet. When they had, the realisation that three of their team had been in the lower levels, closer to where that blast had originated from, had filled him with dread. The fact it took Jason two tries to raise Sonny on comm’s hadn’t helped, but the Texan had assured them that he, Brock, and Vic were all alive.
The relief he’d felt at knowing they were still alive was short-lived, because with the trio trapped in the stairwell, with smoke pouring in, it was only a matter of time before they succumbed from smoke inhalation, if the extreme heat didn’t kill them first. Long story short, his brothers were running out of time.
Sonny had no hesitation in pointing out that the situation was dire. “I would rather drown in a torpedo tube, than be cremated in this stairwell. I tell you what, I hate fire, and I HATE SMOKE!”
Oh great. Another phobia to add to the massive pile Bravo 3 already had. Ray made a mental note to start a list so he could keep track of them all. “We’re coming to you, Bravo 3,” he replied, trying to sound positive to alleviate Sonny’s concern. “Still finding our way down to the quickie saw.” They entered a room, and he groaned. “Dead end,” he told Trent and Full Metal.
Dammit. This really wasn’t going well.
“Ray.” He turned, and found Trent motioning to the floor. “Weak spot; shouldn’t take too much to break through here.”
“Yeah?” Given they had no other options, he’d take what he could get to get down there. “Good idea. Let’s do it.” He and Trent shed their packs so they weren’t hindered by their weight, and started tearing up the floorboards. Either the construction of the building had been so shoddy that they were easy to remove, or the explosion had weakened and separated the flooring enough for them to pry it off with their fingers and Metal’s crowbar.
He looked at Scott. “Grab the sledge.” Trent leaned over, and Full Metal slid it free from the medic’s pack. He and Trent backed up to give Scott room to smash a hole in the floor; a good thing, too – because it only took him three strikes to break through, and Scott was forced to throw himself backwards out of the way of the flames that rose up to meet them.
“Damn it! Well, it was a good idea,” he said, sharing a look with Trent. He gave the fire a dirty look before walking away from the roar of the flames so he could hear better, and activated his radio. “Havoc Base, this is Bravo 2; we have a pretty good fire cooking down here. There’s going to be a lot of smoke in the air, can we determine the emergency services eta using ISR feed?”
There was no reply, and he turned to Trent and Scott. “How long should I give them to answer?”
“I know they’ll have to look into it, but the boys are running out of time,” Trent replied, looking concerned.
“We had comms before; I doubt anything’s changed that we’ve suddenly lost them,” Scott added. “Try them again, just in case.”
He nodded. “Havoc Base, this is Bravo 2. Radio check, over.”
Blackburn replied immediately. “That’s a good check, Bravo 2. Standby, we’re working on it.”
“Roger that, standing by.”
“To standby, apparently,” Trent muttered. “We need to do something, and quick.”
“Yeah, it’d be nice if they had a fire under their ass in Virginia Beach.”
Five minutes had passed, and still they had no update from Havoc. To the guys in VaBeach five minutes may not have been much, but in this burning building, Ray knew it could be the difference between life and death. The longer they waited, the higher the chance they’d have casualties.
His brothers knew it, too. “How long does it take to get an answer?” Trent asked, looking antsy.
Ray pinched his nose and shook his head. “Longer than our boys have. We’ve gotta put that fire out ourselves.”
“With what?”
He looked at Scott. “Well we can’t smother it, so we gotta starve it.” The question was, how to do that? He turned to Trent, an idea forming. If they could create a large enough explosion, it should steal the remaining oxygen from the air, cutting off its only accelerant. “How many slap charges you got on you?”
“I got one.”
“Two on me,” Scott added.
He nodded and activated his radio. “Pull ‘em,” he told the pair, grabbing Trent’s from where it was strapped to the outside of his pack and handing it over. “Bravo 1, this is Bravo 2. We’re going to do some internal explosive breaching down here.”
“Roger that. This building isn’t going to be able to take much more stress; any other options?”
“Whatever... gets us outta here fastest, boss,” Sonny interjected. Ray didn’t like how faint he sounded. “We’re running... outta time.”
“Copy that. Bravo 2, send it.”
Ray nodded. Now that they had the go ahead, it was time to see if it would work. “Well, here we go boys. Metal; toss it in.”
Scott threw the charges they’d tied together into the hole, using the metal cable that had been in his pack to lower the slaps to the ground. They all moved back to the safety of the doorway.
He looked at Trent. “Good?”
Bravo 4 nodded, looking hesitant. He had the fuse in his hands. “Yep.”
Ray couldn’t blame him. If this failed, their brothers were dead. “Fire in the hole!” Trent squeezed the button, and there was a bang from the activation of the fuse, followed by the boom of the charges exploding, and they were forced to cover their faces as bits of the floor were sent flying. Ray lowered his hands, and they crept forward to peer into the hole; he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief at the lack of flames they were greeted with. At least something was finally going their way.
“Okay, this will get us back to the main room,” Trent said.
He nodded at that, already moving to grab a rope to lower them in. “Let’s make our way down.”
They got down to the floor below, but it still took them another five minutes to make it back to where they’d entered the building in the first place. “Trent, grab the fire extinguisher. Metal, get the saw.” Ray grabbed a second fire extinguisher, and together they hurried back to where they’d been. By the time they returned, it had been ten minutes since the fire had been put out. He knew things were dire, because he’d tried to raise all three brothers on the radio, and no one answered.
A few small fires had reignited, and Trent set about putting them out. Ray and Metal started moving debris and furniture away from the wall so they could bust through. There was movement above them, and Ray spotted Jason quickly descending down to them.
“How’re we doing?” Bravo 1 asked as soon as he was on the ground.
“We’ve got the saw, just gotta bust through the bricks so we can cut the rebar and get to them,” he replied, tossing a chair to the side.
“Okay good. Trent, when you’re done with that, I’ve got a present for you.”
Unfortunately for Trent, no sooner were the fires out than another one reignited somewhere else. Clay had hauled the rope up as soon as Jason was clear, and started lowering the safe down to them. He joined them as soon as it was on the ground.
Ray looked over his shoulder at Jason, waving a hand at the wall he’d cleared. “We should be able to get to them through here.”
“Hit it.”
He grabbed the sledge from his pack, and started smashing the concrete. If he was taking out his frustration at the delay’s they’d had, as well as his worry for his brothers on the wall? Well. That was his business.
It took longer than he would have liked, but eventually he could see some rebar, and a small hole behind it where the others had tried to break through. ”Fire that up, Metal,” Jason ordered. Ray carried on swinging until they had a hole big enough for someone to crawl through, and quickly moved out of the way.
Scott revved the saw and moved in; slowly but steadily slicing through the metal bars. Once he was done, he set the saw aside and Ray handed him the sledge where he smashed a bigger hole on the other side of the wall. “I’m through,” he told the others.
Clay dove in with his crowbar and used it to clear some of the debris and widen the hole. He started coughing, too. “Shit, that smoke is thick,” he wheezed, wafting a hand in front of his face to try and disperse it, but he only made it worse.
“Sonny,” Jason called, ignoring Clay as he aimed his torch at the opening. “You okay?” There was no response, which set them all on edge.
“Sonny?” Trent repeated. “You guys okay?” The medic was already setting down his pack, preparing to triage if needed. Ray prayed that he didn’t.
There was a soft whine, and they all breathed a small sigh of relief as Cerberus’ silhouette appeared at the hole.
“Come on,” Jason said, waving the dog to him. “Come on.”
Cerberus hesitated, looking behind him. “Cerberus, come here,” Trent called. “Cerberus!”
Their K-9 dove through the hole, whining frantically, and Trent grabbed him by the harness. “I got him, I got him. You’re okay,” he added as he quickly checked the dog over. “He’s fine, no injuries,” Trent reported, before shining his torch back at the hole. “Sonny! Sonny!”
“Vic!” Clay added. “Brock!”
Still there was no reply. The snarl of frustration told Ray that Jason had had enough. “This is taking too long,” Jason decided. “Clay, make that hole bigger. You and Ray need to get in there. Metal, get that safe open; I want what’s inside of it.”
Clay nodded, and Ray handed him the sledge. “Copy boss.”
The blond set about smashing up the concrete, and Metal fired up the saw again. Trent moved Cerberus to the other side of the room and gave him a more thorough examination. At a loss of what to do till Clay had finished, Ray turned to Jason. “Shouldn’t Trent go in there instead of me?”
“Smoke’s too thick for you guys to stay long,” Jason replied, coughing as he handed Clay his crowbar when he started looking for it. “Air is clearer here; just grab them and feed them through; Trent can look at them when he has them.” He nodded, and took the bandana Jason gave him, tying it into place like Clay had done with his, and followed his brother through the hole.
By the time he got through the opening, Clay was already rolling the brother closest to them over so they could see who it was. “It’s Vic,” Clay reported, Bravo 7 unresponsive and dead weight as Clay grabbed him by his vest straps. Ray clambered to his feet, and together they dragged Vic to the hole. “Alright, we’ve got Vic!” He yelled. With Clay’s help, they managed to lift their brother’s shoulders up to the opening, and two sets of hands shot out and dragged him through.
“‘m not sure I want to go back through; the wall eats people,” Clay said, trying to make light of the situation. The joke was ruined, though, when Clay let out a hacking cough, the smoke and the heat burning his lungs. “Jesus, this smoke is thick.”
Ray just shook his head and went over to Sonny, well aware of the fact that it was getting hard to breathe. It was easier to tell him apart from Brock, given he wasn’t as lean as the canine handler, and when he rolled him over, Sonny let out a soft groan. “Hang on, cowboy,” he muttered, taking that sound as the victory it was and grabbing Sonny much like Clay had grabbed Vic. “We’re getting you outta here.”
“Yeehaw,” Sonny croaked, barely above a whisper.
Despite himself, Ray smiled. If he was able to make a joke, then the Texan would be fine. They got him to the hole, and much like Vic had, he quickly disappeared through it.
“Okay,” he muttered, heading to Brock who was slumped against the stairs. “Last man.”
“Broccoli, you okay?” Clay asked, crouching beside the handler and giving his shoulder a small shake. “C’mon, Trent’s gunna kick your ass, you stay asleep.”
Brock didn’t reply, didn’t so much as twitch, and Ray bit back a curse. “C’mon; let’s get him to Trent,” he said, and together they dragged Brock to the hole, waiting until he was dragged through before Clay, then he, followed.
He looked around, sighing in relief when he saw Vic sitting up against the wall; looking barely conscious, but moving under his own power. Trent was bent over Brock, having just got his hands on him, and Sonny was trying, and failing to fight Full Metal’s hold.
“Brock, I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t answer me,” Trent growled. “Wake up!”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Clay cackled. “Ha! Called it.”
There was a cough, and a harsh wheeze, and Ray heaved a sigh of relief when he spotted some minor movement from Brock. “We didn’t lose anyone,” he said, as much a prayer as it was a statement.
“Yeah, but we’ve still got to get them out of here, and get back to Davis,” Jason muttered, activating his radio. “Havoc, this is 1; mission accomplished. We need an evac, asap. Got three eagles that need medical treatment.”
Ray could just picture the look on their LC’s face at the news. It was a wonder he trusted them to go out in the field, some days. “You have the HVT?”
“Negative, HVT was killed in the explosion. We located hard drives and printed intel, over.”
“Copy 1; our partner forces are outside, ready and waiting.”
“Roger, we’re moving. Bravo 1 out.” Jason wandered over to Vic and pulled him to his feet. Vic wavered dangerously, so he wrapped his arm around his waist. “Alright, you heard the man; let’s get moving. Metal, store the intel, you’ve got point. Ray, you’ve got Sonny; Clay and Trent, you’ve got Brock – carry him if you need to. Clay, lash Cerberus to you or Brock. Let’s move.”
There was a volley of copies as his team did as instructed, grabbing their gear and their buddy and moving out the door in short order.
“Man, it’d sure be nice if I wasn’t the guy that always needed bailing out,” Sonny whined as he wandered over to where Clay and Metal were standing. Brock and Vic were seated behind them, oxygen masks strapped over their faces and looking less than impressed at being denied a beer. “Just once.”
“Eh, don’t think of it like that, buddy,” Clay laughed. “We only cared about the dog.”
“I didn’t even know you were in there, bro,” Metal added, completely straight-faced as he cracked open his beer. That set Clay off, and even Brock and Vic chuckled at that – although it resulted in them trying to cough up their lungs, instead.
“You two alright?” Clay asked, looking at his wheezing brothers worriedly. He really didn’t like the sound of their breathing. Vic gave him a weak thumbs up, while Brock just folded his arms over his chest and pouted. “Eh, you’ll be fine, Brock,” he laughed, ruffling the brunet’s hair. Then he had to waft his hand about when he accidentally dislodged a cloud of dust. “It’s not every day you get to say you nearly suffocated to death.”
“Yay me,” Brock croaked.
“Just wait till Doc gets his hands on you.”
Brock rolled his eyes. “Oh joy.”
Clay and Metal snickered at that, wandering off with beers for Trent and Jason, and Sonny headed over to his bag. Vic turned to Brock, and gave him a small nudge. He knew Brock didn’t consider them friends, probably didn’t even consider them brother’s yet, but he owed Brock big time.
“Thanks for looking out for me in there,” he said, giving the handler a small smile when he looked at him curiously. “I know looking out for the youngest team member isn’t top of the priority list, but I appreciate it.” Throughout that whole debacle, Brock had stuck close to him, kept an eye out. He’d helped him with his face covering, and had made sure he wasn’t injured.
Maybe Brock was just doing what he thought he had too, but Vic couldn’t help but be grateful. This wasn’t his first mission with Bravo, but he wasn’t exactly a seasoned member of the team, either, which meant he still had a lot to learn.
Much to his surprise, Brock gave him a smile and nudged him back. “Brother’s look out for one another,” the handler rasped. “No need to thank me, kid.”
Vic ducked his head. Maybe he’d find his place on Bravo after all.