Showdown
Hired #5
Kenneth Guthrie
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 Lunatic Ink Publishing (Founded by Kenneth Guthrie)
# Find more great works by other Lunatic Ink Publishing authors at Smashwords #
Frank ignored the two idiots arguing in the back. He had been in the bomb disposal unit for two months now and he had begun to get used to these two constantly bickering about the most pointless of things.
Today, Jenny and Dick were discussing which porn star had the bigger dick – Chuck Large or Big Bomber Jack. The descriptions of the antics of either man was enough to make Frank wonder exactly how these two spent their time outside work. No one could have seen that much porn without putting in some serious hours in front of the VCR.
He checked the GPS again. Their mission today was to check out an arms dump that the Marines had already cleared out. The commands expectation was that there would be a few dozen rifles and some other toys that would need removing at some point and Jenny’s team had been assigned the job of finding it and tallying up what was there.
Two more miles of dick chugging conversation passed by. Frank was incredibly relieved when they finally rounded the bend to the industrial area that housed the damn place. Jenny had been describing an act of degradation involving several men and a single woman that had almost made him want to jump out of the car rather than learn the filthy ending to her tale.
“That’s one fucked up looking work site.”
Dick was right. The place had been done over with a few hundred rounds from the Artillery boys. Frank would be surprised if there was anything left to count the way this place had been ruined.
Jenny got out with her M16 shouldered and ready. The bomb squad was a terrorist’s worst enemy. Being ready to go at it at a moment’s notice was all part of the game plan.
Dick got out with his usual unconcern. He was packing more heat than most soldiers Frank had seen. There were two magnums, his military issue M16 and a belt of grenades attached in various places to his body. He was ‘war ready’.
Frank led the way. The other two continued their conversation behind him. He wished he had some air plugs to shutout the noise.
A crack from one of the windows of a building a little distance away made Frank flinch. Everyone in Iraq, young to old, was familiar with the sound of a high powered rifle ejecting a round at high velocity.
Jenny screamed as she was the one who got tagged with the shell.
“Damn it, fuckers got me.”
She slumped down to the ground.
Frank and Dick didn’t even bother returning fire. The shooter would be a hundred or more meters away. There was no way they would be able to hit him at that distance with their M16s.
The bullet had ripped up Jenny’s shoulder pretty bad. Frank and Dean grabbed her under the arms and dragged her screaming to the corner of the place they were supposed to be checking out.
They crouched in an alleyway between a big shed and the factory. Frank glanced around the corner. With any luck the sniper would have packed up shop and done a runner, or at least he hoped.
A shell smashed the concrete wall beside him. He guessed luck wasn’t with him today.
Jenny wasn’t looking so good. She was bleeding from the wound fairly badly and the blood was slowly drenching her fatigues.
Dick watched her with worry in his eyes. Frank felt the same way. Here was one of their crew mashed up like a baked potato and they weren’t going to be able to get her to a medic anytime soon.
“You fucks get the hell out of here.”
She didn’t sound too good. Frank met her eyes. He wasn’t prepared to let her die out here. That was not part of his rule book of life.
Tires screeched out near where their jeep was parked.
“Sounds like we got backup.”
Frank looked around the corner again. There was a bunch of locals with AK47s kicking the shit out of their jeep.
“Fuck, we got hostiles out there.”
Dick pulled him back and checked himself.
“Shit. We gotta get on the move.”
He looked down at Jenny.
“Sorry, babe. Looks like we gotta move you.”
Jenny chuckled.
“Who you calling babe?”
Frank lined up the terrorists while Dick lifted Jenny and carried her to a hole in the factories wall where a random artillery round had cracked the wall open enough for two people to get through.
“Hurry up, guys!” Frank whispered.