Chapter 34 - Crossfire in the Sleet
"Get down!" Frank roared, raising his rifle and firing two deafening rounds before the contractor’s men could level their barrels.
The lead operative stumbled as a round struck his tactical vest, sending him sprawling into the mud. Jason threw himself flat onto the icy gravel as bullets chewed up the dirt inches from his head, the sharp *phut-phut-phut* of suppressed fire whipping through the air.
Cole grabbed my waist and hurled both of us behind a massive stack of cured timber logs. Splinters rained down on our heads as a spray of automatic rounds pulverized the wood inches above us.
"Jason! Crawl!" I screamed, peeking around the corner of the woodpile.
Jason, driven by pure terror, scrambled on his belly toward Frank's truck. Frank provided devastating, deliberate cover fire with his heavy hunting rifle, the booming reports shattering the silence of the valley and blowing out the radiator of the black SUV.
"They have night vision!" Cole shouted over the din. "When the cloud cover breaks, they have the high ground!"
"Cole, the card!" I shouted back, pointing to his pocket. "The sat-phone said Sector Seven was an active node! Does it have an emergency beacon?"
Cole’s eyes widened. "The distress function! The red button beneath the rubber casing!"
While Frank laid down another burst of suppressing fire, Cole snatched the military sat-phone from his tactical jacket, ripped off the lower rubber protective gasket, and drove his thumb into a tiny, recessed crimson toggle.
A high-pitched, piercing electronic shriek suddenly emanated from the phone, transmitting at an ear-splitting frequency that instantly cut through the radio bands of the contractors. Across the yard, the operatives suddenly clutched their headsets in agony, ripping off their ear protection as the feedback loop ruptured their communication network.
"Frank, now!" Cole yelled.
Frank shifted his aim, targeting the industrial power transformer hanging from the wooden pole above the sawmill. Two high-caliber hollow-point rounds slammed through the casing.
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A blinding explosion of electric blue sparks showered down over the yard, accompanied by a deafening bang that plunge the entire mill into absolute, suffocating darkness.
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