DECOY ZERO by Jack Mars

Author:Jack Mars [Mars, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Graphene?” Zero hissed quietly to them as the Somalis attempted to corner the three of them into an empty cargo container.

Maria realized what he was asking; if the black backpacks that Penny had supplied them might be able to withstand a bullet if the shooting started. “Not sure,” she replied. “Worth a try…” She let the strap of it fall slack off her shoulder as if she was going to relinquish it to the approaching pirate.

“Alan, with me. Split off,” Zero whispered.

Maria did not like the idea of splitting up, especially not in a foreign city that none of them knew how to navigate, but she knew what he was trying to do—or at least she thought she did. He and Alan would make a break toward the water and in Agent Zero fashion, cause some sort of massive distraction while she slipped away to find somewhere safe for them to reconvene.

“When?”

“Now!” Zero and Alan split to the right, as she’d assumed they would. Maria darted the other way, slinging the backpack up in front of her face and bracing for a hail of bullets.

But none came. Instead she heard the furious shouts of pursuing pirates as she ducked around the side of the boxcar-sized container and sprinted its length. They were chasing, not shooting—and she supposed that if she’d had a moment to think about it, it made sense. No one paid ransom on a corpse.

No one pays ransom on disavowed CIA agents either, she mused as she ducked around the rear corner of the container and skidded to a stop. She slung the backpack over her shoulder and held her breath until the barrel of an AK-47 came into view. No one had taught pirates to clear corners; Maria ducked low, beneath the barrel, as she stepped out from behind her cover and sprang up again, right in the pirate’s face. As she did she wrenched the rifle from his hands, inadvertently smacking the man under the chin with it as she did.

Holding the dazed pirate up in front of her like a shield, she propped the AK on his shoulder and aimed at his two compatriots who followed. They both froze in their tracks; they wouldn’t shoot their own in the back any sooner than they would risk hitting her, their bounty.

Maria shoved her pirate captive backward and he fell limply into the other two in a tangle of limbs. She sprinted off again, still clutching the AK, and dove behind the relative safety of a pallet stacked higher than she was tall with what looked like aluminum ammo boxes. In any other situation, the irony of hiding from gunfire behind a supply of unspent bullets might have been laughable, but here it only served as a reminder. She popped the magazine from the AK—and then she laughed, though it was bitterly.

The rifle wasn’t even loaded.

Suddenly a single booming shot rang out from elsewhere on the dock. Not an automatic weapon; if she had to guess, it was Hannibal’s Desert Eagle.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.