"You and me covering the top?"

Still missing his rifle, Kenn merely answered with his eyes. They hadn't found any ammo for the M16's, so that meant getting close enough for handguns. When it started, a few of the Mexicans would come out, but most of them would take up positions around the hostages and they'd have a standoff. For a little while. Then their reinforcements would come. This was only a scouting party, and it bothered Kenn that neither he nor Adrian had expected this level of organization. They would have to do it quietly. No telling how far out the big group was.

It had only taken Adrian's Eagles 30 hours to get here, driving straight through in six five-hour shifts. The men who hadn't driven, stood watch when they arrived, to let the others get a short rest. They had snuck close, as dusk slowly closed in.

The Slavers weren't the only ones who knew how to use nature as a cover, and the ten men watching hated how it looked, how it smelled here. It reeked with decay, and even the constant gusts of salty, smoky wind couldn't knock it back. The awful odor came from all the bodies. Thousands of them, fresh and old, littered the city, along with lines of burnt houses, cars, and businesses. There were thick drag marks in the dust left by the storm, garbage and mud-covered streets, and little pillars of smoke rising that signaled the path the Mexicans had taken to get here. It was a war zone.

"What do you want to do?"

The edge of frustration in the former mobster's rough voice was what Kenn had been waiting for, and he stood up, always feeling the need to prove who was in charge when they went on missions together. To the listening men, he said just the right thing. Only Kyle would sting afterwards when he remembered almost losing his cool with only silence used against him. "We kill them all."

Kenn knelt in the dirt, flipping open his K-BAR to draw in the damp dirt behind the big storage sheds they were using for cover. He hadn't created this plan, but these men wouldn't know that. "We go with silencers. Take out this side and corner, and as they come out, we pick them off. If the Man comes out too, it'll all be over."

"And if not?" Kyle kept the bitterness out of his tone, but not his eyes. He almost hated the smug Marine leading his team today, was now actively keeping an eye out for someone who was a match to throw his support behind.




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