Today’s
excerpt is from Bear’s War, Book #5 of the nine-book Asps Series. Pete does his job, while Dusty and Bear do
some freelancing. Enjoy and have a wonderful day.
m.j.
When the truck
came out of the barn, Bruce was looking at it with a powerful set of
binoculars, and swore when he saw Pete holding on underneath it. Anson, who also had binoculars pointed in
that direction, soon saw what had caused Bruce to swear, and he muttered an
oath as well. Both men watched and held
their breath as the truck headed toward the top of the incline. When it reached that spot and paused just
slightly, Pete rolled out from under the truck—and kept on rolling—until he
reached the side of the incline on the side opposite the buildings, and headed
down the steep incline. Part way down,
his leg caught on a thick bush and he then went head over heels for another
several feet, before finally stopping.
Bruce watched the entire fall.
“Ike, Jack—go check on Pete.”
Even as he
spoke, the truck—without brakes on the steep down slope—crashed through the
rock retaining wall, hitting the stanchion of the reflector at the sharpest
point of the winding road dead center.
As the truck started bouncing wildly down the hill, Anson—who had been
given Bear’s remote, in case he didn’t make it back by the time the truck lost
control—pushed the remote button and the truck exploded, all but
disintegrating.
The Iranians
watched in horror as the truck sped down the far side incline, and ran forward
after it exploded. By then, Dusty and Bear
were out of the barn, saw the flash of the explosion, and saw the Iranians
running for the site of the wreck. Dusty
glanced at the main house, saw no one around, saw several glass doors leading
from the house to a low veranda, and sprinted in that direction. Bear looked at the back of his friend as he
ran off in the wrong direction, shrugged, and followed. Dusty ran across the road’s wide gap, between
the barn and main house, jumped a small rise up onto a veranda, and right into
the house through an open glass door.
Inside, he was pleased to see he was in a study, and spotted a laptop
computer on a mahogany desk. Bear was
right behind him and saw as Dusty took a packet of computer disks from the
utility pocket in his black camo-like pants.
When Dusty and Bear had still been with the SEALs, Dusty was considered
one of the best computer experts in the SEALs.
Bruce had taught him a good deal more.
As Dusty flipped the laptop on, he pulled a disk that would help bypass
any problems he would run into—as far as passwords—to break into the
computer. In short order, he was using
the disk as Bear kept a watch for any potential trouble.
By the time
Dusty was fully into the laptop and transferring everything on it to Bruce’s
laptop, then on to the main computer in Montana
Dusty knew Bear
seldom used his first name, rather than his nickname, and knew Bear only did so
to get his attention and stress the fact that a problem was at hand. As the computer continued to dump into
Bruce’s laptop, Dusty would have preferred to wait, but the program he was
running would shut the laptop down when the program was completed. He decided that even though someone might
spot the laptop open—rather than shut, as he’d found it—he knew Bear was
serious, so he nodded and followed Bear out of the main house and across the
opening between it and the barn. Bear
was running full tilt, so Dusty followed at the same pace. The Iranian Ambassador saw them, but didn’t
realize they were intruders, thinking instead that they were men of his.
Past the barn
and on the far incline, Bear was running as fast as he could. Dusty didn’t question him, just followed as
fast as he could go, gaining slightly on Bear.
As they neared the tree line, the Ambassador entered his study, noticed
the laptop open, and suddenly realized the two men he’d seen hurrying along
might have come from the study. It was
the last thought he’d ever have.
As Bear reached
the tree line, the ground under his feet shook and a deafening explosion threw
him forward to the ground. The same
thing happened to Dusty as the explosives in the barn erupted, due to the men
the Ambassador had sent into the barn to make sure everything there was well
hidden by the time the police arrived—having moved the wrong item and triggered
Bear’s booby trap. The barn
disintegrated, the building behind it was leveled, the next building in line
was all but leveled, and the third of the berthing buildings was ruined. The main house was three-fourths blown apart,
with only a far outside wall and a third of the front wall still standing. None of the Iranians were alive. Bear and Dusty were only partially alive. Neither man could hear, and every muscle in
their bodies ached as they both tried to crawl forward toward the spot where
the others waited. The rest of the team
wasn’t as bad off, but all their ears ached and they all had instant headaches,
so vicious had the explosion been. When
Bruce saw Bear and Dusty crawling toward him and the others, he hurried
forward, followed by Anson and Billy.
Those three quickly had help getting Bear and Dusty to the Land
Rovers. After those two were helped into
the rear of one of the Land Rovers, Jack got in with them, to see what he could
do for them. Both men were bleeding from
the nose, and neither could hear a thing.
Dusty tried to speak and found he couldn’t, so he gave up. Kye, meanwhile, jumped in, backed the Land
Rover down to the road, and followed Bruce, who was driving another of the vehicles. Anson drove the third Land Rover, as all
three started down the road toward a main road they hoped to reach before the
police arrived.
No comments:
Post a Comment