Search and Destroy by JT Sawyer (top non fiction books of all time .TXT) 📗

just left, and he had no desire to continue jumping fences or hiding out in someone’s house. The whole area would be swarming with hundreds of law-enforcement officers in thirty minutes, and his chances of escaping would be reduced to zero.

Beyond the skateboard park ahead was a four-lane highway, beyond which lay a used car lot and several strip malls.

His only chance was to procure a vehicle and get out of the search radius before they closed the net on him. He watched the helicopter arc to the left, heading north along the creek bed, then he began trotting across the field in the opposite direction.

Cal paused at the edge of the skate park near some teenagers standing beside their bicycles, watching the other kids in the cement bowl below.

He pointed back to the treeline at the faint outline of his tan jacket. “Hey, there’s a guy hanging around the woods here who’s creeping out me and the other parents. I already called the police, so if they show up here, tell ’em to head down by the creek, OK?”

The cluster of teens nodded in agreement then began craning their heads towards the forest as Cal moved behind them. He lifted a phone from one of the smaller kids’ back pockets then continued trotting past the skateboard park.

Making his way to the sidewalk, he scanned to either side then trotted along the sidewalk, looking for an opening in the steady flow of traffic.

As Cal started to bolt across the four-lane highway, he saw a black SUV race up then screech to a halt forty feet to his left before the other side of the bridge over the creek, blocking the lanes and causing the traffic behind to bottleneck.

Carter and Tremblay exited the vehicle, aiming their ARs at Cal as they took up shooting positions behind their doors. The traffic in the other lane was still flowing, and Cal scanned for a route through the oncoming cars. Just as he was about to bolt, a gray van forced its way into the other lane across the median just beyond the Feds, braking hard and turning sideways onto the gravel shoulder near the bridge. The abrupt action caused three vehicles behind it to collide into each other as the rest of the traffic came to a standstill.

He thought it was just the distraction he needed to thwart the Feds, then he heard the sound of automatic weapons fire and the unpleasant hum of bullets zinging past his head coming from the direction of the van. Cal ducked behind a Ford pickup, the occupants inside screaming as they dropped out of sight. A vehicle windshield to his right shattered, followed by the plunk of steel as lead rained down upon the highway from the approaching gunmen.

Cal shimmied over to the other side of the bumper, watching four men with dark complexions and AKs using bounding moves as they continued firing in Cal’s direction.

He pulled out his HK pistol, leaning on his side and squeezing off two rounds that struck the first thug in the right tibia, shattering the bone and dropping him to the pavement. Cal fired two more rounds into his neck then stood in a partial crouch before darting laterally to the next vehicle, making his way around the other side until he was along the shoulder of the road.

The gunfire erupted again, but this time in the opposite direction, and Cal watched the two agents engaging the three remaining shooters, who were intermittently turning to take shots at the helicopter overhead.

Carter wasn’t in position for more than a second upon seeing Shepard on the bridge when a cacophony of gunfire erupted from the side of a gray van across the median.

At first, she thought the shooters might be there to rescue Shepard, until she saw the barrage of lead being sent downrange from the four men, who moved like a well-honed unit towards their target.

Shepard ducked out of sight behind a truck, then she saw one of the lead men collapse to the ground as the others continued forward, indiscriminately razing the vehicles nearest Shepard.

“Cover me,” yelled Carter as she bolted from her spot to the end of the cement median, fixing her sights on the nearest gunmen before they killed any innocent bystanders.

Shepard crouch-trotted to the next vehicle, slipping between the two bumpers then grabbing the dead man’s AK. He dropped out the magazine, inspecting how depleted it was then inserting a fresh one from the man’s vest. He circled back to the shoulder, running parallel to the median, trying to avoid getting nailed by stray rounds from the chaotic battle.

He crept around the side of a Suburban whose sides were riddled with bullet holes, then slid his weapon over the hood. Cal squeezed off a flurry of rounds at the nearest thug, zippering his back with 7.62 rounds that dropped him on the blacktop.

One of the other men was keeping the agents pinned down with suppressive fire while the other made a wide arc, trying to flank Carter.

Cal couldn’t get a clean shot, so he sent a burst of rounds into the pavement to the right of the man, causing him to swivel around long enough for Carter to get in a headshot. The figure instantly collapsed in a heap.

Tremblay bounded past Carter after she got in position to lay down cover fire. She saw another figure near the shoulder pop up over the hood of a Suburban with an AK.

Shit…Shepard has a rifle!

She saw him pivot his body then shoot a flurry of rounds at one of the thugs she’d missed sneaking along the median towards her. Carter swung her AR to the side, firing a single round into the man’s forehead, spraying bone and pink mist onto the battered windshield of a Subaru.

She crouched down beneath the median barrier again, seeing Tremblay lying on the ground, clutching the side of his abdomen at the edge of his tactical vest.

Dammit!