The Gauntlet Read online

  THE GAUNTLET

  No Sanctuary Series

  Book 5

  By

  Mike Kraus

  © 2017 Mike Kraus

  www.MikeKrausBooks.com

  [email protected]

  www.facebook.com/MikeKrausBooks

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Author’s Notes

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  Special Thanks

  This book wouldn’t be possible without the help and support of my amazing beta reading team.

  Thank you to Christine, Claudia, Glenda, James, Julie & Shari for your awesome feedback during the beta reading process!

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  Preface

  After meeting up with Sarah, Linda’s mysterious CIA friend who helped her in the past, Frank found himself in the position of both trying to save Linda and explain to Sarah what exactly was going on. After establishing that Frank was not a threat, Sarah helped nurse Linda back to health before sending her and Frank out to Los Angeles to investigate information related to the suspected bombs that they believe Farhad Omar brought into the country.

  After interrogating one of Farhad’s lieutenants and obtaining traces of information about the bombs, Linda and Frank linked up with an Army convoy led by Lieutenant Jackson. Their meeting came about at a time when survivors of the fires that swept across Los Angeles and Long Beach were raiding the Long Beach airport for food and other supplies. As Linda and Frank tried to convince Jackson that the threat from Omar was both real and imminent, they were ambushed by a group of terrorists sent by Omar specifically to kill both Linda and Frank. While they survived the first attack, the terrorists regrouped and are preparing to launch another assault to destroy their enemies….

  And now, No Sanctuary #5: The Gauntlet.

  Chapter 1

  “They’re almost here!”

  Linda turned around at the sound of Williams’ shout and called back to him. “Copy!” She held a two-way radio up to her mouth and depressed the microphone, looking up at the twelve-story office tower behind the parking lot. “Sniper team, are you in position?”

  The answer was accompanied by a burst of static. “In position and ready to rock. We’ve got eyes on targets.”

  “Wait to engage until their trucks roll in.”

  “Copy.”

  Linda jogged over to Jackson, who was standing at the front of a Humvee along with several soldiers and airmen. “Snipers are in position. They’ve spotted ground troops moving in. Are the chokepoints ready?”

  Jackson nodded and pointed to a crude drawing on the hood of the Humvee that outlined the parking lot and surrounding area. “We’ve got wreckage blocking this side alley and the building entrances are lined with claymores.”

  “Good. They’ll likely start with sending in ground forces, then they’ll graduate to vehicles or RPGs once they test our strength. Whatever you do just make sure you don’t throw everything we’ve got at them up front.”

  “What’s the split between the elevated firing positions and boots on the ground?”

  “Sixty-forty, like you said.”

  Linda nodded. “Good. I’m going to watch the drone with Frank and Williams.”

  “I’ll be over in a second.”

  Linda patted Jackson on the back and ran over toward where Frank and Williams were sitting. Frank’s eyes were glued to his screen as he guided the small military drone above the city, watching the incoming troops. She sat down next to him and watched the images of the vehicles and individuals moving around, appearing as white-hot images against a cold black and blue background.

  “How much longer?”

  “Five minutes. Probably less.” Williams answered as Frank executed a low dive over the troops, biting his lip as he slipped the drone between a pair of dangling power lines hanging over the street. “This sucker’s maneuverability is incredible.” Frank mumbled to himself. Next to him, Williams toggled the thermal camera off, giving them a more detailed view of the soldiers.

  “Looks like rifles and a few RPGs. Trucks with mounted guns.” Williams pointed at the screen as Frank flew the drone over the enemy’s heads before pulling back on the stick, sending the small craft rocketing up into the air before any of the men on the ground noticed it was there.

  “There’s a lot of them. More than we saw earlier.” Linda looked at Williams. “Any estimates?”

  “We guessed seventy-five or so last time. I’d say another fifty on top of that. And half a dozen more vehicles.”

  “A hundred and twenty-five men and eighteen vehicles?” Linda groaned. “What hole in the ground did these guys all crawl out of?”

  “Beats me.” Williams shook his head.

  “Hey!” Frank took one hand off the controls in his hand and pointed at the screen. “They’re almost to the perimeter!”

  Linda jumped up and looked around. She was about to start running toward Jackson when she saw him heading in her direction, a concerned look on his face as he saw her standing up. “What’s up, Rollins?”

  “They’re here.”

  Jackson nodded and spoke into his radio. “Attention all units. Enemy forces are outside our perimeter. Hold fire until you are otherwise ordered to do so. Ground units, you have clearance to engage at will.”

  Jackson waved an arm in the air and shouted at the soldiers who were milling around the cluster of vehicles in the parking lot. “Move out! Get to defensive positions right now!”

  While Williams and Frank moved their equipm
ent to the back of the parking lot behind a ring of heavily armored vehicles, Jackson and Linda helped round up a few stray soldiers who were still moving vehicles and checking their weapons. The five minutes predicted by Williams came and went without incident and Linda was about to run back to them to see if they had any further updates when her radio crackled and Williams’ voice came over the line.

  “Here they come!”

  The chaos began approximately seven seconds after his warning.

  Private Dan Tucker crouched in the dark hallway of a building on the far side of the street, just across from the parking lot. The doorway at the far end of the hall had long since been torn off, making it the perfect entrance for anyone trying to sneak up on the parking lot without being seen. The hall, like many of the entrances of the buildings in the area around the parking lot, had been rigged with explosive devices that would go off if their laser tripwires were crossed. The soft red beams coming from the explosives were just barely visible down the hall thanks to the light amount of dust gently floating through the air.

  Footsteps and whispers in a foreign language drifted down the hall, alerting Tucker to the imminent arrival of the enemy. He looked back at the three soldiers crouched behind him and motioned for them to get ready. They, like him, were all young, low in rank and had barely seen any combat since joining the Army less than a year ago. The ambush a short time earlier had been their first real combat experience and they were more than a little nervous about what was to come.

  Tucker was about to whisper a few words of encouragement to the others when nearby footsteps were immediately followed by a deafening explosion. With the laser tripwires on the Claymores having been crossed by some unfortunate soul, a combination of metal spheres and conventional explosives rocked the hallway. The spheres acted like slugs from a shotgun, blasting out from the device and tearing through flesh and bone like tissue paper. The conventional explosives sent out a massive shockwave, tearing apart eardrums and vital organs as a small ball of fire plumed outward.

  Despite the hearing protection worn by Tucker and the soldiers with him, all four men found their ears ringing after the explosion. Tucker peeked out from his cover after the Claymore went off to see three bloody bodies on the floor down the hall with several more men beyond them, still on their feet. With a shout, Tucker and the other soldiers took aim and added a healthy dose of lead to the mix.

  Similar scenes took place nearly simultaneously in the buildings around the parking lot. The dull explosions echoed out from the buildings, breaking the tense silence that had settled around those in the lot, the elevated positions and in the tower. The time for hasty preparation was over and Linda was about to find out just how well her strategy was going to work.

  Jackson and a pair of airmen worked the radios as the explosions went off, keeping in touch with the soldiers in the halls. Bursts of gunfire made Frank flinch but he kept the drone steady, trying to get an eye on what the enemy was doing next. Linda stood near Frank and Jackson, her rifle hanging from one shoulder while she idly chewed on the thumbnail of her free hand. Each shot and explosion made her want to go get involved in the fight more than ever before and she had to resist the temptation so that she could continue handing out advice and orders to Jackson and the others.

  Taking a leadership role hadn’t been Linda’s desire. On the contrary, during her time in the sand she had vastly preferred carrying a rifle and a hundred-pound bag on her back to sitting in an armored vehicle or an office trying to decide who would live and who would die. Formulating a plan, strategizing and deciding who would go where and do what was something she was good at. What she preferred, though, was carrying out those orders. There was no responsibility for dozens or hundreds of lives hanging over her when she was another pair of boots on the ground. There was only her duty to obey her orders, help the members of her squad and her responsibility to complete her mission.

  A tap on Linda’s shoulder pulled her out of her reverie. She blinked several times and turned around to face Jackson, nearly forgetting where she was for half an instant. “Rollins? You okay?” Jackson’s eyebrow was raised and he shook his head, dismissing his own question before continuing. “Ground teams are holding. Minimal causalities. It looks like the initial assault was repelled.”

  “Good,” Linda nodded. “They’ll probably pull back for a minute, regroup and then try to break through with the trucks. Is everyone in hard cover?”

  Jackson was about to respond in the affirmative when a loud crash of metal on metal came from the far end of the parking lot, along the road. Several engines accompanied the crash as a group of trucks rammed the makeshift barricades set up by the soldiers and airmen. Another crash came from the opposite end of the road a second later as a second group of trucks came through. Both groups converged on the parking lot, stopping at the perimeter of vehicles parked near the road.

  Gunfire from the vehicles began as soon as they stopped in front of the parking lot. Fifty-caliber rounds sprayed from the guns mounted in the backs of the light pickups, their operators swaying and rocking as they twisted the weapons back and forth. The gunfire was intense but lacked direction or focus and Linda almost immediately realized what they were doing.

  “Jackson!” She shouted at the man crouched nearby, hiding behind a nearby armored vehicle.

  “What is it?” He yelled back, straining his voice over the thundering booms of the guns.

  “They’re trying to sneak people in under cover of fire! We need to take out those gunners right now!”

  Jackson turned toward the buildings to the sides of the parking lot, shouting into the radio as he watched the positions where the elevated shooters were still in cover. “Open fire on the trucks! Ground units, watch our flanks! Snipers take out the gunners and call out anyone you see trying to get in behind us!”

  With everyone in cover, the trucks had nothing in particular to shoot at. As the majority of the troops began to return fire on the trucks, though, the gunners began directing their fire as they focused on those in elevated positions. Two machine guns swept across the right-most building, shattering glass and shredding particleboard desks and tables. Several other vehicles began moving forward, pushing against the parked vehicles to make a path through into the parking lot as they focused on keeping the soldiers at ground level pinned down.

  Linda sat next to Frank, watching the video from the drone as she contemplated joining in the fray when a loud crack cut through the roar of the machine guns. She smiled coldly as the video showed one of the gunners in the trucks slump over to the side and fall out, his head having been turned into a fine pink mist. She looked up at the tower behind the lot and saw muzzle flashes from inside one of the floors, evidence that the sniper team was working their magic. The number of gunners in the trucks quickly dwindled until it was just three left who were out of sight of the tower. Half of the drivers of the trucks whose gunners had been killed were also dead, either from the sniper team or from the other soldiers clustered around the area.

  With the battle looking like it was starting to reach its conclusion, Linda looked back at the video screen and tapped Frank on the shoulder. “Pull it up; get a wider angle on us, would you?”

  Frank glanced at Williams who nodded in agreement. Frank pushed the throttle on the craft and it rose higher into the air, turning the people-shaped blobs on the thermal imager into smaller, less distinct blobs. Linda scanned the screen carefully before shouting at Jackson. “I think it looks clear here! Any word on flanking movements?”

  Jackson shook his head. “Nothing.” He depressed the button on his radio and was about to send out a request for everyone to check in when the sound of a loud hissing made Linda dive forward, screaming at everyone within earshot to get down on the ground.

  The rocket-propelled grenade hit one of the large trucks, turning it into a fireball and throwing everyone near away with the force of the blast. Jackson was knocked onto his side, the radio falling from his hand and smashin
g against the rough asphalt. Linda jumped onto Frank’s back, pushing him down to the ground and shielding him from any shrapnel that might be heading in their direction.

  Linda’s reflexes upon hearing the activation of the rocket were lightning-quick and were the only reason she and Frank didn’t—literally—lose their heads. She felt a whoosh overhead as the hood of the truck sailed through the air, clipping the top of Williams’ head and sending him falling to the ground with a gut-wrenching crunch. Intense sound and heat flared up for a few seconds before dying down, and while all Linda wanted to do was lay still in the fetal position she still had a job to do.

  “Move!” Linda screamed as she staggered to her feet, looking around to try and figure out where the rocket had come from. Based on the sound and the orientation of the impact it looked like the origin was on the southern side of the lot, perhaps from one of the buildings where troops had been established on the ground floor and in elevated positions. Remembering back to when she had called out the trucks as a distraction, Linda realized that the troops in the southern buildings must have been overrun by the attackers who then set themselves up in an elevated position to fire down on the parking lot and across to the other buildings.

  “Get to cover! Attackers to the south!” Linda screamed again as she pulled Frank to his feet. Another rocket hissed by overhead, slamming into the face of one of the northern buildings. Faint screams of pain and surprise accompanied the deafening explosion, and Linda realized that unless something was immediately done they would suffer even heavier losses.

  Linda picked up her rifle from where it had tumbled onto the ground and slapped at her pockets, checking to make sure she still had spare magazines. A hand caught her from behind just before she ran out from cover and she stopped and turned to find Frank staring at her. He was breathing rapidly and bleeding from a long scrape down his head and face from where she had pushed him onto the ground.