Beyond all Limits by J. T. Brannan Read Free Book Online

knew that it wouldn’t take long for Groves and Haynes to recover and – feeling Groves’ grip on her weaken from the unexpected blow to his foot – she launched herself forward into the barn.
    She felt a whistle of warm air above her as she leapt towards the frightened pigs, heard a grunt, felt blood spattering over her back; knew that Cole had hit Groves.
    She felt, rather than saw, Haynes return fire towards Cole, before he turned and ran, the barn doors banging closed behind him. She heard him screaming as he ran; not shouts of fear or pain, she realized, but orders.
    He was getting back-up, calling to the other shaven-headed Aryan Ultra soldiers who lived on the ranch; and Aoki knew that reinforcements would be at the barn within minutes, all guns blazing.

3
    Whoever the girl was, Cole was impressed; she’d used the distraction to take out the two men holding her and had thrown herself clear, giving him a clear shot at Haynes and Groves.
    He’d managed to put a .357 Magnum slug right through Groves’ chest, but Haynes had been quicker off the mark, keeping Cole pinned down behind the stall with fire of his own, giving him the few seconds he needed to escape.
    The other men in the barn were down from Cole’s well-placed shots, and the pigs were going wild; attracted to the sight and smell of blood, excited by the sounds of gunfire and screams, they were attacking the downed AU soldiers, tusks and teeth going to work with frightening savagery.
    Cole put the horrendous noise of the disemboweled victims out of his mind, assessing the situation.
    Haynes was gone. Cole already had the information he needed, but if Haynes managed to escape, he would still be in a position to plan yet more atrocities against the American people, and Cole couldn’t let that happen. If there was any chance at all that he could get to Haynes, he would take it.
    He turned and saw Aoki struggling to get to her feet from the dirt floor of the barn’s central aisle, worried that her wounds would make her a target for the pigs.
    He spotted a saw on the wall of the stall, used it to cut the rope that secured his wrists, and ran towards the girl, taking the saw with him.
    He still had no idea who she was, but he knew she had taken a beating to try and help him; the fact that she had told them about him wasn’t important, Cole knew that people couldn’t resist forever. But she had tried, and that was the main thing; he owed her for that, whoever she was.
    Cole got to her, sidestepping the ravenous, feasting pigs, glad to see that they were leaving the girl alone; there were better pickings elsewhere, he supposed.
    He hauled her to her feet, pulled the gag from her mouth and used the saw to separate her hands, the sharp jagged teeth cutting through the rope easily. Without a word he handed her the saw, pointed at her ankles; and without a word of her own, the girl bent down and started cutting.
    Cole used the time to scout the bodies, picking up the weapons of the dead and dying men, careful to avoid the bloodied tusks of the wild pigs. He found a cell phone on one of the men and dialed 911. He would have liked more back-up, but due to the nature of Force One, he was on his own and had to rely on conventional law enforcement.
    He quickly explained the situation, and knew that the local PD would send units immediately, but would also pass it up the line; an FBI SWAT team would probably be on its way within minutes, scrambled from the Phoenix field office.
    But SWAT would take time to get here, which meant that Cole would have to stop Haynes himself.
    Cole saw that the girl had freed herself, standing shakily, eyes watching him warily.
    Ignoring the strange look on her face, he held up a submachine gun with a questioning eye. ‘You know how to use one of these?’ he asked, pleased when she nodded her head.
    He threw the weapon to her, was pleased again when she caught it, opened the slide and checked for a round in the breach before slamming it