Hot Zone by Ben Lovett Read Free Book Online Page B

corridor, his heavy legs pushed to their limits. He sat and waited at the corner, pulling out a small mirror, similar to what a dentist would use, he crouched and stuck the mirror around the corner, revealing the twenty yards that joined the corridors. He saw one Turk round the corner, spitting in rage, his gun ready. Ice stood up and listened as the steps got closer and closer until...
    Thwack. Ice stepped out and slammed the butt of his sig sauer into the throat of the Turk, knocking him to the ground. The Turk gasped for air, his windpipe crushed and he had only seconds to realize what had happened before his pathetic clutches for air ceased.
    Ice, sensing another Turk coming from the other angle rounded the corner, pulling the dead Turk out of sight. Now on the twenty yard side Ice used the mirror to spy the Turk running the long trek down the corridor from we he had come just moments earlier.
    The adrenaline rushed through Ice Riley's veins, he knew he could die at any second, and a wrong move here would make it a certainty. Ten yards and closing, Ice saw no reason to pull anything fancy with the Turk heading for him, he simply stepped out from around the corner and planted two bullets square in the Turks chest, killing him instantly.
    Ice kicked down a large door, close to where the Turk fell, gurgling his own blood and found the two US soldiers gagged and bound in a dank, dark room. They had been beaten severely; old wounds that had just started to heal were overlapped with fresh blood and bruises.
    "What's up boys? Time to go home." Ice huffed.
    The soldiers held a look of disbelief as Ice untied them and helped them to their feet. "I'm not going to lie to you boys, I'm gonna need your help."
    Ice untied the men and led them out to the fallen Turks and together they dragged them into the room.
    Hawk was holding the Turks at bay on the main level, sitting in the stairwell; he was well protected and could sit there all night firing off random rounds to keep the Turks off his back. His only problem was going to be if Ice had been taken below and the Turks had moved up the stairwell. He had nowhere to hide if that had happened. He would be sandwiched and his cover would be for nothing. He made the decision to stick in the stairwell until Ice showed up, or the Turks took him down. He yelled into his headset, calling Ice over the gunfire. No answer. It could have been the thick walls of the ship that made communications difficult, or it could of been that Ice was dead, whatever the case it did not help Hawk against the six Turks firing on him.
    Without warning three explosions rocked from the bowels of the ship and shook it violently, Hawk was thrown down one level of stairs by the blast, losing his position and his advantage. With poor positioning his only option he didn't wait for the Turks to rush the stairwell, but bolted for the lower decks, not knowing the fireball he was walking into. The Turks, shocked by the explosions scattered throughout the living quarters, only two of the Turks pursued Hawk down the stairwell.
    Hawk descended the stairs rapidly, as the smoke grew thicker and thicker. On the lower level where the hostages were being kept he came to the first of the two long corridors and saw the smoke billowing out from the other stairwells. "Ice," he barked into his headset.
    There was a static crackle, and then: "Hawk, what's your twenty?"
    "Lower level, long hallway."
    "If it ain't on fire, all the way at the end, take a left--room--air duct." Ice coughed. The smoke grew thicker by the second.
    Hawk sprinted with everything he had, the smoke making breathing almost impossible. He wasn't sure the air ducts were the way to go but he had two Turks on his ass with machine guns.
    Making it into the room, Hawk saw a pair of feet disappear into the wall to the rear of the room. He ran and dived, head first, into the vent, almost knocking himself out on Ice's size eleven boots.
    "What's up dog? Thanks for joining us.