The Last Operation (The Remnants of War Series, Book 1) by Patrick Astre Read Free Book Online

his.
    "How's that, Kelley?"
    "Shoot me in the head first, and don't miss, cause I fucking won't."
    * * *
    Toward the end of the third day's exercise, they advanced toward Rollie. Crawling in the saw grass and thick vegetation growing out of the few inches of loamy topsoil, they moved on the target—Rollie -under camouflage. The goal was to approach within killing distance without being spotted. To make things more interesting, Rollie lay down a stream of fire that shrieked inches over their heads.
    Suddenly Matt came up on one knee, raised the modified M-16 and fired one round, it seemed, directly at Rollie. She'd been much closer then he believed and took him by surprise. The move was quick, fluid and smooth like ultra-fast ballet. Rollie dropped the M-60 he'd been firing, stumbled and fell. He got up quick more pissed off then a raccoon with its tail in a door. If he hadn't been black he would have turned red. He rambled and screamed until Matt pointed to the ground next to where he'd been sitting. The body of a deadly Corral snake was still twisting in its death throes. Matt had shot the head off.
    "I should have let it bite your ugly ass. We could have tested the anti-venom, see if it works."
    After that episode, Rollie seemed to develop a little more respect for Matt. Not much really, just enough to make things workable.
    Kurt Rhineman remained the only one without actual combat time. At least not the kind of experience the others had. His forte was covert civilian operations, mostly in Europe and South America. The skills he'd developed were excellent and his experience rounded out the team. Rollie was Rollie and wherever he had been the last few years hadn't slowed him down at all. Daniels thought he was tough, sassy and as much a pain in the ass as ever.
    At the end of the first week Daniels felt a little better about the mission. There was no doubt they were the best and had very quickly learned to work together.
    They spent the next three days at the Farm in Langley. The Agency had built an impressive life size mock up of the Durand brother's compound near Guadalajara. The mini-fortress was nothing more than a big rambling two-story house in the old Mexican architectural style. A large center hallway/salon opened into a wide corridor leading to eight spacious rooms downstairs. Staircases flanked both sides of the corridor and ascended to the second floor. Upstairs, the rooms were spacious, featuring balconies, fireplaces and bathrooms complete with Jacuzzis and sauna. The Durands and their chieftains and top officers lived upstairs while the guards and house staff remained downstairs.
    A basement ran the entire length of the house. The Agency had a good idea what was down there. Two smaller, plainer houses flanked the main one housing more guards and other staff. A barn big as an aircraft hangar contained some high-end vehicles, Mercedes, Hummers and Rolls Royces. The Durands liked their toys. An assortment of other vehicles, trucks, SUV's and cars stood parked in the wide yard that surrounded the main house. The entire compound was circled by razor-barbed wire and motion detector alarms. Spotlights blazed each night and guards roamed the perimeter constantly, two at a time, with dogs. A single road led in, bounded by a four-foot brick wall. The first outpost one encountered was fifty yards down the road, a concrete bunker manned by two AK-47 totting guards. Another couple of hundred feet, at the end of the road, another bunker controlled an electronically operated five-foot high ferro-cement, steel reinforced gate. That particular bunker contained a Garrand high-speed Belgium machine gun, also manned around the clock.
    The Agency used two active informants to bolster satellite surveillance. Information had been received that the captives were held in the basement. It was known that the compound had hosted many "guests" over the last few years, and none had returned, at least not in one piece and alive.
    The two