Rapp moved along the wall far enough to bring the man into view. A single round hit him in the left temple and splattered the wall with brain tissue, blood, and bone shards. Rapp retreated again.
“The man at the dining room window is shouting at the man at the living room window,” she said, though he could hear them from his position. Spanish.
“They don’t seem to know what to do. Two men entering the back while the other three stay outside. There’s still a lot of smoke but the fire seems to be going out on its own.”
“Roger that.”
Rapp started easing left, but then dropped to the tile floor when Claudia came on again.
“Grenade coming in through the living room window!”
The blast threw a heavy credenza across the room and he saw it shatter against the wall. Great if their target was the big-screen TV that had become the family’s Grand Theft Auto battlefield, but otherwise a waste of a perfectly good explosive. Again, he asked himself who these pricks were. If this was the best the Cooks could come up with, US spec ops had really gone to shit.
“It’s still hard for me to see clearly into the rear hallway, but the two men appear to have reached the door at the end. The two men out front are moving toward the still-open door. I think one has a grenade in his hand but no other explosive is visible. If you move now, you can just make it.”
He leapt to his feet and sprinted across the entryway, slamming the front door and then retreating to his former position. A grenade wouldn’t be enough to penetrate unless the blast could be concentrated. They might be able to use their vehicle for that purpose but, frankly, they didn’t seem that clever.
“Am I clear to go into the living room?”
“Yes. They’ve stopped along the wall. The door slamming seems to have surprised them.”
“Give me the exact position of the one closest to me,” he said as he moved forward. The sofa was smoldering to his left, but no open flames were visible.
“Maybe one meter to the east of the porch. The other one’s in a similar position on the west side. They’re facing each other with their shoulders maybe half a meter from the house. The men at the back look like they might be setting a charge on the door leading to the main part of the house. If it’s as powerful as the first one, they’ll have full access after it’s detonated.”
He didn’t respond, instead taking a position in front of the broken window. Because of the angle, it was impossible to see the men near the porch, but the closest would be less than ten feet away. He could hear them speaking unintelligibly as he slipped the gun through the bars. Aiming based on Claudia’s description, he emptied his magazine and then immediately ran for the dining room, slapping in a fresh one as he went.
“One hit! The man’s down, but I can’t tell how badly he’s injured. The other is backing along the wall, shooting toward the window you fired from. Two meters from the first dining room window, staying close to the wall. One meter, still focused on the living room window, not looking behind him.”
Rapp stayed near the back of the dining room, counting on the relative gloom and increasing haze from the burning couch to obscure him. His target came even with the window a moment later, still shooting at nothing, oblivious to everything else around him.
The bars and what remained of the glass made the shot tricky, so Rapp lined it up carefully. A gentle squeeze of the trigger sent a round just behind the man’s left eye, snapping his head around before he disappeared from sight.
“He’s down!” Claudia said over his earpiece. “Dead or dying. The men in the hallway are retreating. I think they’re going to blow the door, so stay clear. The man on the east side of the porch isn’t dead and he’s trying to get to his feet.”
Rapp strode to the window and peered through. Sure enough, the man had made it to all fours. He looked up just in time to see the muzzle flash that killed him.
“You have no more threats at the front of the house. Still five in the back. All outside now. The injured one is still bleeding but steady on his feet. The sofa fire is getting pretty serious. Can I put it out?”
“Go ahead,” Rapp said, hearing the living room sprinklers activate before using a finger to plug his open ear in anticipation of what was to come. He didn’t have to wait long. Again, the house shook, but this time the tremor was accompanied by smoke and vaporized plaster billowing through the first floor.
“The door is down,” she said unnecessarily. “All five men are still outside, two with their backs to the east side of the door. Three in the same position on the west side. None are moving yet. The hall camera’s still functional but there’s too much smoke and dust for me to see anything.”