Scorpion's Vengeance 'Killzone'

Just wanted to catch up with you folks before we get into the story this week.

I finally got everything sorted and uploaded the manuscript to KDP for publishing and we're heading for a 'going live' date of 30th April, I'll see if I can put a link in later for people to go ahead and pre-order the eBook.

In the last episode Joey, Sandy and Billie (or BJ) thought they had Serkhov only to find out they'd been duped. Meanwhile, the rest of the team were literally 'tearing across Britain' hoping to get to the safe house before Serkhov's thugs could strike, and it looks like they may not have made it in time, but then again, they're used to things not going to plan.

Let's get in there and see how they change things around.

Smithy was already slithering along the ground in a snake-like manner as the second explosion went off, he heard another scream, that meant another was down, only ‘God knows’ how many more to go.

Bullets were pinging into and off the log now, a collection of small arms fire, three or four separate weapons, he only needed to move a couple of yards for his next part to work.

Ten whole seconds later something like a voice of authority began giving commands, Smithy knew what was coming and he was ready, more importantly, he wasn’t where they thought he was.

Two machine guns opened up, from the way they were stopping and starting Smithy guessed they were AKs, he’d have to deal with them, but later, if two were firing that meant three were coming his way!

They heard the mayhem from two miles away, it was the signal

The tower wasn’t huge, but the top resembled the battlements seen on medieval castles, with a parapet and stone wall for archers back then to shoot from behind, it might only be ten feet above the roof of the house, but was perfect for giving a great view of the area and preventing anyone getting too close without being seen, Hene was up in the tower when things kicked off.

“Will ya listen to that” Hene spoke softly into the mike he was wearing, a throat mike, it picked up every syllable he uttered, no matter how low his voice was, he slowly moved so he could see the direction he’d heard the noise from, there was a pall of smoke rising from the east, and it wasn’t the kind from a dying fire, this was burning furiously.

“Just a wee intro” he recognised the Scottish accent, Mac and Jacko can’t have been far away. “Thought we’d let you know we’re here, Smithy’s enjoying himself at their expense. Now, where are those arseholes?” ever direct he brought them back to reality.

“Seven of ‘em approaching from the north” Hene replied as he ran for the stairs, he’d just reached it when he heard the ‘whoosh’ and explosion

“And three more coming from the east, they’re seriously considering turning back I’d say” Sam butted in, she was watching the video feed, “If you can get word to Smithy, tell him the two machine guns are about fifty feet in front of the second vehicle he hit, but they’re staying put for the moment”

“Roger that” Mac replied, “but I'm pretty sure he's got it under control” there was a couple of seconds pause, then came back on the line, “you two get to the bolt hole, we'll take it from here”

No one needed any encouragement. Hene was halfway there anyway, and Sam wasn’t far behind. Whoever was coming for them was close, less than a couple of hundred yards, they weren't on the cameras anymore, that meant it was time to leave.

“On my way” Hene reached for the trap door to the stone stairs, he got it open and was halfway down when the first pings of metal started hitting the stone walls, “Shit, we’re taking fire!” he shouted into the mike as he cleared the last step, Sam was already in the kitchen, trap door to the cellar open and ready to go, the fire was increasing.

Hene almost jumped the whole length of the kitchen, he wasn’t even using the steps, he just seemed to dive right down slamming the door shut as he landed half way down, reaching up he slid the bolts across that would hold the trap door closed, it wouldn’t deny whoever it was coming for long, just long enough for them to make it to the ‘bolt hole’

Sam went back up to make sure the trap door was closed properly, it wasn’t “the dam trap won’t seal!” She shouted into the mike as she tried to pull the stones down to seal the entrance.

“Don’t worry about that!” Jacko responded harshly into the mike, “Get your arses moving into that room NOW, we’ll deal with the rats chasing you!” it was all part of the plan, he just didn’t want to tell them that.

Most of the ‘pings’ were coming from the door, not a chance of it giving way, not to small arms fire, it was two inches of solid English oak followed by half an inch of armour, it wasn’t giving way easily, then there was an eruption as the door shook in its hinges, it seemed to buckle and bend yet didn’t give way, “what the hell was that?” Sam shouted as Hene ran across the kitchen to her, she began to descend the steps two at a time, Hene would have to secure the trap door.

“I think they’ve got an RPG or something” he sang out as he slid the last bolt into place, “didn’t penetrate the door with the first one, but the next will!”

“They know they haven’t got much time before we get here” Jacko’s voice came on the line, “I’m guessing they don’t think we’ve made it here yet, but they know we aren’t far away, they’re coming in hard and fast, but RELAX we have this under control!”

‘If this is under control’ Sam was thinking, ‘I’d hate to see what you think out of control looks like!’ she reached out to her right, there was a small ledge there with a standard Army issue torch, nothing else was in the tunnel, no lights, nothing that could be used to light the way, just the torch, flicking the switch the torch came to life with a dull red glow, just enough for them to fumble their way into the tunnel to find the safe room.

“What the hell was this place?” Hene asked as they moved along, instead of the neat if somewhat damp concrete walls, maybe even with mould on them, they were feeling rough crumbling what almost felt like bricks, it felt like the tunnel was about to fall down.

“Sandstone” Sam replied, “same as the house, I’d guess this place was built about the same time, maybe as an escape route, all ‘six’ did was block the tunnel and shove a concrete bunker down here!” they got to the steel door of the bunker, it was shut and locked, not a problem as it was a combination lock, Sam found the pad and tapped in the six-digit combination, there was a faint click as the lock disengaged and the door slid open.

“I know what the damn stone is!” Hene replied, “But what’s with the tunnel and rooms underground?”

“It’s an old house” Sam replied, not really sure why the house would have the tunnel and the like, “I think it’s from the middle ages, you know! When it wasn’t all that healthy to be Catholic” she stopped for a moment, “if I remember my history, some people wanted to stay Catholic, and help hide the priests, so they built tunnels into their houses along with hiding places and the like, Joey said this place was a rich man’s house back then, maybe he had a place like that, wouldn’t take much to upgrade the place, just a new door and lock!”

Jacko and Mac reached the edge of the wood just in time to see the second shot from the RPG rip the door clear from its hinges, they knew what the plan was, and they knew they only had seconds to get ready for it, two men headed around the back, and two others got ready for the front, three were heading inside while the front and back were guarded.

“I’ll take the back” Mac slowly moved from the crouch position, he turned and made eye contact, “you’ve got the door boss, that okay?” he was ready for a sprint

“See you inside” was all Jacko said as he began to creep forward, “One minute”

There are times when the most important weapon you have is stealth, this wasn’t one of those, it was important, but much more so was speed. More importantly, now was now that Sam and Hene were in the tunnel they were effectively ‘blind’ and that meant that things had to happen super fast so that O’Flanagan and the Russians didn’t get too far from where they’d been known to be.

He was still inside the treeline, and they weren’t paying attention to it, he could see them, but they weren’t even looking for him, as soon as they got to the rear door he could see them preparing to go in, he guessed they were timing it with the team at the front, just as Jacko and he were using the entry to time their move.

The Russians were wearing body armour, and it looked as if it was top of the line, the stuff would stop a bullet from even a high powered weapon at close range, he was just weighing up the options when Jacko came on air, “Remember we need prisoners”

Normal SAS procedure was a thing called the ‘double tap’ where they shot for the torso first and then went in with a headshot to make sure the target was dead, that worked for 90% of operations, but there were circumstances where the double tap wasn’t a good idea, that was the ‘suicide bomber’.

The thing with the suicide bomber is you have to stop them pressing the detonator button, and even a jerk reaction from a kill shot can set them off, the only way is to make sure the spine is snapped before it has chance to give the command, and that means a ‘headshot’ and in particular one to the base of the skull, right where the spine connects with the brain.

Jacko had just ruled all that out, they’d have to improvise, and that meant using the Russians body armour against them, that was when he realized the challenge they had.

The speed with which a bullet or round travels when it leaves the barrel is called the velocity of the weapon, and they can be anything from two hundred yards per second for low-velocity weapons to the fastest at over one thousand yards per second, literally twice the speed of sound for the highest velocity weapons.

Body armour stops most weapons from penetrating the body, but you’ll never stop the velocity and something that hits you at even two hundred yards a second is going to literally ‘kick the crap’ out of you, and the Commando was about halfway at 700 yards a second, it would feel like you’d been hit with a sledgehammer at full swing.

He waited for the bang of the flashbangs.

Three men were running to where Smithy had been, he was only ten feet to the side, but far enough they couldn’t see where he was, they were grouped pretty close together, but the .303 would be too slow to take all of them, he laid it down and reached for the Glock.

The Glock pistol has a conventional magazine of seventeen rounds, powerful enough to do serious damage at close range, and is fully automatic it fires just as fast as he could pull the trigger, he just couldn’t keep the trigger pressed as it would only fire the one shot.

The two AKs had moved slightly, so that they could give covering fire as the men approached, the men had been steadily approaching using ‘fire and maneuver’ to keep Smithy’s head down, normally he’d be returning fire to ‘win the firefight’ but they outnumbered him, straightforward tactics weren’t going to win this fight.

‘Wait until you see the colour of their eyes’ was his thought, as they charged forward, he waited until they were right on the position then sprang out Glock at the ready, fired the first shot which missed, but wasn’t even noticed, the second caught the lead man in the neck, he went down and stayed down, shot three was at the second man, it hit square in the chest knocking him off his feet, shot four hit the next man in the leg, he was crippled, but not out of the fight.

He raced forward, the Glock still had eleven rounds in the mag, he got to the one with the injured leg and shot him in the shoulder, the screams were unnerving for even him, and that was the intention, but he ignored it, he was here to take them down, but preferably with the maximum pain, the other guy was slowly climbing up and reaching for a weapon, one shot to the shoulder stopped that, but just to make sure Smithy kicked him on the other arm, he heard bone splinter, this guy was out of the fight, the screams from the two would unnerve the other shooters, there’d be time to sort them out later, he still had some stuff to deal with.

He was in the line of sight for the shooters, but they were so shocked it took them three seconds to respond.

In that time he’d stripped the three men of their weapons and gotten back to the safety of his original position, from now on it was a game of ‘hunter and hunted’ and he had no intention of being the latter. The men were shouting instructions at the shooters, they were giving his position away, but he was already on the move, they were getting false information.

Snipers aren’t just good at shooting, they also have to be experts at stealth, they have to be able to move about the battlefield without being seen or heard, and they have to be able to do it with speed.

“About fifty feet from the vehicles” was what he’d been told, but which way? He was pretty sure they were to the left, but that can have changed. “Where are they?” was the main question.

“What the hell?” he could hear a voice, but that was only a guess at what was being said as it was speaking Russian, he got some bearings from it, one of them at least was still where Sam had said they were.

Replacing the Glock in its holster he reached for the .303, sliding the bolt back he reached into the pouch on his right-hand side and took a clip out, five rounds in the clip, he placed it in the slot just behind the breach and using his right thumb slid all five rounds into the magazine, then did exactly the same with the next clip before sliding the bolt back home, he didn’t even check the safety, there was no need as the rifle wouldn’t ‘go off’ unless he pulled the trigger, and the pressure, at five pounds was pretty substantial for any rifle, another reason he loved the rifle so much.

I've got to finish here as we're pretty close to three thousand words. I've enjoyed writing this story so much, but it is time to move on, and there are so many projects that I want to 'crack on with'

Anyway, the novel will be out on Amazon from Tuesday onwards,

I'm hoping to have the final episodes out next week.

Don't forget to leave a comment.

Lawrence