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“Taking them out this time?” Wolf asked rather sarcastically.
“Damn straight.” Ronan had done his due diligence and warned the fuckers. “Two-hundred fifty meters. I don’t want them close enough to take a shot at our cargo.”
“Copy,” Wolf replied.
“Are any vehicles not coming?” Ronan asked, waiting as the vehicles on the road behind them raced toward them.
“One,” Dude answered.
“Only smart motherfucker in the group,” Wolf said what Ronan was thinking. “I have my targets. They’re coming in linear. I’ll hit between them and hopefully take out both.”
“Do what you have to do.” Ronan knew Wolf could handle two vehicles.
“Target in range,” Ronan said as he waited. Another hundred meters … and there. He pulled the trigger and concentrated down range as the missile exploded the first vehicle. The one behind the first veered and then rolled. Ronan stood up and watched for any signs of movement.
“And we have a winner. The Jeep is inbound, Skipper.” Ronan put down the spent SMAW and returned to his vehicle to extract his M-4. The sound of an explosion made him look up for a nanosecond as Wolf launched his missile. “Two for the price of one?” Dude chuckled.
“Nope,” Wolf replied. “The other truck is still moving.”
“He’s tucking his tail,” Dude countered. “Skipper, the Jeep is slowing down. Looks like there are two survivors. The Jeep is picking them up.”
Ronan walked over to assume his prior position. “Yeah, they’re leaving,” Dude confirmed. “You’re clear.”
“Got it.”
He tapped the side of the personnel carrier. “Fleur, let’s go.”
“Coming.” She opened the tarp in the back anddropped down before she looked toward the smoldering vehicles. “Not what they expected.” She looked up at him. “We couldn’t fight back.”
“We aren’t fighting back; we’re taking the fight to them, and they damn well better not forget it.” He put the launcher into the crate and waited for Wolf to toss him his. The extra missile was carefully placed into the crate before it was secured. “Let’s go.”
“If you’re waiting on me, you’re backing up,” Wolf said, jogging to the carrier. His man pulled the tarp back and jumped up on the hitch. “Everyone okay in here?”
Ronan didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he fired up the Jeep and put it into gear.
“Do you think they’ll come back?”
Ronan shook his head. “No.” Not without a lot more firepower. He wanted to fucking kiss his brother for including two crates of SMAWs in their Guardian-issued supplies. “If they try again, it will be on the way back.”
“Well, that’s not good.” Fleur’s eyes were huge. “We’re going to be more spread out and a bigger target.”
Ronan chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. They were trying to pick low-hanging fruit. They wereused to anything coming out of the camp to be defenseless. They know now that isn’t the case.”
Fleur was quiet for a moment. “Do you ever wonder if what you did was right?”
He glanced at her. “You mean taking out those trucks?”
“Things like that, yeah.”
She looked at him, and even from behind his shaded lenses, he could tell she needed an honest answer, that the question was important to her. He lifted a shoulder. “Not anymore. When I first started, I questioned everything. I was learning. Now, I know that each of my team is exceptional, and they don’t make mistakes, especially when putting lives in danger. We fired a warning shot. That should have been enough to stop people who didn’t have ill intent. These guys split up and tried to flank us as two vehicles came at full speed at us. So, no, I don’t worry anymore.”
She nodded. “That makes sense. But why do you think they attacked us? It wasn’t like we had anything.”
Ronan glanced at her. “I wondered the same thing. I assumed we would be hit on the way back if attacked since supplies, fuel, and six new transportvehicles would be a reason to come after us.” He’d also had Adil put out the word not to attack them anymore. They’d played every card they had, but still, the bastards had tried to hit them. Why?
“What’s Al-Tanf Garrison like?”
“Sandy.” He laughed. “Seriously, the security walls are made of sand. Massive bunkers of sand. Some huts serve as barracks, and others, the larger ones, operate as facilities for those working there.Oh, there’s a hamburger fast food joint there. The one with the golden arches.”