Page 34 of Echoes and Oaths (Guardian Security Dynasty #4)
“ B oth targets down.” His voice was calm. Controlled. He glanced around the area. The guards wouldn’t have gone too far. “Z, I need one hell of a distraction.”
“Copy,” came Z’s gravel-coated reply, laced with barely restrained excitement. “I’ve been dying to light this place up, mate. You want chaos? I got you, all right.”
Jinx’s lips twitched. “Make it biblical.”
“Fucking A, son. I’m letting it rip.”
Outside, the first explosion shattered the air.
The concussion felt like a five-hundred-pound bomb slamming into the earth.
The detonation shook the ground under his feet.
A fireball roared heavenward at the far side of the compound.
Stored fuel in drums near the generator ignited in a tower of flame.
Metal pieces of flaming barrels fell from the sky.
Screams followed, garbled in Spanish over panicked radio chatter, Jinx could hear as the guards scrambled.
Jinx took the opportunity and sprinted down the corridor, weapon drawn and ready. The hallway flared red from the reflected fire outside, smoke already curling through the ventilation shafts.
Two armed men rounded the corner.
Jinx fired twice at center mass, double-tapped to the heart. The other received the same greeting before they could aim at him. They dropped, and Jinx didn’t stop moving.
“Z, talk to me!” he exclaimed as he ducked into an alcove. Bullets pinged off the plaster wall behind him.
“Back gate’s burning. Eastern wall’s ready for breach. You’ve got about forty seconds before I blow the armor shed.” The shed was directly outside the eastern wall.
Jinx waited until the bastards stopped firing, dipped out, and fired back. They may have been better than the cartel soldiers, but not by much. Ever hear of cover? Obviously not. He dropped both men and growled, “Make it twenty. ”
“You know I love it when you’re bossy.” Z laughed on the other side of the comms.
Jinx pivoted and fired off two shots into the shadow of a balcony. A sniper dropped like a rag doll, his rifle clattering down. Jinx sprinted to the man, grabbed his rifle and ammo before he booked ass to the east wall. Smoke from the first explosion rolled into the compound now, thick and choking.
He vaulted over a bench and ducked behind a stone planter. Another burst of automatic fire tore through the foliage overhead.
“You still breathing?” Z asked, voice tight with glee.
“Still alive. Little singed.” Jinx reloaded the rifle with a fresh magazine. “Start your countdown.”
“Going to stir things up a bit first,” Z said.
Immediately from across the compound, another blast ripped through the air, and it was a lot closer that time.
Heat slugged him like a fist as a shockwave rattled the stone beneath his boots.
A guard came screaming around the corner, half on fire, flailing.
Jinx didn’t waste the bullet.
Instead, he ran toward the wall, veering off to the right where the wall was thicker.
“Ten seconds. East wall, charge two,” Z counted. “Nine … eight … ”
Gunfire erupted behind him from four men in matching tactical gear. These were Esteban’s elite, and they advanced in formation.
Jinx dove through a blown-out doorway, rolled, and came up firing.
“Four … three … two …”
The east wall exploded in a shower of stone and fire. A twelve-foot gap tore open, framing the jungle like a blazing invitation to freedom. Smoke and dust billowed out like a living thing.
“Door’s open!” Z shouted. “But you’ve got company inbound from the garage.”
“Time to get dramatic,” Jinx growled as he turned and pulled a small kit of C4 from inside his belt. He slapped it onto the compound’s main fuel line, then primed it as gunfire raked the hallway behind him.
“Z, cover fire on the east breach.”
“You got it, my man. Show ’em what heartbreak looks like.”
Jinx bolted through the fire-lit corridor as Z opened up. The stutter of suppressed rifle fire cut down the guards near the breach. Bullets zinged past Jinx’s shoulders as he cleared the wall in a leap and hit the ground in a crouch.
Behind him, the compound roared as the fuel line detonated. The eruption flattened him to the earth. He scrambled away from the flames, keeping pinned to the ground. The sky turned orange.
Fire rolled across the roof. A tower cracked and toppled sideways in a cascade of sparks and steel. Jinx used the deafening noise to lurch to his feet and sprint away from the compound.
Z let out a low whistle as Jinx ran toward him through the smoke, wild-eyed and alive. “Damn,” Z said, slinging his rifle. “You always make an exit like that?”
Jinx didn’t stop moving. “Only when I’m feeling sentimental.”
He grabbed Z’s shirt, spinning him as he ran by.
Z fell into step with him as they raced toward the vehicle.
“No, this way!” Z shouted when Jinx veered the wrong way.
They disappeared into the jungle. The inferno lit the sky behind them like a beacon formed in hell and sent straight from Satan himself.
Flames licked the sky as the compound collapsed. One explosion rolled into another like a storm gathering overhead. Trees shivered under the shockwaves, and the air was thick with smoke and the deafening sound of war.
Jinx sprinted through the undergrowth beside Z, his heart hammering and his lungs burning as they sprinted at full speed .
“We need distance!” Jinx barked as he ducked under a low branch while vines clawed at his shoulders.
“We’ll get it,” Z called, his grin audible even through his panting. “I gift-wrapped our exfil with surprises.”
Behind them, engine growls echoed through the jungle. It was the distinct, grinding roar of armored SUVs barreling down the dirt road that flanked the ridge.
“They’re moving fast,” Jinx muttered.
“Yeah,” Z said, swinging his rifle to cover their rear. “And in about ten seconds, they’ll learn not to be so fucking dedicated.”
They reached a jagged path cut through a thick brush. The trail was just wide enough to run through and just narrow enough to keep the enemy funneled in a straight line.
Jinx paused, eyes scanning the terrain. “How many charges?”
“Four. Pressure and remote triggers. Two buried, two in trees. That’s why we veered.” Z grinned and tapped a small control panel on his vest. “All timed to hit the sweet spot.”
The rumble behind them grew louder. Headlights slashed through the thick jungle .
“They’ll try to flank,” Jinx warned. “We need to funnel them tighter.”
“Already done,” Z said, voice smug. “I dropped a cedar across the west bend. They’ve only got one way through now.”
Just then, the first SUV came into view. Jinx glanced over in the darkness, but he could see the dark silhouette of a mounted gunner already aiming for the trees where they most logically would be.
“Wait for it …” Z whispered.
The vehicle hit the buried charge.
The jungle lit up in a white-hot flash. The SUV lifted off the ground, tires blown skyward, flames spitting from beneath its chassis as it flipped into a tree and exploded again on impact. The gunner never had a chance to scream.
“That’s one,” Z growled.
Another vehicle swerved hard, trying to break formation. It didn’t make it far before a second explosion sent it sideways into a ditch, flames licking the canopy.
“That’s two.”
Bullets sprayed into the jungle as the third SUV’s gunner opened up in panic, shredding trees and sending birds screeching into the sky.
Jinx returned fire from behind a fallen log, his shots precise and controlled. The gunner dropped with a sharp cry.
More shouting. Another vehicle barreled through the smoke. “Time for the tree charge,” Z said.
A massive tree trunk rigged with explosives snapped in half and crashed down directly onto the SUV's hood, smashing it like a tin can. The front axle crumpled like a paper cup, and the roof became one with the floorboard.
“Three and four,” Z said with satisfaction, slapping Jinx’s shoulder. “God, I love my job.”
Jinx didn’t reply. His eyes were already on the move while he scanned and calculated his surroundings. “They’ll send a drone,” he said. “We’ve got five minutes before air surveillance pins us.”
“Already planned for that, too,” Z said, pulling a small drone jammer from his pack and tossing it to Jinx. “Here. Don’t push that until we need it, though. It'll cook their signal just long enough to get to out of the way.”
They moved again, pushing deeper into the jungle.
Behind them, the trail was lit with fire and wreckage. The responding enemy was in ruin. What few guards were still breathing were probably too busy screaming, bleeding, or running for cover .
“You good?” Z asked, side-eyeing Jinx as they ran.
“Better than I’ve been in years.”
“Yeah?” Z grinned and panted, “Kinda sounded like you meant that.”
“I do,” Jinx said, eyes narrowing as they reached the next cover point. They vanished into the jungle, the night behind them still burning. Jinx and Z moved fast, dodging thorny vines and ducking under hanging moss. The thick, humid air stuck to their skin, oily and annoying.
"You boys made a mess," Brando’s voice crackled over comms, dry as ever. "Looks like a war zone from up here."
Jinx ducked a branch that about brained him and asked, "How bad’s the spread?"
"Half the compound’s gone. You clipped their communications tower. Good thinking, by the way. You’ve got a dozen survivors scattered through the jungle. Some look like they’re regrouping. Others … not so much."
Z laughed under his breath. "You’re welcome."
"Extraction?" Jinx asked, glancing up at the moonlit canopy.
"Confirmed," Brando replied. "A Guardian bird is already in Venezuelan airspace. You’ve got a clean zone about four klicks southeast of your position.
Look for the old hydroelectric clearing with big stone culverts, collapsed fencing, one rusted-out generator box.
Touchdown in twenty minutes. You need to be there in fifteen. "
Jinx swore softly and picked up the pace.