Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
They kept each team small, needing the other to run interference should anyone try to talk to the missing Torpedo Ink members. Illusions could fool cameras and people as long as they didn’t come close. Keys, Maestro, Master and Lana appeared to be present, yet they were making their way as fast as possible to the home on the edge of the Pygmy Forest.
While they headed in that direction, four members from the first team, Mechanic, Reaper, Storm and Transporter, moved to intercept the five-man Ghost team heading straight toward Caspar using a back road. The ambush was already set. They were all in place without having to be directed. They’d hunted so often as a pack that they knew every movement and where each of them would be.
Step one in the ambush relied on Transporter’s skills as a driver. Not only did he have mad skills when it came to driving, but he also possessed a sixth sense that alerted him to law enforcement and enemies as well as innocents. He’d honed that gift from the time he was a child, just as the others had developed theirs.
Czar had always told them he believed almost everyone on earth had gifts in various degrees, they simply didn’t spend time developing them. He’d insisted that every single day, as children, teens, young adults and even now, they continue to develop and sharpen those gifts. Many, many times, it had been their extrasensory abilities that had saved their lives.
This was a smash and kill. No prisoners. No interrogation. No hiding the bodies or the wreck. They had minutes to get the job done and return to Caspar to help with the illusion that the missing members of team two were present. The second team would need more time to infiltrate the house when the Ghosts were guarding and on alert.
The ambush site had been chosen with care. Coming from the Pygmy Forest, if at all possible, the Ghost team wouldn’t want to be seen. That meant they would take one of the back roads to Caspar. The area had been a logging territory in its early history, and there was a labyrinth of old roads, most unpaved. The widest one leading from the Pygmy Forest would be the most likely route the Ghosts would take. It appeared inviting where the others were extremely narrow and overgrown.
Most of the old logging roads weren’t used by anyone but locals, and then only for recreational purposes. Maintenance wasn’t kept up. They weren’t paved, so deep pits were a hazard. Large rocks and mudslides, as well as downed trees, blocked the roads in places. The roads often curved through thick forest and were now overgrown with brush, blackberry bushes and poison oak.
It made sense that the Ghosts would choose the route that appeared open, although it was dirt.
The location Torpedo Ink, team one, chose for their ambush was heavily wooded. The road ran along an embankment in several places. The bank wasn’t particularly steep, but right below it was a creek. Several sources fed the creek, allowing the banks to swell and the water to move fairly quickly. In most places the creek bed was rock, the water only a few inches deep, but there were spots swirling with leaves and twigs, creating small dams to form pools.
This particular site had such heavy brush grown over another road, which at one time had connected with the main road. It was very faint and difficult to spot, but it was there. Torpedo Ink had done a vast amount of exploring when they’d chosen to put down roots in the Caspar community. They’d needed to know every exit route and any place an enemy might choose to approach them. All that research came in handy for situations such as this one.
The team only had minutes to set up, and they did so. They heard the engine of the SUV before it came into sight. As the vehicle barreled straight for them, Transporter came out of the brush, ramming them precisely in the middle of the SUV with the heavy steel V welded onto the truck. The truck hit the SUV at high speed, buckling the vehicle with the force of the velocity and its heavy weight, continuing to push it toward the drop, where fast-flowing water had carved the stream.
Transporter shoved the Ghosts’ vehicle over that embankment and into the creek. Mechanic, Storm and Reaper were waiting in the heavier brush on the opposite side of the stream. The SUV rolled over once, came upright and rocked. One side was caved in, the other buckled.
Reaper and Mechanic ripped the front passenger-side door open. It had suffered the least damage. They flung several bundles of explosives inside and slammed the door closed, diving for cover. The massive blast blew the SUV apart. Blackened shredded metal, body parts and seats burst into the air in every direction, slowly settling to the ground.