Free Fast by Shane M Brown

searched for a way to save the situation.
                Their only exit from the room, the service corridor, stood in complete line of sight of the gunmen. It was right out in the open. Worse, King’s pinned position offered nowhere for him to move. He lay right between Coleman and Forest. The gunmen controlled the space all around him.
                Coleman had a big section of the pool between himself and the solid cover that Forest and Marlin had reached. But the twenty meter sprint around the pool, out in the open, only led to a dead-end with no exits.
                Bleakly, Coleman surveyed the damaged lockers. They wouldn’t take much more punishment.
                He touched his headset. ‘Marlin, tell me you’ve found a back door.’
                ‘I’ve got nothing,’ replied Marlin urgently. Coleman heard him kicking open cubicles and searching for a back exit.
                Forest called across the pool, ‘Captain, they’re taking position to storm in here. You need to move right now.’
                ‘I’m working on it,’ Coleman said. ‘Just keep their heads down. Don’t give them a chance to take the corners.’
                Forest nodded and fired at the gunmen.
                If the gunmen gained control of the far corners of the room they would have clear firing angles over the entire skirmish. Logically, part of their force would be circling around to the service corridor to hit Third Unit from behind. Either way, in a few moments the gunmen would outmaneuver Third Unit and it would be all over. Dirt naps all round.
                ‘King,’ Coleman said. ‘Watch the service corridor. Take down anything that moves.’
                King lay directly in line of sight with the corridor. He flipped onto his back and trained his rifle down the corridor. ‘On it.’
                ‘Okay, I’ve got something,’ came Marlin’s voice over Coleman’s headset. ‘There’s a plumbing access hatch in the back of the sixth shower cubicle.’
                A plumbing access hatch?
                Every structure contained spaces to house and service their essential infrastructure. FAST trained with architects to identify where terrorists could hide explosives, and hence where these places commonly existed. Marlin found that the shower cubicle contained just such a place.
                ‘Captain,’ warned King. ‘Something’s happening.’
                Coleman snapped his rifle around to cover the service corridor, assuming King meant more gunmen circling around from behind.
                King stared straight back at Coleman.
                He jerked his head towards the Pave Hawk. Lying down provided King a perfect view of the helicopter.
                Coleman followed King’s line of sight up to the fuselage.
                The weapons inspector jerked around in the tangled cable like a broken marionette.
                He can’t be alive, can he? Coleman looked higher, following the cable.
                At that moment, just as Coleman looked upwards, two creatures launched from the Pave Hawk. The first creature fell into the dangling loops of cable and became tangled midair.
                The second creature plunged straight down. It hit the pool with its limbs coiled tightly around its body in the mother of all bomb-dives. No sooner had it surfaced than its limbs began churning up white foam like a gigantic blender.
                Coleman had just one thought: stay out of that water !
                The gunmen didn’t react to the creatures. They held position just outside the doorway.
                Forest called across to Coleman. ‘Why aren’t they firing?’
                ‘I can’t see anything,’ King complained.