Free Sabotage by C. G. Cooper

about. Give him back," the man continued in his heavily accented English.
     
    The morons who were supposed to have their leader’s back had been so intent on him that they hadn't looked to their sides, but now they did. Daniel and Gaucho had their weapons raised. There was a lot of shouting among the three men like they couldn't determine what to do. The man in the lead must have told the other two to shut up because they did. Still the leader seemed unconcerned about their predicament.
     
    "Where is he?" he asked again.
     
    Cal smiled. "Look buddy. I have no idea who you are or, who you are looking for, but I can tell you for sure that you've picked the wrong time and the wrong place to come busting in here."
     
    Cal couldn't tell if the guy totally understood but he still seemed unconcerned.
     
    "My friends kill them now.” He gestured to Cal’s friends. “Then we take you to talk." He said something in his native tongue to which his goons responded with an obedient bark which must have been a “yes” or “yes, sir.”
     
    Stupid , Cal thought even as the silenced rounds from Daniel and Gaucho's weapons expelled, mowing the two men down.
     
    To the leader's credit he didn't turn around despite the fact that he'd gotten a good splash of blood across each cheek and most certainly covering the back of his head.
     
    "Looks like it's just you and me now," Cal said. "You sure you don't want to talk about this?"
     
    The man laughed, and it was the first time Cal realized that he had an earpiece tucked deep in his ear canal. Cal didn't think but instinctually whipped his weapon around, shooting the man twice in the forehead before the enemy could squeeze off a single round.
     
    The body hadn't even hit the floor when Cal heard Trent say from behind him, "Get down! Incoming!"
     
    Cal had just enough time to hit the deck, holding Liberty beneath him, when the windows behind them exploded in a plume of fire, raining down upon them broken shards of glass and pieces of metal.
     
    After the initial concussion, Liberty was up and turned toward the window. Cal rolled over onto his back and saw five men on rappelling ropes, swinging in through the newly created hole in the side of the building. The massive form of MSgt Trent yanked one man aside before smashing the butt of his pistol into the attacker's face, rendering him unconscious. Cal was sighted in on the second invader and shot him twice in the chest. However, like the Energizer Bunny, the thug just grunted and kept coming after Cal. After two more rounds hit him in the face, his forward progress halted.
     
    Daniel , Cal thought. He spotted him shifting his own weapon to the next target. These guys weren't pros or they would have come in shooting. Maybe they'd been given explicit orders to take prisoners instead of killing everyone in the room. Cal and his men were under no such rules of engagement.
     
    A third man was down. The man in the middle was suddenly covered with a face full of fur. Liberty was ripping and tearing, and for a moment, Cal watched his dog with wonder. The man was screaming, and his blood gushed from his face. When he tried to fling the puppy off his body, she hung on with twice the tenacity. As Liberty held the man down, Cal was able to put two rounds in the man's belly.
     
    There was one man left now. Daniel and Gaucho were closing in on him with extreme caution. Cal wondered why they didn't just shoot him until he took a closer look. It was then he saw that under his assault rifle their attacker held something else - a grenade. It was the old-fashioned pineapple kind, and the pin was pulled out. The man didn't have to say anything; his intent was clear. If he was going down, they were all going down with him.
     
    Everyone except for the dead or the wounded enemy were on their feet now. Cal was inching closer, hoping he could get the live grenade out of the man's hand. You couldn't just shoot him and hope that he'd hold onto the grenade