Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

Juan crouched down next to Linc and Murph on the suspended metal grating, took aim, and said, “Fire.”

They let loose with their P90s, and the men in the group dove to the floor, out of sight, behind the large vat. One of the guards went down with a bullet in his chest. The others escaped injury.

Four more guards charged through a door onto another catwalk on the opposite side of the hold and opened fire. Juan took cover behind a pipe, while Linc and Murph ducked behind one in the other direction.

Now they were pinned down with no effective sight line on Carlton, who shouted for Chen to get back to work.

Juan had to create a distraction. He looked at the bank of computer servers at the far end of the hold. They had to be critical to the operation of Colossus. If he started taking potshots at it, that might get a reaction.

He aimed for the first column of servers and unloaded a magazine at it.

It seemed to get their attention.

“Stop him!” Carlton cried out.

The disembodied woman calmly announced, “Two minutes to detonation.”

FIFTY-NINE

Colossus is being damaged. Master must protect Colossus.

Carlton looked up from his phone at Bondarev and said, “Make sure he finishes disabling the self-destruct mechanism.” He pointed at the other guards. “You two, come with me.”

Chen finally showed some emotion and sneered at Carlton. Carlton didn’t care. Once this was done and Colossus was safe, Chen would get over it.

Carlton led the guards across the hold carrying Bondarev’s assault rifle. Although he didn’t collect guns, he had always been fascinated by them and was an avid pheasant hunter. He was eager to try his hand at a human target.

Using the vats as cover, they dashed from one to the next until they had a better angle on the intruder shooting at the server bays.

“Kill him,” Carlton said, and they opened fire.

The intruder stopped shooting and took cover behind a water pipe.

“Evacuate to lifeboats immediately,” the infuriating computer voice placidly advised. “Ninety seconds to detonation.”

To get a clear shot, Carlton climbed onto the service walkway connecting the tops of the vats to each other and took up a position behind the nutrient feed pipe.

His assault rifle was equipped with a red dot sight. He put his eye to the scope and waited for the target to reemerge.

“When he comes back out,” Carlton called down to the guards, “he’s mine.”

* * *

—

“We’re about to come up on deck,” Eddie said, his voice coming through the op center’s speakers.

“Hold where you are,” said Max, who was watching the Oregon’s lidar feed on the screen. “There are hostiles on deck waiting for you.” He counted ten figures with weapons approaching the hatch where Eddie’s caravan of prisoners was going to come out.

“We don’t have much time before this ship starts going down.”

“Understood.” Max looked at Eric. “Use the deck machine guns. Target anything that moves on the Colossus 1.”

“Aye, sir,” Eric replied, and pushed the button for the automated .30 caliber machine guns to rise from their hiding places in the rusty barrels on deck.

Eric identified the targets and fired.

The guards on board the Colossus 1 never saw the weapons that mowed them down in the raging storm. They toppled like bowling pins.