I wasn’t sure who fired first, only that within seconds, the two men with Rinaldo were on the ground and there was a hailstorm of gunfire in the area. I took cover with Rinaldo behind his car as he began to fire toward Gavino, Andrey, and Craig.
A van pulled up beside us, and several of Rinaldo’s men jumped out, weapons at the ready. A shot to Andrey’s shoulder sent him reeling backwards, and he began to crawl toward his SUV. The girl he had dragged back there was trying to get out as he reached the driver’s side door, and she was hit by a stray bullet.
“The truck!” Rinaldo yelled as he pointed.
The driver of the semi-truck was behind the wheel trying to pull out. I pulled up my Barrett, used the bumper of the car as a stabilizer, and took aim. My ears rang with the blast, and I watched the bolt go right through the truck’s engine with a massive explosion. The wheels screeched, the cab flew off to one side, but the trailer didn’t go with it. One more carefully aimed shot from my weapon and the cab, spinning in a giant ball of fire, was disconnected from the trailer.
The trailer skidded to a stop, somehow managing to remain upright despite the gaping hole in the front of it. The screams coming from inside could be heard above the gunfire.
“Evan—get a better vantage point!” Rinaldo yelled at me.
I hated taking myself away from him in this situation, but he was right. I would be much more effective from up high. No longer caring who knew where I was, I grabbed the Barrett and ran the short distance to the main building, dodging bullets along the way. I scaled the ladder on the back side of the structure and perched near the corner.
Without the bipod, and considering the weight of the Barrett, it was a little more difficult to aim, but I’d done this plenty of times before. Using the ledge around the roof, I balanced the weapon and began to take out Gavino’s men. Before I got another shot off, I felt and heard a bolt right near my shoulder.
The second sniper.
Grabbing the Barrett, I moved over to the air conditioning unit and placed myself behind it in relation to the other sniper’s shot. I had to shove the body of the first sniper out of my way to get where I wanted to be. There were a few bolt casings on the ground near the body, and I grabbed two of them to put in my ears to dampen the noise.
My focus went back to the second gunner. Whoever he was, he wasn’t on this building, and he obviously hadn’t gotten the message that Rinaldo and I were now working together.
Where were the fucking feds?
I didn’t even want them showing up at this point—the Chicago police would be here soon enough, given the racket we were causing—but the feds should have been here long before now.
There was only one other building in the area suitable for a sniper– the one near the street where I had ditched the hot-wired pickup. Once I aimed my scope up there, I spotted him quickly. He was scanning the area, trying to figure out where I had gone.
“Sloppy work,” I mumbled as I carefully took aim. I drew in a deep breath, settled the crosshairs on the center of his forehead, breathed out, and pulled back on the trigger.
The blast shook my body, but the guy on the rooftop dropped to the ground, unmoving. I closed my eyes for a moment, tried to force my heart to stop pounding, and focused again on the main area of the rail yard.
Jenna was the first one I saw. She had a SIG in her hand and was aiming at the trailer of the truck. When I looked in that direction, I saw three of the girls who were part of the cargo trying to get out. The back door had broken open when the cab was hit, and they were trying to clamber out one by one.
Three sharp pops from Jenna’s weapon, and the girls dropped to the ground, unmoving.
“Bitch,” I growled as I took aim again. Another blast, and Jenna’s body dropped to the concrete. “You were a lousy fucking kisser anyway.”
Moving the scope to the left, I saw a tussle going on between Mario and Craig. Mario was on top, and definitely had the advantage, but Craig’s hand came up and bashed his skull with the butt end of a gun. Mario was stunned, and the next shot went through his chest and out his back, leaving a gaping hole.
Craig shoved Mario’s body off just in time to get a shot from my Barrett in the back of his head.
Gavino was running to his SUV. I tried to aim at him as he got to the vehicle, yanked the driver out of it in his panic, and got behind the wheel. Rinaldo was running up, firing multiple shots at his adversary, but they were bouncing off the bulletproof glass.
Not Barrett-proof, though.
As he slammed his foot down, the SUV lurched toward Rinaldo, causing my shot to go wide. My second shot was quick—I didn’t have enough time to aim properly before Gavino ran down Rinaldo—and didn’t hit the cab as I had intended but the back half of the SUV instead. It swerved, tipped onto its side, and smashed into the back side of the building, out of my view.
I grabbed the Barrett in one hand and the Russian rifle in the other. I ran for the edge of the buil
ding and the ladder, carefully balancing both weapons as I shimmied down. Moments later, I was on the ground again and running toward Rinaldo. Above the hum of the substation, I could hear sirens approaching.
The gunfire had stopped, but bodies were everywhere. From the gaping hole in the side of the trailer, caviar was pouring out all over the ground. There were still girls peering out of the back door, but none of them were daring to try to escape now.
Rinaldo was next to Gavino’s truck, but there was no Gavino in sight.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Took off,” Rinaldo replied. “I didn’t even see him.”