Glaring over at Sig, I ripped my knife over the guard’s throat. Dark blood poured down over his neck and soaked into the sand. I waited, palm over his mouth, holding him down as his struggles turned to twitches and eventually stilled altogether.
We dragged his lifeless body behind the building and left him there. There was about to be too much chaos happening for anyone to have a chance to find him. I kicked sand over the bloodstains and we continued around the building.
Waiting at the corner that would bring us to the entrance, I watched warily as two figures rounded the opposite corner. “Let’s go,” I whispered to Sig. We met up with Rafe and Colby at the door.
“That was too easy,” Rafe muttered.
“Are you saying that because you’re disgusted at their lack of competence, or because you think this is some kind of ambush?” I asked, worry causing the skin at the nape of my neck to prickle.
“Disgusted,” he said, and spat out past the group. “Roj needs to hire better men.”
“No, because then we’d have to fight better men,” Sig pointed out.
“He doesn’t need better,” Colby piped up. “Because he has more. His men’s training can be inferior when they outnumber their enemy five to one. It’s how they’ve managed to overrun our smaller squads. That and the bombs. They can’t take on the full force of the U.S. Army, but they can ambush us when the timing suits them.”
She was right, and right now we were outnumbered ten to one. Picking and choosing the most vulnerable time for our enemy meant the likelihood of success increased. At least in theory.
“We should go before we’re discovered,” I told them.
Rafe nodded and slowly opened the door. He poked his head through before calling over his shoulder in a low voice, “Clear.”
We slipped inside like ghosts, passing through the quiet hallway. Colby followed behind Rafe, me and Sig behind her.
“There’s a security room up on the right,” Rafe whispered.
“Why didn’t they see us coming?” Colby asked in confusion.
Rafe paused at the door and motioned for us to look. The man at the console was tipped back on the two back legs of his chair, asleep. “Like I said, too easy.”
“I, for one, am grateful,” Colby whispered back. She studied the room then shook her head. We moved down the hall a few more feet before she asked. “How far are the support beams?”
“Stairs are just around the corner,” Rafe said in a hushed voice. “Then it’s a straight shot from there.”
She nodded and we moved slowly down the hall. Most of the men were behind the doors we were passing, sleeping. There were bound to be people awake in the building, though. At some point someone would stumble out to take a piss. We couldn’t afford to be discovered before we set the bombs.
Rafe led the way, while Sig and I kept a close eye on the hall behind us. Someone spotting us now would be a death sentence. We’d be trapped in this building, with more men between us and the door than we could handle.