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The Company
Time: November 1, 2009 (12:00).
Place: Grandfather's island, south of mainland Greece.
Last Event: Blasting Grandfather's elite bodyguards.
The smoke from the hand grenades and RPG-7 soon clears, but the air is still thick with dust. Through this, the Agents can see that the basement corridor is in a sorry state. Where the explosives went off, the floor is a small crater, the walls are splattered with gore, and most of the nearby doors have burst. A sprinkler system is hissing away overhead, attempting to extinguish burning rubble – but in many places, water is simply pouring out of ruptured pipes and running into bloody, dirty puddles.
The group wastes no time moving out. Lev and Wen take point, followed by Klas and Anabel, and then Jili and Iannis (the Greek policeman). Behind them, Ben and Zhang frog-march Grandfather, who's zip-cuffed and gagged with duct tape, while Hamid helps Olga along. Qoqa, Vinnie, and JB bring up the rear in a small wedge. The only delay is a few seconds to fetch a fresh RPG-7 for Wen and some extra grenades for Vinnie.
Wen uses her GP-25 to blast away the snarled remains of the heavy exit door. Then everybody moves through the rubble and upstairs. At the top, Vinnie pauses briefly to push the upper door closed, prop it shut (he shot off the lock earlier!), and booby-trap it with a hand grenade . . . just in case anybody left in the basement decides to give chase.
While Vinnie works, Anabel asks Olga where she saw the diamonds that got her into so much trouble. Anabel suspects that wherever there are piles of valuables, there are likely to be other items of interest. The girl explains that the gems were in Grandfather's bedroom. She claims that she can show her rescuers the way.
With Wen and Lev still in the lead, everybody makes their way toward the impressive central staircase. Wen gets the drop on two guards there, whom she simply guns down with her AK-103. Anabel grabs a radio headset off one of them, but can't make out anything resembling coordinated instructions . . . the babble of voices she hears suggests chaos. Olga indicates that Grandfather's suite is upstairs.
As Lev and Wen reach the first landing and head toward the second, some sort of heavy machine gun opens up, blowing divots out of the floor at the top of the stairs. The large-caliber bullets penetrate the masonry and narrowly miss the Agents. Lev lobs a hand grenade toward where he thinks the weapon must be located. There's an explosion and then the MG falls silent. When he and Wen charge upstairs, they find two wounded thugs sprawled on the floor next to a Cold War-era vehicular cannon that's propped up on a barricade of furniture.
At this stage, Olga faints – likely due to the stress of grenades, machine guns, and general near-misses with death. Qoqa manages to revive her and get her to point the way, but it's clear that the girl isn't up for much more of this. When Lev and Wen shout that the upper hall is clear, the other Agents move up as swiftly as they can with the bound Grandfather, staggering Iannis, and dazed Olga. On her captured radio, Anabel hears somebody warn that "they" are going upstairs.
Asked by Qoqa to show the way, Olga points to an ornate door at the end of a hall: "Grandfather's rooms." Wen simply obliterates the door with her grenade launcher. The blast leaves Anabel's ears ringing, but she thinks she might have heard voices in there. At any rate, it's a safe assumption that if there are millions of Euros in diamonds in the area, somebody is either on guard or hastily pilfering the loot.
With the others watching the rear (and Grandfather), Lev, Wen, Klas, and Anabel carefully advance on the blasted doorway. Lev would like to chuck in hand grenades, but the possible presence of valuable evidence precludes this. Instead, he and Wen defuse a pair of grenades and hurl the duds through the door. In Russian, Anabel yells, "Fire in the hole!" As she does, Wen and Lev charge into the room.
The grenade ploy seems successful. Nobody shoots at Lev and Wen as they burst in. If there are guards here, then they've taken cover. Wen and Lev see no signs of anybody lurking behind the furniture, so they signal to Klas and Anabel. As the second pair moves in from the corridor, Wen and Lev approach the doorways on either side of the room.
Wen reaches her objective first. She peeks around the edge of the doorway, rifle at the ready. Staring back at her is a thug with an AKS-74U! They fire simultaneously, chewing up the doorframe. Wen feels a couple of rounds hit her body armor, and retreats back to concealment. Anabel and Klas move past her and open fire. Anabel finishes Wen's opponent, while Klas spots a man lurking behind a fancy chair and shoots him through the furniture.
Lev, meanwhile, ends up in a small bathroom, where another of the Russians fled to take cover from the hand grenades. The man doesn't really stand a chance . . . He fires at Lev, but Lev is upright and moving quickly, and chops him up with a couple of bursts from his SR-2.
When the gunfire stops, the suite is secured. Most of the mobsters are down, and the least-wounded of them has surrendered to Anabel. Wen's injuries prove to be nothing worse than a little blunt trauma – her rival's ultra-compact AK lacked the power to punch through her vest. Klas' victim looks to be somebody important, if the expensive suit and custom handgun are anything to go by. Lev radios for the group in the hall to move in.
Knowing that yet more mob soldiers are probably headed their way, everybody gets to work. Hamid, Jili, and Vinnie ransack the place; the electronics experts search for cell phones, computers, thumb drives, and so on, while Vinnie looks for a concealed safe. Zhang restrains Anabel's prisoner and puts him in zip-cuffs, even as Anabel interrogates the man. Qoqa examines Wen's injuries and applies some hasty first aid. Klas and Lev watch the door to the hallway. Ben and JB keep an eye on Grandfather.
Anabel gets the location of a wall safe out of her prisoner, and informs her associates. The safe proves to be small but solid, with an old-fashioned mechanical lock. Vinnie proclaims that the only way to open it quickly is using explosives. He believes that he can improvise with hand grenades, and asks the others to leave the room . . . just in case. Seconds later, there's a muffled blast. When Vinnie calls everybody back in, the safe is open. The Agents simply scoop everything into a pillowcase – now isn't the time to sort it out.
By now, Lev and Qoqa have taken radios off defeated thugs, and all three Russian-speaking Agents can hear the chatter of Grandfather's guards. There's still no clear sign of leadership or organization, but Lev fears that there will be a trap waiting downstairs. Wen decides to check out whether the balcony is a viable exit. Crawling out and peering over the edge, she sees a man with a rifle covering the windows of Grandfather's suite. She pops up, shoots him, and yells, "Clear!"
Vinnie, realizing that an upper-story exit is only useful with a safe descent, formulates a plan. He yanks down the heavy ceiling-to-floor curtains, knots one end to the balcony rail, and tosses the other end over the edge. Wen and Zhang catch on, and shinny down to ground level, where they pull the loose curtain taut to create a makeshift escape chute. Klas and Lev follow, Vinnie rolls Grandfather down to them, and then everybody else slides to ground level one at a time.
It's soon evident that most of the guards on the grounds have been called away to fight the raging fire over by the helipad. Peering through sniper scopes, Klas and Wen can see that the area is clear of armed opposition. However, to reach the docks in order to find a way off the island, the Agents will need some sort of vehicle, as there's no way to move quickly with Grandfather, Iannis, and Olga. Fortunately, the men fighting the fire hauled their equipment in an old Soviet-built army truck that would do the trick.
Vinnie volunteers to go steal the truck. Lev goes with him for backup, and Klas and Wen cover them from afar with their sniper rifles. The others keep their heads down and make sure that Grandfather isn't going anywhere. All the precautions are unnecessary, however. With a massive fuel fire burning next to a hangar full of multi-million-Euro aircraft, the island's denizens aren't concerned about an old truck – in fact, the keys are still in the ignition! Vinnie slips in and makes off with it unchallenged; Lev hops in the back as Vinnie rolls past.
A few minutes later, everybody is in the truck. In the cab, Vinnie is behind the wheel, Lev is seated on the passenger side with his SMG pointed out the window, and Anabel is between them. Klas scrambles up into some sort of skeletal ring mount above the cab; there's no weapon mounted, so he takes the RPG-7 with him. The others pile into the back, with Wen lying prone nearest the exit, covering the rear with her sniper rifle.
Vinnie heads for the docks. At first, he drives casually, hoping not to attract too much attention . . . but then Anabel reports that voices on the radio are shouting, "They have our truck!" Ahead, Vinnie sees a group of armed men mounting a truck of their own. He thumps on the roof, and Klas fires the RPG-7. His shot isn't the best ever, but it sets the other vehicle aflame and sends its occupants running. Vinnie accelerates and bears down on them, while Lev rakes them with SMG fire; demoralized, they simply scatter.
Vinnie then speeds down the hill toward the water, while Klas and Lev reload. On the radio, Anabel hears another message; this time, it's something about stopping the truck at a guard post. She switches radios and warns the others. Klas sees a small structure, perhaps 75m ahead, swarming with men. He guesses that it's probably the checkpoint in question, and blasts it with the RPG-7. The others get ready to shoot at anyone who survives the explosion.
As Vinnie races past the guard post, there's some automatic weapons fire. Stray bullets and bits of shot-away truck injure JB, Lev, and Zhang . . . and Grandfather. Lev and Zhang's injuries are trivial – nothing but incidental cuts. Grandfather and JB, however, are both hit in the leg. Neither will be able to walk without help, and Grandfather actually passes out from his wounds. The Agents return fire with everything they have, and Qoqa hurls hand grenades out the back of the truck as it pulls away.
Vinnie focuses on keeping the shot-up truck under control. Soon, the docks are in sight. He sees a couple of armed men on the pier but doesn't slow down. When the gangsters realize that he means to drive out onto the pier and run them over, they dive in the water! As soon as they do, Vinnie brakes, causing the wobbly truck to spin and come to a stop across the pier.
The instant the truck stops, everybody who's still mobile jumps out. Zhang and Ben drag Grandfather, while Hamid helps Olga, Jili assists Iannis, and Qoqa supports JB. Vinnie hurls the keys to the truck into the water and runs for the largest of the many boats moored nearby. Anabel, Klas, Lev, and Wen take the group's remaining hand grenades, pull the pins, and toss them into all the other watercraft – nobody will be using those anytime soon!
While Anabel, Klas, Lev, and Wen unleash bursts of automatic fire to deter any remaining pursuers and encourage the thugs in the water to keep swimming, the others board the vessel that Vinnie selected. Vinnie tampers with the ignition and gets the engines started. As soon as he does, the other four head for the boat, cast off the lines, and jump aboard. Vinnie guns the engine and heads out to sea.
With the island in flames and chaos behind them, Iannis thumps Vinnie on the back and cheers. Vinnie tells him that the plan is to capture Grandfather's approaching yacht, wait for the Greek authorities to arrive, and then send him back on the launch with Grandfather, Olga, and most of the evidence from the safe, so that he can take credit for the bust. Iannis seems happy with this plan. He says that he knows that Vinnie and friends are undercover Russian cops, but he'll tell his associates in Greek law-enforcement that they were Turkish gangsters, and simply not mention the yacht.
To be continued . . .