Snipers on the left, rockets on the right, and a MK46 light machine gun in front. To the uninitiated, this is the streets of Manhattan, but to the uninitiated, it might as well be Gaza.
This stalemate can't continue. Even though the police helicopter hovered low overhead, it was useless right now, unless Jack could fly up with a sniper rifle.
The ESU officers ahead had suffered heavy casualties, nearly a third down. The front was precarious. The immediate concern wasn't how to eliminate all the criminals, but getting the NYPD officers to retreat and regroup.
The two Dolanger Tahoes were already being riddled with hornets' nests. Even without a second rocket, the officers wouldn't have been able to hold out for much longer.
But the enemy clearly couldn't have prepared just one rocket.
"Da da da!"
Jack, keeping his eye on the apartment window where the rocket had just been fired, saw the enemy reappear with a rocket launcher. He pulled the trigger and unleashed a three-round burst, sending the militant reeling.
The launcher, originally aimed downward at the ESU officers, lifted upward, sending rockets hurtling skyward.
A long trail streaked across the sky, narrowly missing a low-flying, circling police helicopter. The startled pilot, in a panic, jerked the control stick, nearly crashing into a nearby building.
"Bang!" A bullet pierced the asphalt in front of Jack, stirring up a cloud of dust. He barely blinked.
"Ten minutes, fifth floor, behind the blue curtains," Aubrey shouted. His marksmanship wasn't as good as Jubal's, but his vision was quite good.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
He was answered by the muffled roar of a Barrett sniper rifle. Clay, who had just ascended, fired several rounds directly through the stairwell window.
"Cleared!" Clay's reply in the squad chat was terse and clear.
.50 caliber was unpredictable. Its high-caliber armor-piercing rounds pierced through walls and killed the enemy
.
Now with the advantage on their side, Jack ordered without hesitation, "Take out the guy with the machine gun!"
But before Clay could fire, Hannah's cry of alarm filled the squad chat, "Watch out for the drone!"
Before she could finish her words, a dark, almost invisible figure swooped overhead, followed by an explosion from the apartment building to the right.
Black smoke billowed from the exterior of the building Clay had just entered, and large chunks of plaster and shattered bricks fell to the sidewalk.
"Clay?" Jack's heart tightened. He was about to stand and run across the street to the apartment building when another bullet ripped a hole through the hood of the car behind him.
"There's another sniper to the right!" Aubrey shouted. "Damn it, I can't see him from here."
The situation took a turn for the worse. This was their first encounter with an enemy equipped with a drone, and a self-destructing drone capable of reaching speeds exceeding 200 kilometers per hour.
Fortunately, Clay's voice soon returned to the team chat, bringing a sigh of relief to everyone. "Ahem, ahem, I'm fine. My gun's broken."
"Who exactly are we facing?" Jiejie, who was guarding the rear with Alice, asked in horror.
"Professional mercenaries." Clay's breath was heard over the chat, sounding somewhat injured. "That shuttle was originally heading for those ESUs."
He'd essentially shielded the NYPD SWAT officers from disaster, but the moment he launched his attack, they deemed him their primary threat.
"Tell the NYPD helicopter to leave low altitude. We need to find a way to get the others out of the open area," Jack told Jubal.
Jubal had been hiding behind the Suboban they'd brought in, using the car radio to relay the situation. The police helicopter, which had been planning to return to low altitude, received a warning from the FBI and raised its altitude again.
"I'll deal with the other sniper,"
Hannah, following behind Jack, gritted her teeth and rushed toward a nearby commercial building. It was a risky decision, as the building was made entirely of large glass curtain walls.
She was using the same HK417 as Jack, but at this point, their engagement range was only a hundred or two hundred meters. A good vantage point would also allow them to deal with the sniper, though it would be more dangerous than Clay's previous position facing the self-destructing shuttle.
"Bring the Suboban over here. We need its equipment, and we can use the hull for cover." Jack's eyes swiveled, and he came up with a risky strategy.
The opposing lanes of the decrepit four-lane road were nearly empty. Aside from the unfortunate Civic struck by the armored vehicle, all other passing vehicles had already fled.
In most of Manhattan, however, curbside parking is permitted. Jack was currently hiding in front of an SUV on the left curb.
The armored vehicle, with its damaged front end, and the Civic blocked the middle lane of the left-hand lane, but the bulletproof Suburban's power could easily push the Civic out of the way. The
Most Wanted Squad had just incurred a wave of indignation, and now both the operator of the destructive drone and the sniper on the right building were focused on the rear of the convoy.
But if the FBI didn't do something, let the destructive drone fire at the ESU ahead, and the sniper followed up with follow-up fire, the NYPD might be wiped out.
In the previous clash with the flat-head truck, Jack's Yukon was severely damaged, but Clay's Suburban only sustained damage to the rear.
At Jack's command, Jubal climbed into the car from the passenger side, started the Suboban, and began to turn. This action immediately attracted the sniper's attention, and he fired several rounds into the Suboban's windshield.
Unfortunately, he wasn't armed with an anti-material sniper rifle like a Barrett, and ordinary rifle bullets bounced off the high-quality bulletproof glass, leaving only scattered white spots on it.
"Next." Aubrey, who had taken the opportunity to get into the Suboban during the turn, opened the other door and threw a Benelli M4 shotgun at Jack.
The ominous humming sound echoed again. Jack, taking the shotgun, immediately pulled the bolt and loaded it, repeatedly pulling the trigger at the small black dot that traced an eerie arc in the air. The
high-speed self-destruct aircraft instantly lost its balance in the air and, driven by inertia, crashed headfirst into a street-side bakery. After a loud explosion, shattered glass, along with coffee and donuts, rushed to freedom.
The Suburban turned around and began to slowly retreat. A few more crisp gunshots were heard, and Jubal, who was driving, was splashed in the face with broken glass.
There were also a few more white spots on the glass of his left window, but in a short time, the sniper was still helpless against the fully bulletproof Suburban.
"Give me a smoke bomb." Clay, who had retreated from the right apartment, rolled to the front of the Suburban, holding his still bleeding left arm and shouting.
"Looking for it!" Aubrey was sitting on the back seat of the Suburban with his butt sticking out, pulling equipment out of the trunk. Although he knew the car was bulletproof, the clanging sound of bullets hitting the car body still made him shrink his neck from time to time.
(End of this chapter)