Operation Chaos by Richter Watkins Page A

started. She saw men coming down from their hidden perches on old cargo racks.
    Mora went from body to body to see if any of the four Blacksnake members had survived. None had.
    Landra lay on the floor some fifteen yards away.
    There was only one wounded among the men who were protecting her, and his wound turned out to be superficial. Mora took out his medical kit and bandaged him. It was so much like a combat zone.
    The four Blacksnake men with Landra were also dead.
    She heard gunfire somewhere outside the building, and overhead she heard the sound of the chopper dwindling as it pulled away.
    Were Metzler’s men trying to shoot the chopper down?
    Duran had his finger on his earpiece, then said, “Doc, follow me. You’re going to meet Metzler. Then I think we’re going to get out of Dodge before they get more teams in and we get into a real war.”
    “What about Keegan?” she asked.
    “He’ll have to come with us.”
    “Where?”
    “Downriver. Problem is, we’ve all had our tracker chips removed. He hasn’t, and that’s why the Blacksnake team got here as fast as they did.”
    They left the building, went a short distance down the alley, then stopped as two men grabbed a slab of cardboard leaning against a wall of an adjacent building. They pulled back the cardboard and there was a hole in the wall.
    She followed Duran inside. She heard some conversations ahead. Metal doors open and shut. Then, as they moved forward, they were in low lights, and then through another door and down into a tunnel.
    She saw rooms, little underground dorms, women as well as men sitting on boxes, chairs, talking, their rooms lit by small lamps. And they had plenty of guns. This was looking like the underground vet headquarters.
    They moved on toward a larger opening.
    “Wait here,” Duran said, nodding to Mora to stay with her. Duran went on ahead.
    Rainee turned to Mora. “Don’t the authorities know about this?”
    “They surely do. Which is why they don’t come anywhere around this area. They know it’s here and don’t want any part of getting into a battle with vets. That wouldn’t look good on any level.”
    Rainee had long heard the rumors that former gangs in cities like L.A. had been recruited into something that was referred to as a super gang run by former soldiers. Now she was seeing the reality. One of those scary realities people didn’t like to think about with all the other troubles in the world.
    It was a few minutes before Duran returned, behind him came two men, both in green T-shirts and jeans, both carrying submachine guns over their shoulders and pistols in their belts.
    Duran said, “You’re going to meet the man.” He said it with near worshipful admiration.
    She and Mora followed Duran past the guards and into what looked like an underground war room with a bank of computers manned by three men.
    She saw Keegan talking to a guy who had his back to her, but she knew it was the former patient they’d come to deal with.
    Metzler, almost as tall as Keegan, bald, intense, wearing khakis and a loose tan shirt. He looked over at her for a moment, nodded, and then went back to his intense discussion with Keegan.
    Metzler was another of her favorites. He had undergone procedures after suffering his injuries from a raid in Northern Africa, a place she thought he’d returned to when he left her program.
    Duran, keeping his voice at a near whisper, said “Keegan’s in a tough spot.”
    “Metzler?”
    “No. The death of the Blacksnake leader and his men leaves him hanging in the wind. There’s no going back for Keegan no matter what he thinks.”
    “What does he think?”
    “He’s still arguing about some sort of negotiation. Thing is, the guys way up top aren’t exactly negotiators. Especially in this situation.”
    “Metzler’s not buying it, I assume.”
    “No. Metzler is the man. He runs everything around here. But he knows that you’re leverage.”
    “How so?”
    “They want you at the