SEAL Team 666: A Novel

In the end, they decided to conduct a frontal assault. The power would be cut and they’d move in quick. They synced watches, then donned the NVGs. Ten seconds later, the power was out and SEAL Team 666 and Surrey spun up the green universe. They had about fifteen seconds before the backup generator kicked in.

Yaya was the first one down the stairs, with the rest of the team stacked behind him. The stairway opened directly into a large rectangular room filled with furniture and people. As soon as his aiming laser touched a Triad member, he let free two-round bursts. PopPop! PopPop! PopPop! PopPop! Four men went down hard.

Now in the room, the rest of the team fanned out behind him.

Laws’s MP5 snapped, the sound like rapid-fire dog barks.

Walker tracked the action, but held fire, just as Surrey did.

Ruiz’s Super 90 roared once.

When the lights snapped back on, they pushed the NVGs back on their heads.

One Triad enforcer was trying to get to his feet. Surrey shot him in the leg. Walker shot him in the head. When she looked questioningly at him, he said, “We’re not here to arrest anyone.”

She turned back toward the room, her face even more serious than it was before.

Eight enforcers lay dead on the floor. Several sets of tables took up the middle of the room. Couches hugged the walls, where posters of fancy cars were taped. Toward the rear of the room was a kitchenette with a microwave and a full-sized refrigerator. A steel door was in the back wall.

“Damn,” Yaya said, straightening up. “I guess there goes the element of surprise.”

Agent Stephens came down the stairs wearing his FBI jacket, three-hundred-dollar loafers, and wool pants. He had the clean features of a football player, a frat boy, or a serial killer. He wore yellow ballistic glasses. Behind him came the ICE agents in their own jackets. They went straight to the bodies and began checking for pulses.

Laws merely glanced at him before asking Ruiz, “Got something for that door?” He snapped a new clip into his submachine gun.

Ruiz cocked his head. “Not for the door—too thick—but look at what it’s set in.”

“That can’t be drywall. Are they that stupid?”

“I’ve seen it before.”

“Could be reinforced with MDF. They would almost have to in order to hold the weight of the steel.”

“So can we go through the wall?”

“I can do that,” Ruiz said.

Agent Stephens looked from one SEAL to the other. “Any word on how many we’re facing?”

Laws shook his head. “Nada.”

Agent Stephens shifted his expensive loafers. “I’m used to having more information.”

“I feel your pain,” Laws said. “This is more of a military op, but posse comitatus says you get to be here and supervise.”

“Is that what you call my participation?” Agent Stephens laughed. “I just don’t want to get in your way.”

“Me neither,” Laws admitted matter-of-factly. “Just follow our lead. We’re going to do this the right way and take our time. We’ve already lost the element of surprise, so it’s not like they don’t know we’re here.”

Agent Stephens checked the chamber of his pistol and nodded.

“Right now, our Snakehead friends and their associates from the Temple of Heaven Importers don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what happened to these guys. They just heard some gunshots. Even though they know someone is here, they don’t know who, so we still hold an element of surprise.”

“Are we sure anyone else is behind that door?” Agent Stephens asked.

“This is a Snakehead safe house. They’re the preeminent human smugglers on the planet and have been doing it longer than America’s been a country. You can tell by looking at it. Triad soldiers guarding it, here to protect the interests of whoever set this up. Behind that door is the rest of the safe house, which should be filled with either illegals or people they’re moving into the U.S.”

The ICE agents joined their group.

“Find any pocket trash?” Laws asked.

“Nothing specific. They were pretty sterile,” said one.

“They were from Chinatown. San Francisco,” the other ICE agent said. “Tattoos identified them as Temple of Heaven forty-niners. We’re definitely on the right track.”

Laws nodded toward the door. “Ruiz, you good?”

Ruiz had been busy attaching det cord in an upside-down L shape. What looked like a cooking timer was affixed to the wall beside it.

“How far below the surface are we?” Walker asked.

“About fifteen feet,” Yaya answered.

“See how the floor slopes towards the door?” he said, pointing out a pool of blood that seemed to be sliding away from one of the bodies.

“What about it?”

“I’m wondering how deep this might go. I doubt the GPR can see more than ten or fifteen feet into the ground. They might have a way out.”

Walker glanced at the blood and watched as it slid with gravity. “Good catch. Be ready then.”

“This could be an old pirate hideout,” Surrey said, walking up to them as she adjusted her body armor. It was more than snug around her waist and bosom and seemed to be cutting off circulation.

“As in sunken treasure?” Ruiz asked.