Chapter 70

After leaving Mitch's office, Tony ran toward the three men gathered in the control room. The four of them were all that remained of the once mighty, mercenary army. When he arrived, puffing and panting, he stabbed his stubby index finger at the tallest man in the group. "Listen up, jackasses. Boss man made me Head of Security. You all do what I say from now on."

The imposing black man shook his head. "No way the boss man would put the midget in charge. I'm gonna have to have a talk with him."

"f$%k you, you ain't going anywhere." Tony leveled his M-16 at the man's head. "Chin-Hae's gone; we all saw him die. Now, we do this my way and we all get promoted. Best of all, we ain't got to split the reward with those other losers, cause they're all dead. You with me, jerk-offs?" Reluctantly, the three men nodded their heads.

"Okay, first things first. Lower the blast doors. I wanna funnel them into the tunnel. See, we're gonna set up a nasty surprise," Tony said as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "You, jumbo." He pointed at the man who had defied him earlier. "Grab some sandbags and set up a position in the middle of the main tunnel."

The man shot him a look of disgust, but rushed off to comply. The men were trained to follow orders, no matter how much they disliked the person in charge. Max had seen to that.

Like most despots, Tony was feeling invincible. "You, section eight boy." He pointed to a former Army sniper from Kansas. "Grab the M-60 and an RPG out of the weapons locker. You're gonna be the gunner. Meet up with Jumbo and set up a machine gun nest. Got it?" The man nodded and rushed off to gather the weapons.

"I guess you're with me, princess." Tony motioned for the remaining man to follow him. They would stay in the relative safety of the operations center, monitoring the fight on the security system. If the attackers somehow made it past the two men in the machine gun nest, Tony would be able to track their every move and set up an ambush.

The armored vehicle was the only chance the attackers had for making it through Tony's trap. But it was too big to fit into the narrow hallways that snaked through the mountain fortress. They would eventually have to get out and fight on foot. That fight would be Tony's to win. He knew every square inch of the complex and would easily be able to lure them to their death.

In the operations center, Tony called up several views from the security system and waited for the beautiful girl standing outside to make her move. In preparation for her attack, Tony slammed his fist down on the button that lowered the steel blast doors, savoring the opening moments of the first fight where he was in command.

On the monitor, Tony could see that she was in the middle of a conversation. "That's women for you, huh?" Tony laughed. "Can't stay off the damn phone. Am I right or am I right. She's about to go into battle, and she's got to make a phone call!" The other man shook his head, disgusted that he had to take orders from Tony.