The Ghost and the Phoenix

Part Seven

Mel lay on the ground, struggling to breathe, clawing at the hands around her throat. Her vision began to blur around the edges when the man holding her down was suddenly dragged away.

She watched Ghost drive his knife upwards into the man's jaw almost removing his head in the process. Ghost kicked the body away, pulling the knife out as it fell, sheathing it in the two strides it took him to get to her.

'Are you okay?' kneeling beside her, Ghost gently inspected the laceration to her head where the man had hit her with his rifle. 'This is gonna need stitches.'

'Jackson.' Mel croaked out, holding her throat as she tried to locate him.

'He's fine.' Soap called out from where Jackson lay. 'He's just having a nap.'

Ghost helped Mel as she rose unsteadily to her feet, holding her lightly around her waist while she slowly regained her balance.

Mel looked over at Jackson, who was being helped up by Soap, before turning her attention to the garage.

'Can anyone else hear that?' she asked.

The men stopped moving, listening intently. A soft beeping could be heard coming from one of the lockers against the wall.

Cautiously, Ghost and Soap made their way over and carefully opened the locker door. A box packed with C4 sat on the shelf, a digital timer counting down the seconds. 60...59....58...

'You're up Johnny.'

50...49...48...

'We need to go.' Soap said moving away from the locker. 'There's a secondary trigger and I don't have enough time to..'

Mel ducked between them and grabbed the box. Spinning around she ran to the small truck parked in front of the open garage door.

40....39....38....

She placed the box in the passenger seat, climbed over to the driver's seat and started the engine.

Ghost reefed the door open and tried to pull her from cab, but she freed herself from his grip and pointed behind him.

'Get that toolbox!' she demanded. 'Hurry!'

34.....33.....32....

Soap rushed forward, scooping up the toolbox. He pushed Ghost out of the way, handing it to Mel who threw the truck into gear and wedged the toolbox onto the gas pedal, making the engine roar and tyres squeal as she steered it away from garage.

27....26...25...

Ghost held his breath as the truck lumbered along the path picking up speed with Mel still inside.

20....19...18...

He saw her climb out of the window, hesitating for a second before jumping from the cab as the truck began it's decent downhill. To Ghost's relief, she got up slowly, staggering a little before she found her balance enough to run back to the team.

'You've got balls lass.' Soap told her as she re-joined them. Her reply was cut short by the explosion, the sound reverberating around the buildings, a huge fireball lighting up the sky.

'We need to get out of here.' Mel told them, trying to catch her breath. 'They knew we were coming.'

'What do you mean.' Jackson asked.

'We're here to destroy their ammunition cache, but look around. The only ammo is what we brought with us.' she told him.

'Security was unusually light. Only four men.' Soap agreed.