Read Reflexive Fire - 01 for Free Online

Standing in front of the would be killer, now laid out with a neck wound and gut shot, Deckard watched him gasping for breath, knowing from hard experience that it wouldn't be long.  Leveling the CZ, he delivered a mercy shot between the Colombian's eyes.  Approaching the third gunman behind the Nissan, he found him in a similar state and efficiently repeated the process.
       There was no satisfaction; it just was.
       Grabbing up two of the dead shooter's AKs, he slung one and carried the other, tucking the pistol back into his pants.
       “We're almost there,” he informed the others. 
       Picking it up to a steady trot but not fast enough to lose Pat as he carried his partner, Deckard moved the rest of the way downhill to the saddle.  Between the break in the cliff face was a small, barely recognizable foot path.  Turning as the Delta men arrived, Deckard spotted two more black SUVs racing up the road towards them from below, alerted to their presence by radio or gunfire, it didn't really matter.
       “Follow the path,” Deckard said, handing one of the AK's to Pat.  Sticking the 1911 in his pants, Pat accepted the rifle.  “You'll come out on a spur, just a single finger jutting off the side of the mountain.  Take this.”  Reaching into his pocket, he handed J-Rod a pen flare gun. 
       “Fire it when you get there.”
       “And you?”
       “The pilot should already be overhead somewhere.  I'm going to slow them down, but if I'm more than a minute or two, then get out of here.”
       “You sure?”
       “Yeah.”
       Having been gunslingers their entire adult lives, neither of the men were much for goodbyes.
       Shifting J-Rod's weight on his shoulders, Pat began stomping through the muddy trail, quickly disappearing into the foliage.  With the sound of his passage fading, Deckard took a knee behind the largest tree he could find.  At this altitude the forest didn't grow into the massive triple canopy normally found in the region, but it would have to do.
       The black SUVs continued to speed up the road towards the wasted checkpoint, unaware of Deckard's position in the underbrush.  Flipping the AK's selector down one notch, the former soldier shouldered the rifle with sweat running down his face and stinging his eyes.
       Initiating his ambush on the first truck, Deckard fired, the tinted driver's window exploded revealing a bloody corpse behind it.  Effectively driverless the truck sped out of control, careening off the road and smashing into the cliff.
       The stinging in his eyes forgotten, the burn across his forearm no longer registering, he shifted his grip on the rifle and took aim at the second vehicle as armed cartel members unpacked themselves from each door.
     
     

     
     
       Panting with exhaustion, Pat set his teammate down, trading him the AK for the pen flare gun.  He could hear the faint buzz of a helicopter and hoped it wasn't the Colombian gunship searching for them.
       They easily found the finger of dirt and rock that stretched out off the side the mountain.  There was just enough open ground for a small helicopter to hover in for a high angle pick up.  Screwing a flare into place, he pushed back the spring loaded firing mechanism and released it, firing the red flare up into the sky.
       Behind them the sounds of a full on gun battle raged alongside blast after blast of what sounded like grenades detonating in the distance.  J-Rod sat in the mud, angling himself back the way they had came from, silently pulling security until their ride arrived.  Another burst of gunfire echoed through the jungle.  Pat scanned the sky as he screwed another cartridge into place on the flare gun.
       Pat fired the second flare as the gunfire grew closer.
       J-Rod trained his sights on the path.
       The trees and brush swayed as a green colored civilian helicopter buzzed right by, the pilot giving them the once over with a curious frown and a