Reflexive Fire - 01 by Jack Murphy Page B

the corporate server.
       Retrieving the USB drive and closing out of the system, he began installing eavesdropping devices around the offices.  Wireless cameras went into the light fixtures, which would draw electricity from the existing power lines.  The fiber optic cameras were simple but effective.  Letting himself into the executive offices, he planted several wireless listening devices in desks and briefcases left laying around.
       Heading back into the main offices, Deckard used his Leatherman multitool to unscrew one of the electrical outlets to install another fiber optic camera, which would look out through the socket panel.  He wanted audio and video of everyone who worked at or visited the offices.  The camera went in easy enough, but Deckard found himself cursing under his breath as a piece of sheet rock fell away when he tried to screw the panel back on.
       Finding the nearest bathroom, he began looking underneath the sink for something to repair the damage he had done to the wall.  Behind a bottle of bleach was someone's half-used tube of toothpaste.  Grabbing it and a handful of toilet paper, he mixed the two together, mashing it up into a paste.
       Using a wad of the paste, he was able to stick the piece of sheet rock back into place.  Checking over his work with the red light he was convinced the damage would go unnoticed to the casual observer.
       The outlet panel was almost completely screwed back on, when Deckard heard the office door abruptly open and the lobby fill with laughter.  Cursing a second time, he gave the multitool a final twist and crouched behind a desk as the door to the offices was opened and the lights flipped on.
       Now he could hear both a man and a woman's voice.
       Great.
       The two continued to giggle to themselves as they stomped around the office on heavy feet, obviously drunk.  The Samruk executive had probably picked the girl up at a bar somewhere and brought her to the office because he was married.
       Peering from behind the desk, Deckard saw the drunken couple engulfed in each other.  A moment later the rhythmic slapping of skin on skin began that had the former soldier rolling his eyes.       
       Why did this sort of shit always happen to him?
       He waited to make sure they were fully distracted before making his move.  It had to be now or never because it didn't sound like the executive was going to last much longer.  On the balls of his feet, Deckard crept to the office door and slipped out before his ears began to bleed.
     

Seven
      
    Camouflage clad soldiers had been scurrying all over the compound since well before dawn.  A detail of men had been woken up and sent down to the airfield in Astana in the early morning before the aircraft arrived and were now beginning to trickle back in on several deuce and a half trucks acquired on the local market. 
       Deckard observed the scene for a moment before moving on.  His second in command, Djokovic, was supervising the equipment breakdown and the issue to the troops.  After signing for the pallets and moving them into the warehouse, the platoon that had been detailed began breaking down the shipping containers.
       Cracking open the metal frame door, he watched another platoon literally running back from the range.  A massive front was moving in from the west.  A Central Asian sandstorm that would literally turn broad daylight into a bizarre kind of twilight.  In their hands were the brand new AK-103 rifles that they had been out zeroing and grouping with until the sandstorm moved in.
       The AK-103 was chambered for the same 7.62x39 round as its predecessor but included a folding stock, flash suppressor, and had the wooden furniture replaced with a composite plastic.  The fore grip heat guard was also replaced with a rail system, and rifles would soon be fitted with the holographic reflex sights that had arrived.
       Deckard made a mental note to get a field