Viper: A Thriller Read Online Free Page A

coming from the camp some thirty meters
away.
    Then he heard
twigs snap from behind the fallen tree, and something splashed against the mud.
Before Avery’s mind could process the sounds, a muzzle flash lit up over the
side of the driftwood, and there was the familiar report of an M16 with a
selector switch at three-round burst. The barrel shifted several degrees to the
right and lit up again, releasing another burst. Avery ducked into a half
crouch and reeled back behind the nearest tree for cover. The incoming rounds
chewed through the leaves of hanging branches three feet to his left, near
where he’d just been standing.
    Avery swung his rifle
around his tree and fired multiple shots back at the muzzle flash when it lit up
again, forcing Moreno to ease off the trigger and drop back. Then Avery covered
another meter, taking wide steps, unconcerned with concealing his approach now,
and he swiftly sidestepped to the left behind another tree, this one covered
with termites, as Moreno popped up once more and returned fire. Avery heard the
shots bore into the tree trunk he used for cover, and then he came around left
and fired another burst.
    Tree bark
exploded in Moreno’s face, and he took cover once more.  
    Avery took a few
more steps with his eyes locked onto another tree and quickly took cover behind
this one. Here, he dropped onto one knee and looked ahead, but he still wasn’t
able to see directly behind the driftwood. There was a slight gap between the
bottom of the overturned tree and the jungle floor, but the space was too dark
and shallow to see Moreno through it.
    So Avery
concentrated his eyes on the forest floor, concealed beneath shrubs and plants,
further behind the tree. About four feet beyond the overturned tree, the brush shuddered.
    Avery’s eyes
shifted to the movement in time to see the sole of a boot slip between the
bushes and the low hanging branches. He raised his aim and fired four quick shots
through the flora. At least one made contact. Avery saw a leg kick out of the
plants, and then it was dragged forward through the forest floor.
    Avery sprung
ahead, keeping his rifle trained on the growth. When he came within two meters,
Moreno rolled out of the brush onto his back, with his M16 pointed up and
angled toward the American now towering above him. Moreno grimaced, but he was
oblivious to the blood pouring into the mud from the back of his left thigh
where Avery’s 5.56mm had punctured the meat of his quadriceps, and he was oblivious
to the millipedes and army ants on him. He was intent on nothing but acquiring
Avery in his sights.
    But Avery,
anticipating the attack, and not physically impeded, moved faster. Without
aiming, he triggered three shots into Moreno’s chest and throat. Moreno’s body
convulsed, then his head fell back and his arms went limp and his hands dropped
the M16. He wheezed and gasped and withered on the ground for a couple seconds,
then became completely still. His eyes stared up at the treetops without
seeing.
    Keeping his M4 on
Moreno, Avery took five more steps forward, slipping one leg and then the other
over the top of the overturned tree. He kicked the rifle out of the dead man’s
hands and did a full three-sixty sweep around him.
    “ Suelta
el arma, y se identifique !”
    The voice called
out somewhere behind Avery.
    Drop your weapon
and identify yourself.
    Avery stood
completely still and held hands held out to the side. He identified himself by
his call sign, Carnivore, the name the Colombian troops would know him by.
    It had to be
Aguilar’s men—FARC would have just shot him—but Avery’s body still tensed,
would stay that way until he was sure someone wasn’t thinking about killing him.
    He heard the
approach of the troops from behind. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, and
another hand relieved him of the M4, and he was instructed to turn around. When
he did so, he came face-to-face with First Sergeant Jon Castillo.
    Even wearing a
bandanna, with