Mercenaries

General Chang, the Ace of Diamonds. This contract was worth a cool quarter of a million dollars, too much to pass up, and besides I was on a roll. The Allies air dropped me into the LZ - a small island off the NK peninsular - where a large artillery piece was lobbing depleted uranium shells 50 klicks inland. The area was swarming with NK gooks and I could have slugged it out, but I called in a favour from Sergei - my Mafia contact - a got a nice civilian 4x4 air lifted in and drove right past them.

It was a case of taking it slowly on the road, avoiding any officers and flooring it through any hot zones where my geiger counter started ticking a little bit too much for comfort. Destroying the supergun was a cinch - Fiona, my Ex-Ops handler, had given me some intel on another artillery piece overlooking the first gun. Just one tank to deal with en route, and then lob a couple of rounds into the site to leave a smoking, radioactive crater.

The com channel then went ballistic. The Ace was bugging out, but my wheels were still intact so I dropped down the side of the hill I was on and round the back of the compound I had passed earlier. No time for finesse or subtlety with this one, so I shot the gates and slammed into the side of a T-54 tank before it could bring its main gun to bear on me. Cap the gunner and then jack the tank, deal with any gooks with RPGs or anti-tank weapons first and then drive round the compound to deal with any other tanks standing guard.

At last I caught sight of my target. I could have called in an airstrike, but he was worth far more to me alive than dead. I ditched the tank and finished off the guards swarming out of the barracks with a couple of grenades. I ran for the Ace, throwing a flash grenade on the way, and cuffing him before he could react. Out the back of the compound and call for extraction asap.

The money was in the Ex-Ops account before we'd even dusted off ... modern banking does have its advantages.