I nod. “Agreed. Plus, from their point of view, it must be hard keeping a bunch of trained killers in check all the time, so I bet they use the threat of being able to remove our heads remotely, with no warning, to keep us in line.”
Lily picks up her gun and heads for the door. “Okay, I’ll head right, you two head for the main entrance. Watch your backs. Pierce might be just a trained grunt, but he’s not stupid. If he suspects anything, you’re dead.”
I move next to Kaitlyn and hold out my gun. I look her in the eyes, my face softening with regret. “Take this.”
She looks at it and shakes her head. Tears begin to well in her eyes. “I… I’m not using that thing, Adrian. It was bad enough carrying it for you.”
“Look, I know you don’t like this, but with one hand, I’m only half an assassin. You need to have one.”
She takes it from me apprehensively and wraps her own hand around the butt. She assesses the weight and looks at it, steeling herself to the inevitable fact she might need to use it.
Lily steps toward her. “Screw the safety, alright? Rest your index finger against the trigger guard—that’s your safety. Only touch the trigger itself if you want to shoot someone.”
I watch as she helps Kaitlyn adjust her grip to make it more comfortable. Yet again, things have taken a random U-turn on me. After yesterday, I never thought I’d see Lily and Kaitlyn working together…
I take out the other gun from my back and open the door. I glance over my shoulder at the women. “Come on, time’s a-wastin’.”
I step out into the corridor, and the two of them follow a few steps behind me. We stand in a tight triangle, with me facing my room, and Lily and Kaitlyn either side of me. We all check our weapons.
I look at Lily and hand her one of my spare mags. “Go on, get out of here. I’ll make contact when I’ve dealt with Pierce.”
She nods and turns to leave, but stops almost straight away. “Uh, Adrian…”
I look left. At the end of the corridor are two men, both wearing Kevlar body armor and carrying automatic rifles.
Shit.
Instinctively, I look right. Kaitlyn’s already seen Pierce and two more men standing at the opposite end, dressed and armed the same as the others.
The two men on either side move closer and take aim, gesturing menacingly with the barrels of their rifles. Pierce pushes through and steps toward me. His own rifle is hanging loose from its shoulder strap.
He points to my left hand. “Put your gun down, Adrian.”
There’s no way I can talk my way out of this. There’s no way he doesn’t know Lily’s told me everything. He has us surrounded, and there’s enough distance between us and them that we can’t do anything fast enough to be successful.
When in doubt…
I shake my head. “Fuck you.”
He rolls his eyes. “See, this is why Horizon’s decided to cut his losses with you. Your fucking attitude and your fucking arrogance.”
I sidestep and put my body between him and Kaitlyn. I aim my gun at him, but almost immediately I feel my arm wavering slightly. I’m still not fully functioning after my surgery.
Behind me, I feel Kaitlyn place a hand on my arm. “Adrian, what do we do?”
She sounds terrified. I close my eyes for the briefest of moments, silently cursing my own uselessness.
I honestly have no idea.
22
I’m fighting to keep my arm raised, to keep my gun pointing at Pierce’s head, but it’s not happening. I lower it, but still keep a firm grip of the weapon. The two guys behind Pierce are maybe fifty yards away, with Pierce himself a few steps in front of them. The other two at the opposite end of the corridor are easily a hundred yards behind us.
Too great a distance for anything effective.
My priority’s Kaitlyn’s safety. I need to get her out of here.
I stare into Pierce’s dark eyes. “So what happens now?”
He shrugs. “That’s up to you. You can either kill Lily like we’ve told you to, and put all this unpleasantness behind us, or you can continue down the path you’re on and be killed in the next thirty seconds.”
I take a small step backward, closing the gap between Lily and me. This is a pretty shit situation. Even if I did kill Lily, that wouldn’t be the end of it. He’s insulting my intelligence if he genuinely believes I don’t know he’ll try to kill me before her body hits the floor.
Under the circumstances, I can only see one way out of this, and it’s a long shot. Literally as well as figuratively.
Pierce is directly in front of me, partially blocking the direct line of sight for the guys behind him. I need three accurate shots in quick succession. Normally, it wouldn’t be an issue, but left-handed, not feeling a hundred percent… it’s a big ask.
I just hope Lily’s thinking the same thing I am, or this is going to be the shortest escape plan in history.
I nod. “Thirty seconds, eh? If I were you, I’d give me five. I’m too good to justify leaving it so long…”
He smirks. “Why? What are you gonna do? You’re a washed-up cripple with an attitude problem, nothing more. You’re not even half the man we thought we were recruiting.”
I frown.
Washed-up?
Does he know who I—
Nope… Stopped myself saying it! Don’t want to look like a douche.
Anyway, fuck him. What does he know?
I’ll show him washed-up…
I drop to one knee and fire three shots. The first hits Pierce in the center of his chest. He’s protected, but the impact sends him sprawling to the floor anyway, as I’d hoped. The second and third are aimed at the heads of the men behind him. The first hits the mark, and the guy drops, leaving a faint spray of crimson on the wall behind him. The second misses, catching the guy in the shoulder. His body armor doesn’t protect him, but it’s not a fatal wound — just enough to make him drop his rifle and spin away.
At the same time as my final two shots, I heard two more behind me, which I took as a sign that Lily had indeed been thinking along the same lines as me. I snap my head around just as the second of the other two men is hitting the floor. Both are dead. I lock eyes with Lily for a brief moment, and we exchange a nod of thanks and understanding.
Three out of five dead, and two distracted. Not bad.
I turn to Kaitlyn. “Come on, we’re leaving.”
The color has drained from her face, and her unblinking gaze is transfixed on the bloodstain spread across the wall in front of her.
Lily appears next to me and puts a hand on her arm. She jumps with shock and spins around to face her. Lily smiles sympathetically. “Kaitlyn, come on. I’ve got you.” She looks at me. “Go on, we’re right behind you.”
I nod and set off down the corridor, heading away from the main entrance toward the men Lily took out.
“Which way?” I call over my shoulder.
“Left, then right, then left,” replies Lily.
I follow the network of corridors as per her instructions. It’s not going to take long for Pierce to get back to his feet. Even though body armor will withstand a low caliber round at mid-distance, it still hurts like a bitch. It’s like being punched in the sternum by a sledgehammer. It’ll knock the wind out of you and leave a bruise the size of a watermelon. But Pierce is a tough sonofabitch. I can attest to that personally. He’s probably organizing his men as we speak. I’ve no idea how many he has, and have no wish to find out.
As I take the second left, we come to a dead end. There are two doors on the left — one of which has a plaque on it saying SUPPLIES. Must be where Lily dropped in. Opposite that is a fire exit, which is closed and looks alarmed. I can see the shadow of a guy standing outside it through the frosted glass.