The troops veered off en masse and plunged into the building in pursuit. To his surprise and horror, Ethan saw Rachel sprinting behind them as he struggled to his feet and rushed in after her.
“Rachel, get down!”
The bright sunlight vanished as Ethan plunged into the darkened warehouse.
Flashes of gunfire illuminated the shadows as though Ethan was trapped in a Hadean catacomb filled with warring demons. Figures ran with juddering strides in the muzzle flashes, weapons spitting flames and crashing like thunder around them.
Ethan glimpsed an IDF trooper toss something small between partitions of thin wood being shredded by the passage of supersonic bullets. He covered his eyes and saw a brief but brilliant flash of light that glowed red across his retinas, accompanied by a crack like a firework. He opened his eyes again and saw the IDF soldiers lunging between the partition walls, the flash-bang grenade having stunned the MACE troops. A single round burst through the splintered wooden partition and caught an IDF soldier clean in the center of his chest, hurling him backward into his companions.
The rest of the troops plowed onward. Ethan heard a scream of agony as a hail of bullets thudded into a MACE soldier’s body, his arms flailing like a grotesque puppet as he was hurled sideways into discarded pallets to lie with his limbs contorted at impossible angles. Ethan looked desperately about for Rachel, unable to pick her out in the confusion.
Suddenly, like the last rumble of a passing storm, the firing stopped. Ethan’s ears hummed in the silence as a high-pitched whistling echoed through his skull.
He looked ahead toward where a narrow doorway separated another partition wall, light that glowed from beyond spilling through the warehouse in a shaft filled with whorls of smoke and dust. Then a woman’s voice called out.
“Lucy?”
Ethan rushed through the darkness and dropped down behind Rachel, keeping a grip on her body armor as a determined-looking officer hurried to their side.
“All contacts down except one male in that room,” he whispered into his microphone before looking at Ethan. “Ethan Warner?”
Ethan nodded once.
“Lieutenant Jerah Ash,” the officer said by way of an introduction. “Thanks for starting World War III out here.”
A sudden cascade of bullets clattered all around the partition walls, leaving holes through which light beamed into the darkness surrounding them.
“Stay out of here!” a frail-sounding voice shouted out.
“Kill him!” screamed another, female voice.
“That’s Lucy!” Rachel cried out. “Don’t shoot!”
From the corner of his eye Ethan saw one of the IDF troopers train his weapon through the open doorway and take aim. A single round shattered the silence as it passed through his skull, flicking his head at right angles to his shoulders and snapping the spinal column like a twig.
“Stay the hell out of here! Get out of my laboratory!”
Rachel tugged at Ethan’s hand. “Let me go.”
“He’ll shoot you too,” Ethan hissed.
Lieutenant Ash called out toward Sheviz.
“You’re surrounded, it’s over. Come out with your hands up and we can talk about this.”
“You’re here to kill us both,” Sheviz hissed. “Do you take me for a fool?”
Rachel looked at Lieutenant Ash. “Let me go, he’ll know who I am.”
The lieutenant glanced at the doorway and reluctantly nodded.
Ethan let go of Rachel’s body armor as she stood and walked into the light, her arms outstretched. As she moved, Ethan edged along beside her, careful to keep out of the surgeon’s field of vision.
“Mr. Sheviz, my name is Rachel Morgan. I’m Lucy’s mother, and these men are not here to kill you. Please, we need to talk.”
“Mom?” A frantic and disbelieving voice called.
A long silence ensued. Ethan listened intently as Damon Sheviz replied from somewhere within the room beyond.
“I want immunity,” he demanded. “I want a written letter signed by the prime minister.”
“You’re in no position to make demands!” Lieutenant Ash snapped.
“You’re in no position to give me orders!”
Rachel stood in front of the doorway, her arms outstretched.
“At least take me instead,” she called to Sheviz. “Whatever you’re doing will work just as well on me as it would on Lucy. Just let my daughter go!”
Ethan shifted position, raising his pistol as he heard Lucy shouting.
“Like hell! Shoot this bastard!”
Ethan, his hands trembling with fatigue, took a chance.
“You can’t win, Sheviz, it’s over,” he shouted. “If you don’t surrender now, you’ll die here.”
“Who is that?” Sheviz shouted back. “Who do you think you are to—”
Ethan fired three shots straight at the sound of the voice through the chipboard wall in front of him as Rachel dropped to her