Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,35
the bedroom doorway, I tapped my ear. “Jinayca, you got eyes on any guards on the promenade outside the third floor?”
“Two shooters,” Jinayca said a second later. “One at each corner. You want them taken out?”
“No, it’s okay,” I said. “I’m already on it.”
Once past the offices, I exited the building through a door to the promenade and spotted the first sniper at the corner, looking over the front of the White House. I moved slowly toward my target and used my air magic to snatch him away from his post before driving a blade of air into his temple.
I removed the sniper rifle from the floor and picked up a Sig Sauer P320 that he’d had in a holster on his hip. I checked the load and found it had silver bullets inside. Perfect.
Taking the weapons, I moved back inside the White House, stopped at the end of the corridor leading to the hostages, and crouched down. My magic wouldn’t work inside the Solarium because of the wards, but it sure as hell did outside it. I ignited my matter magic, increasing my speed, and moved around the corner, raising the M24 rifle as I did and firing twice. I hit the female hostage guard twice in the head before dropping the magic and firing twice more, once at each remaining hostage taker. I hit the first one in the shoulder and the second just above the eye. I dropped the rifle and drew the Sig, firing as I did, hitting the hostage taker who was still alive twice in the knee and once in the head as he fell forward. All three down in under ten seconds.
I motioned for the screaming hostages to get down and stepped inside the room, feeling my magic vanish. I knelt down and aimed at the rear door to the room as it opened slightly. I fired twice into the rune next to the door, which exploded outward, blowing the door apart and throwing the sniper who had opened it over the balcony to the ground three stories below.
My magic flooded back into me, and I dropped the gun on the nearby table. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to rescue you,” I said as my team came running along the corridor behind me.
“We’ve got a hostage taker over the balcony,” I said, passing the rifle to Sky, who took it to go look.
“Senators,” Selene said. “Glad you’re unharmed.”
“We were too important to hurt,” a male senator said. “They killed people, though—took them into the other rooms, and we heard them executed. No one wanted to fight after that.”
“How many?” I asked.
“A dozen, maybe more,” a female senator said grimly. “The president isn’t here; he joined them, walked off with them. He threatened to have us executed too.”
Well, that was unexpected. “How’s his family?” I asked.
“Shaken,” she told me. “I thought I knew him. I’ve known him for thirty years, and I know he’s been acting odd recently, but I just put that down to stress. For him to turn like this . . . it just wasn’t like him.”
“Where is he?” I asked, wondering exactly how entrenched the president was with Arthur.
“He’s in the Oval Office,” a male senator told us. “Lots of guards. And there’s an Englishman with him. I’ve never met him before, but he’s the one in charge.”
“Gawain,” Remy said. “He’s a dick. We’ll kill him too.”
The male senator stared at Remy, obviously bemused by the talking foxman, before Remy winked and blew him a kiss. The senator turned away, and I caught a smile on Remy’s face.
“I need you all to move down to the dining room,” Zamek said as a shot sounded out from the promenade. Sky returned to the room.
“He’s done,” she said.
I placed a finger to my ear. “Roberto, the hostage takers are dealt with.”
“Casualties?” he asked.
“A lot,” I said. “Sounds like it, anyway. They were taken to other rooms and executed, according to the senators. A dozen at least. Gawain is in the Oval Office. So that’s where we’re going next. All the hostages will be in the dining room, where Diana and Kase are. I would advise your people to stay as far away from Kase as possible. She may not be in the mood to play nice.”
“Anything I need to be concerned about?” he asked.
“The president might be a traitor,” I told him.
“What?” he shouted.
“Not sure yet,” I said cheerfully. “We’ll figure it out.”
“And the snipers on the roof?” he asked, clearly exasperated.