Every single knife in the kitchen had been locked up in a cabinet, standard protocol for the safe house. Zoya had William’s keys, but there were at least a dozen on the chain, and she didn’t have time to go through them, so she shot through the kitchen and into the den, fully expecting to find a portion of the CIA guard force there now, because the gunfire seemed so close.
But the den was empty. She now realized the shooting was coming from the foyer of the house, out of view, and between the bursts and shouts she heard radio calls and movement in the kitchen she’d just left behind.
A massive stone fireplace anchored one side of the den, just next to the hallway to the kitchen, and Zoya leapt up onto the hearth, then pulled herself onto the mantel, six feet up. She rose to a crouch, facing the doorway, just as a man with night vision goggles high on his head stepped into view, his AK-47 at his shoulder.
Behind him was a man wielding an Uzi, moving close behind his partner.
Zoya dropped down on the second man, taking him by the neck and using her momentum to wrench him backwards, sending them both to the floor. Before they’d even landed on the hardwood she had her hand around the trigger guard and grip of his Uzi. The man in full combat gear landed on top of the Russian woman, but she lifted his Uzi along with the arm holding it and squeezed his trigger finger down with her own.
This sent a burst into the legs of his partner in front of him, who spun and fell to his knees. Zoya pressed the man’s trigger finger again, and the 9-millimeter rounds slammed into the wounded man’s head, finishing him instantly.
She hip-thrusted the man on top of her to the side, yanking the Uzi from him as she did so. She pressed the muzzle against the man’s ribs and fired a burst of three rounds into him at contact distance.
More shooting cracked off on the southern and eastern sides of the house. Zoya climbed to her feet and moved for the door off the den to the backyard, but she stopped herself, turned around, and ran for the stairs back down to the basement.
Downstairs Zoya raced into the security monitoring room and found the “master on” control for the basement’s surveillance system. She activated it, then rushed up the hall, past the door to the utility closet, and to her room. She unlocked the door and found William still on his side, unable to sit up.
His eyes widened when he saw Zoya standing there with an Uzi in her hand, but she slung the weapon around on her back and grabbed him by the shoulders. She dragged him across the tiled floor and out into the hall; he shouted through the socks in his mouth the entire time, but she ignored his muffled curses. Pulling him into the dark utility closet, she heaved him around and behind the massive hot-water tank there. She sat him up, his back to the heater, and got close to his face.
“Listen to me. The safe house has been overrun. It’s too late for you to help; all your mates are dead or dying. The attackers won’t find you in here if you don’t make any noise.”
His eyes went even wider, and he tried to shout again.
“I’m saving your life, William.”
She drew the HK pistol from his holster and rose, opened the door and, after checking to make sure the hallway was still empty, stepped out of the utility closet, locking the door behind her.
There was only a smattering of gunfire, still at the front of the house, when Zoya made her way back to the rear door off the walk-in pantry. This time she looked out carefully and saw a single man in black moving to the door to the den, fifty feet off her left shoulder. He held his carbine with one hand, and he seemed to be trying to raise someone on the radio with the other. She wondered if he was on the squad with the two men she’d killed in the den and was on his way to investigate their radio silence.
When he disappeared from view, she stepped outside and began sprinting through the heavy rain, down the hill for the tree line.
CHAPTER 5
Court leveled off at one thousand feet and began scanning for