then shifted his aim to the right, scanning for targets, but only saw a flash of light in the far corner of the room before his head snapped back, and his world went black.
“Jenner’s down!” Lorenzi shouted over the network, but the gun battle was too fierce to stop to render aid.
* * *
• • •
Court and Zoya had each fired at one target. Zoya hit a man in the thigh who disappeared behind a group of hostages, and Court hit a man in the lower abdomen, but he was on the ground, out of view behind a table, and possibly still in the fight.
Zoya had seen Hines and a group of armed men racing through the side door, and she leapt to her feet, launched off the stage, and went in pursuit of him.
Court climbed to his knees, still engaging targets in the room, but he shouted to her. “No! Wait!”
She did not listen, just kept running through the crowd as everyone began to climb to their feet and stampede for the center exit. Court leapt off the stage, picking off gunmen one by one, who were all struggling to orient themselves to the many angles of this small but disciplined attacking force.
* * *
• • •
The great hall cleared out in under one minute, save for the American operators, the wounded, and the dead. Jenner was in the latter category, shot through the mouth, and Greer had taken a subgun round through the right biceps that had him on the floor while he tied it off with a compression bandage, using his left hand and his teeth.
By now Travers had lost enough blood out of the wound in his right leg that his fight was over, as he could barely stand, and though Lorenzi had shot three Russians grouped closely together, he took a bullet through his right shin and his left foot in the process.
Zack Hightower had killed five men in the last minute, all with a single magazine. He reloaded his rifle now, ready to head towards the doorway where Hines and some other men had disappeared. But he heard a voice behind him that spun him around.
It was Hanley. He held the shotgun in his hand. “Where’s Zakharov?”
“What the hell are you doing here, sir?”
He saw Brewer behind Hanley now, a terrified look on her face. What a shit show, he thought. All the smart suits were running away, and these two nitwits were running in.
“I’m helping you,” Hanley said. “Brewer will help, too.” Brewer seemed to Zack like she had no interest in helping anyone but herself, but she was here, a pistol held low in her hand.
Zack sighed. “They went into that stairwell. It seems to lead down to the basement.”
Hanley started moving for it. “Let’s go.”
“Wait. Violator and Anthem have already—”
“Let’s go!” Hanley shouted, and he headed through the doorway.
Zack ran after the two of them, overtaking them and making it into the stairs before them. With his weapon light shining he led the way down.
* * *
• • •
Court and Zoya arrived at the first subterranean layer without seeing or hearing anyone. Both wondered where the hell the squirters thought they were going down here, unless their plan was to use some other staircase to make their way back up to ground level.
This was the dungeon level; it was a poorly lit warren of rooms, formerly cells, common spaces, and barracks for the guards, now mostly used for storage. There were dozens of rooms where people could hide. Heavy metal gates hung in archways, held up by thick rope; a wine cellar had been built where prisoners once had been stockaded; and the entire area smelled to Court like it was right on Loch Ness and not 150 feet above it.
The two of them moved together for a while, until they reached a circular room with three archways leading out of it. Zoya touched Court on his shoulder. “We have to split up.”
Court was afraid of this. Tactically, it made sense; there was too much area to cover to find anyone hiding down here before they could escape. But he could only now pray that he was the one who came across her father first.
He reached out with his good hand and took her head in it, drew her to him. Softly he said, “Be careful,” and he kissed her.
“You, too,” she said, and then, “My father. He’s mine.”
She turned away and disappeared in the dark to the right.
Court chose