running again when he noticed the cop in his way. He slowed a little, unsure, but once he saw the man pulling his baton, he charged forward again. He couldn’t see Gentry any longer and assumed he’d already made it up to the next block.
The cop tried to get in his way, and Hulett picked up more speed, running right for him. The young man raised his weapon as if to strike, but the American swatted the baton away, knocking it into the street as he continued sprinting up Leibnizstrasse, desperate to get to the next intersection before his target managed to evade him.
* * *
• • •
Thor rounded the corner, turning off the pedestrian-only Walter-Benjamin-Platz and onto Leibnizstrasse, running as fast as his team leader now. He saw the police officer dead ahead, standing there, flat-footed, facing away and watching Hades sprint up to the next intersection. When he was just twenty yards away from him, Thor saw the cop reach down to his utility belt. He first assumed the man was going for a radio to call it in, but was instead surprised to see the young cop drawing his Heckler & Koch pistol with an uncertain draw.
Thor figured the only reason this young cop would be pulling his sidearm was that he’d caught a glimpse of Hades’s pistol under his shirt, and the officer was slowly coming to the dramatic realization that he was in the middle of some sort of life-or-death encounter.
The cop’s movements showed he wasn’t ready for a fight. But Thor, for his part, knew exactly what he had to do. He picked up the pace even more, tried to lighten his step as he ran to minimize the chance the cop would hear him barreling down from behind, and then, just as the police officer raised his weapon and shouted at Hades to “halt,” Thor charged into him from behind, ambushing him with a shoulder to his back.
The pistol cracked, the man lurched forward and fell in a crumpled heap, and Thor tumbled over the top of him and fell to the sidewalk.
The American came to rest on his back; the cop’s pistol was feet away, so he reached over, grabbed it, and pulled himself back to his feet.
He took off again at a sprint, following after his TL while deftly disassembling the weapon and throwing the component parts on the ground.
Behind him, the officer writhed in pain on the pavement as passersby rushed to his aid.
* * *
• • •
Hades had run right past the sign that read Einfahrt Öffentliche Parkgarage; the single-lane entrance to the underground lot was so nondescript he missed it, and he made it all the way to Mommsenstrasse before slowing and looking around.
Thor finally caught up, and he pulled to a stop next to him. Breathlessly he said, “Where the hell is he?”
Hades realized it was up to Atlas and Mercury now, so he said, “Let’s get the vic. Be back here to support the other guys. It’s gonna be crawling with five-oh in a minute.”
The two of them ran off to the east, heading the two blocks to their vehicle at nearly the same speed they’d chased after their elusive prey.
THIRTY-THREE
Court didn’t draw his HK pistol as he neared the metal door to the level P3 garage, but his hand hovered near it, ready to pull if he encountered any threats.
He’d heard a gunshot above him as he descended; he had no idea what that was all about, but he didn’t want to open fire down here unless he was absolutely forced to. If both the bad guys and the cops were up at street level searching the area, he didn’t want to do anything to draw attention to this garage before he could unass it.
He opened the door with a loud metal creak, then moved around the corner in the direction of his BMW.
He scanned the mid-distance of the well-lit and nearly packed garage, but then, right in front of his face, a submachine gun spun around in his direction. A man held it, the weapon was slung around his head and neck, and he’d apparently been as surprised by Court as Court was by him. He tried to get his weapon up and aimed, but Court fired out his left hand and grabbed the subgun by its suppressor.
The man yelled something, but Court wasn’t listening. Instead he locked his hand down harder on the cylinder of the suppressor—he’d ID’d the weapon in an instant