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Once the blind was finished, Lucia and I crawled to the front room of the cabin. I unlocked a regular window and lifted up the sash so that Lucia could crawl outside.
I gave her the Glock and reminded her how to shoot – and how to eject the clip and reload if she ran out of shots. Then I had her put the extra magazines in her jacket pockets.
I gave her a handful of coins and some 100-euro bills for when she reached town, plus Niccolo’s telephone number on a piece of paper.
“Please don’t make me do this,” she whispered as tears welled up in her eyes.
“It’s going to be alright. Trust me. When you hear the first shot from my rifle, go through the window and run. Understand?”
“I hate you for this,” she said miserably.
I smiled. “Music to my ears.” Then I kissed her as we both lay there on the floor. “Good luck.”
I turned to go –
And she reached out, grabbed my face, and kissed me fiercely.
When it was over, I smiled one last time… then turned and crawled across the floor towards the French windows.
I got my hunting rifle off the floor. As I lay there on my belly, I placed the barrel through one of the holes in the sheet.
The first shot wouldn’t matter. I had no idea where Zollner was, so I had maybe a one-in-a-billion chance of hitting him.
So I just pulled the trigger.
BLAM!
Run, I thought silently to Lucia.
Then I scooted across the floor to avoid Zollner’s retaliatory fire and took up my next position.
74
Lucia
BLAM!
The gunshot startled me.
For a second, I froze.
I imagined the man in the barn as his face became a mask of blood –
And the man on the motorcycle as he aimed his pistol at me –
Then I moved.
I crawled out the window, jumped five feet to the ground, and ran.
It was so dark that it was hard to see – and the ground was so muddy that my feet slipped every few feet –
But I kept on running.
Behind me, more gunshots echoed through the forest.
Crack!
BLAM!
