Page 24 of Silent Target

Former special operations.

Probably hired through an organization Graves can disavow.

Expensive.

He isn’t cutting corners anymore.

Good.

Neither am I.

I reach into my vest and pull out a cylindrical device.

Evie looks at it. “What is that?”

“Noise.”

“That’s the technical name?”

“It is tonight.”

I pull the pin and count.

One.

Two.

Three.

I throw the flash-bang through what remains of the front window.

It detonates with a deafening crack.

White light floods the street.

Men shout.

Someone fires blindly into the house.

I grab Evie’s hand. “Move.”

We run through the smoke.

Not toward the back door.

Toward the basement.

Evie glances at me. “The basement?”

“They expect us to run outside.”

“So we’re not running?”

“We are.”

I kick open the basement door.

We race down the wooden steps as another explosion tears through the living room above us.