Page 272 of Silent Target

A silver sword was stitched into the stranger’s jacket.

Dark wings spread from either side of the blade.

The symbol of Shadow Division.

“He’s ours,” Sarilla said.

The man reached down to help me.

A second shot cracked through the garage.

Blood sprayed across the silver sword.

The operative fell at my feet.

“Sniper!” Sarilla shouted through the phone. “Second shooter!”

The lights went out.

Smoke swallowed everything.

Footsteps pounded behind me.

More than one set.

I grabbed the fallen operative’s rifle and forced myself upright.

“Kate, get to the stairwell.”

“They’re between me and the door.”

“Then go up.”

I looked toward the parking ramp.

Flames climbed the wall on one side. Armed men emerged through the smoke on the other.

There was nowhere to go but the roof.

I tightened my grip on the rifle and ran.

Behind me, the first man opened fire.

Bullets struck the concrete railing as I reached the ramp.

“Michael?”

“I’m here.”

I didn’t know him.

I had never seen his face.

Yet with the garage burning around me and killers closing in from both directions, his voice was the only thing holding the darkness back.

“Tell me how to get out of here.”

For the first time, Michael Sarilla hesitated.