Page 6 of Fall Before Her Throne

“Fuckers.” Ryu leaned over the rail and fired two shots at the men rushing down the steps. “Shit. They’re moving. Let’s go.”

We moved and reacted as a unit. The only sounds were our breaths and the echoes of our footsteps as we sprinted downwards, trying to catch them before they disappeared.

“There!” Leona fired a bullet down the stairwell, her small form allowing her body to bend low enough to aim properly, and a shout of pain answered. My chest swelled with pride.

Another floor down, and we found a man limping with a bloody wound on his thigh. I held my gun to his temple and finished the job. Even with the suppressor, the sound was deafening.

“We have to find the last operative.” We left the body behind and continued downward. A door slammed shut two landings below us. “There!”

Another alarm blared through the building. Lights flashed. The fire alarm.

“He must have pull—pulled it,” Ciel said through gritted teeth. “Residents and businesses will start flee—fleeing.”

Whatever quiet I hoped we’d have was now gone.

“Fuck,” Caspian grunted. “This is such a fucking mess.”

“Ciel, get it off as soon as you can and try to intercept any emergency services,” I ordered as we rushed through the door, back onto the floor level.

Flashing red lights and blaring alarms followed us while we dashed down the hallway, trying to catch up with the final intruder. Just as I tried to take aim, a door opened and blocked my line of fire. Civilians rushed out, eyes wide and terrified.

“Move!” I shouted, trying to clear a pathway in the quickly forming crowd. Screams echoed through the hallway as people caught sight of our guns. “Ciel! Cut the alarms!”

The sound cut off, followed by the lights. “Emergency services are on their way.”

At the end of the hallway, just before the entrance to the other stairwell, two civilians exited their apartment door right in front of the Camorra operative. The man darted inside, slamming the door behind him.

“Hey!” they yelled. “What the hell!”

“Get out of the way!” Leona screamed. They backed aside just in time for me to kick the door open. It slammed backward.

A gunshot rent the air, and pain laced through my arm. I ducked backward, pulling Ryuji with me. Blood trickled down my bicep, but a quick glance and squeeze of my fingers around my gun told me it was a flesh wound.

“Ready?” Ryu asked after reloading his pistol. I did the same. We locked eyes and nodded, ready to dart inside together.

Caspian still had his arm around Volpe, and the two leaned against the wall. Caspian’s look of concern said it all: Volpe needed medical attention. Fast.

“Wynn, keep Leona out here. Ciel, make sure this hallway is clear.”

“Copy.”

Ryu crouched down and went inside the apartment first, arm extended to aim, and I followed directly behind. We’d fan out once we got inside. The apartment opened into a large living area, with windows overlooking the city. Movement behind the couch drew my attention, and I instantly fired a shot.

The couch cushions exploded into a cloud of stuffing. The man launched across the floor, reaching for the safety of the kitchen island. Ryu shot his gun, catching him in the gut. He skidded to a stop, slamming headfirst against the kitchen cabinets with a heavy groan.

I walked closer, my gun trained on his head. “Ryu? Weapons?”

Ryu came around the other side of the kitchen island, kicking the man’s hand where he weakly clutched his gun. It flew across the floor.

“Bind his hands.”

Ryu looked up, eyebrows knitted together. “Don’t kill him?”

“We can’t do this here.”

He nodded before he rifled through the man’s tactical backpack and found some rope. He tore the pack off the man and then bound his hands behind him before yanking him to his feet. I grabbed the pack and slung it over my shoulder, grimacing at the wound on my bicep.

“I got him,” Ryu said as we both ignored the man’s cries of pain and weak struggling. Blood stained his middle, turning his brown combat fatigues into a dark, sticky red. “Take him down to the garage?”