Page 12 of Her Fearless Warrior

Leila shrugged.

Live and let live.

“But you’re good with knives?” she asked.

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

“Then you’re a good man in my book.”

They spent another half hour waiting and blocking out the sound of Landry gassing on. Poor Felix.

Leila and Sam jolted at the same moment. They looked at one another.

“Here that?” Sam asked.

Leila nodded. “How many do you think?”

“Do you hear them talking?

Leila nodded. She could hear three distinct voices. She held up three fingers. Sam nodded. They sounded like they were still two flights down. Leila carefully pulled the paper from the lock plate and softly closed the door. She winced at the click when the latch connected and the door properly closed. She put her ear to the door. She breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t hear any kind of change in their footsteps as they climbed the stairs.

She thought about calling Felix and Landry over, but there was still a slight possibility more terrorists might be coming up the elevator.

“Give me one of your knives,” she said to Sam. “We need to be quiet. I don’t want to shoot the gun if at all possible.”

He nodded and handed over a knife. She hit the safety on the Glock and shoved it in the shoulder holster she’d pulled off Nottingham.

Sam took the right side of the door, Leila the left side.

The door opened. Leila heard four distinct voices; she held up four fingers. Sam quickly nodded. They executed their plan perfectly. They let the first people go by as they remained flat against the walls on either side of the door. As the third and the fourth man exited, Leila took the third and Sam took the fourth. They yanked each man toward them, plunging their knives directly into their jugulars.

Leila didn’t bother pulling the knife out. She had her hand at her holster, pulling out her Glock, and she killed the man who had his rifle up and was ready to shoot. Sam had tackled the second man who had come through the door.

The sound of bullets had Leila jerking. Where were they coming from? She looked over at the doorway and saw nothing.

“Die, you bastards, die!” she heard Landry yell.

Then there were more sounds of automatic fire, and it wasn’t coming from just one rifle, it was coming from multiple rifles.

Landry screamed.

More gunfire.

Then she heard nothing but more bullets flying.

She turned her attention to Sam and the man he had tackled. The man was laughing. “You’re going to die,” he said in broken English.

Sam slit his throat, and Leila watched as a rifle butt crashed into Sam’s jaw, sending him flying.

She looked up and saw the man who had seemed like the leader glaring down at her. He backhanded her and she sprawled backward, landing in a pool of blood.

“You’re lucky I still need you, otherwise you would die right now. Of course, there are worse things than dying.”

* * *

Petty Officer, First Class, Lincoln Hart, the sniper for the Omega Sky SEAL team, looked at the faces of the people that they were expected to rescue.

Leila Cloud. Translator. Now there was a face he recognized.