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Damian pushedhimself to his hands and knees, barely registering the blood dripping from his face onto the marble floor. It was hard to see through the smoke, hard to breathe through it, but he had only onethought.
Aria…
He moved toward the kitchen and was immediately pulled back to thefloor.
“Stay down,” Christophecommanded.
A split second later, gunfire ripped through the lab, the staccato of a semiautomatic rifle breaking the eerie silence that had followed the initialexplosion.
Damian turned over the desk where he and Christophe had been sitting at the time of the explosion. It would give them cover while theyregrouped.
He looked at Christophe. The man was surprisingly intact, his disheveled hair the only indication they were underattack.
“Weapon?” Damianaskedhim.
Christophe reached for one of the drawers on the desk and removed a handgun. “This is it in the office,” he said. “There are more in a safedownstairs.You?”
Damian removed the gun from the holster strapped to hisside. “Same.”
“Charlotte?” Christophecalledout.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Ariaisfine.”
“Stay down,” Christophe shouted, his voice aimed at everyone else still in the lab. “Don’t move until wetellyou.”
Damian shouldn’t have been surprised by the answering silence. Anyone working for the Syndicate — even in a cyber lab — would have been vetted and trained. If Christophe’s hackers were rattled, you wouldn’tknowit.
“What about the women?” Damianasked.
“Charlotte will stay down until I come for her,” Christophe said, checking the magazine in his gun. “I’m betting Aria will dothesame.”
Christophe’s words calmed Damian’s desire to charge through the office, push Aria behind him, dare anyone to come for her. Christophe was right: Aria would know. She wasn’t stupid — and she was nocoward.
This was their war —theirlife.
Damian followed the path of the gunfire that had torn through the wall after the initial explosion. “I didn’t hear any other shots,didyou?”
Christophe shookhishead.
“It’s on the exterior wall,”Damiansaid.
“A warning?” Christopheasked.
It would make sense — the lab was locked down and none of the gunfire had come from inside. The explosion could have been a molotov cocktail thrown through the window. The gunfire would have to come from the building across thestreet.
“There’s only one way to find out,”Damiansaid.
They crouched low, staying under the windows as they made their way into the lab’s mainoffice.
“Is everyone all right?” Christophecalledout.
“Mac’s bleeding, but I think he’ll be okay,” someone shouted through the smoke curlingtheair.
“Someone call our contact at the police department, have them send an ambulance.” Christophe moved through the office. “And for god’s sake, stay down until wegetback.”
They were almost to the door when Damian heard Aria’svoice.
