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Which wasn’t even atall.
They had the element of surprise as well as the comms system to enablecommunication.
And Damian had hisrage.
“I’m at the door to the VIP room,” Damian said. “Locke’s got the room off thestage.”
As soon as there was a lull in the shooting, he stepped through the door, firing indiscriminately into the ceiling. It gave him a chance to look around while Anastos’ men figured out he wasn’t actually firing atthem.
It was all the time heneeded.
Derek was crouched behind an overturned sofa, a buxom woman with platinum hair nearby, her mascara smearing as she sobbed into herfist.
A smaller version of the stage in the main room stood across from Derek’s position, purple and blue light still blinking around itsperimeter.
At the back of the room, a door swung on its hinges, bullet holes marking its surface. Several pieces of furniture were overturned, but it was impossible to tell if they’d been upended in the chaos of the shooting or if they were being used to provide shelter to Anastos and hismen.
He got low just before a round of bullets embedded themselves in the wall where he’d been standing. He pulled down a long table littered with drinking glasses and bottles of beer and took up residence behind the thickwood.
He’d only been there a few seconds when another round splintered the wood as Anastos’ men marked his hidingspot.
“You still in the back, Cole?” Damianasked.
“Stillhere.”
“Anyone have eyes onAnastos?”
“On the other side of the room,” Derek said. “Behind thestage.”
Anastos was his, but Damian would need cover to get tohim.
Based on the trajectory of the bullets that had rained down on the overturned table he’d been using as shelter, Damian placed one man near the door at the back of the room nearCole.
The angle of the gunfire that was concentrated on one side of the table meant that at least one — and maybe both — of the other men were with Anastos behind thestage.
“I’m making a move for the stage.” Damian spoke quietly. “I think one of the guys is near the back of the room by Cole. Can you take him on my cue,Derek?”
There was a pause while Derek assessed hisposition.
“Yeah,” he said. “I gothim.”
“Cole, I need you to approach the stage from your position and cover me with Anastos’ men. I’ll flank him from the otherside.”
“Waiting for your cue,” Colesaid.
Damian double-checked the magazine in his weapon. “Now.”
He was only dimly aware of the gunfire erupting around him. He couldn’t afford to think about whether it would hit him as he bent low and headed for thestage.
This was it: their chance to get Anastos out of theway.
There might not beanother.
Cole came into his line of sight as he approached the stage from the oppositedirection.
Let it be him,Damian thought as he peppered the area with bullets, saw the carpet explode around him as shots were fired in hisdirection.
Time seemed to slow down, the distance between him and the stage stretching as if he were walking throughquicksand.
