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I don’t like the sound of that. “Is anyone hurt? What did you hear? Are we losing?” My tone is sharp with panic.
“Hey,” Stealth says. He ducks to look me in the eye while maintaining a healthy distance from Grim. “Our teams are smart and capable. They’ve got this. Grim’s right. We got to trust them to do their job, and we got to do ours.”
“If Jud is in here,” Grim says, “we’ll find him. Come on.” With a firm arm around my shoulders, he directs me away from the window and into the abandoned hospital.
Chapter 16
Rev
“Jesus Christ, this is a clusterfuck.”I’m crouched in a stairwell diagonal from the rear entrance of the casino. I have my automatic rifle aimed and ready to take out any of Raptor’s cronies who come out this way, and I’m not the only one. Steel and Recon are back here, too, each with a vantage point of a different casino exit.
We were hoping for minimal action out here. The missile was supposed to take care of anyone inside the casino, but now, it seems, there’s a woman in the mix, and hasn’t that just thrown a monkey wrench in the works?
Now everyone and his brother is on the comms trying to figure out what’s happening. I can’t make heads or tails of anything anyone’s saying.
“Enough! Silence on all comms!” Sarge’s voice cuts through the chatter. Like the Gifted leader he is, he shuts down the chaos with a single command.
Atta boy, Sarge.
“Casino team,” he says into the silence, “watch those exits, especially at the back. They’ll be coming to check out that explosion. Take out everyone except that woman. Confirm, casino team.”
“Roger that,” I say, relieved his Gift is bringing order to the chaos. Recon and Steel chime in, too. Brawn’s confirmation is conspicuously missing. He should be at the front of the casino with Sarge.
“Sarge to Brawn? Report in, Brawn.”
“He’s at the church!” The breathless voice belongs to Doc. “There was an explosion. Scrap’s hurt. I’m on my way!”
“Copy that, Doc,” Sarge says.
Shit. Scrappy Boy is down. My pulse hammers in my ears, but with Doc on the way, Scrap’ll be in good hands. Knowing Brawn’s with him gives me added comfort.
Just then, the rear door to the casino flies open, and two men run out. I get my sights on the first and squeeze off a shot. He goes down. Damn. Still got it.
I get the second man in my sights, but a shot comes from my left before I can get a bead on him. That would be either Steel or Recon. The second man lands on the ground beside the first.
A third man runs out the door but puts on the brakes at hearing our shots and seeing his friends fall. He spins around to go inside. But he doesn’t make it. I get him in the center of his back, and he collapses beside a decorative tree that’s seen better days.
“Sarge to chopper, where are our targets in the hotel? They staying put on nine and penthouse?”
A little while ago, X-Ray reported there were four targets inside the hotel, two each on floors nine and fifteen. It’s safe to speculate one of the two targets in the penthouse is Raptor, since he would take the best living quarters in the hotel for himself.
I swear to hell and back I’m not leaving this city until that motherfucker is dead.
“Hotel targets are on the move,” X-Ray says. I have to put my finger over the earpiece to hear because shots are being fired from the hotel tower. At the three of us behind the casino.
Shit! I duck back into the stairwell as a chunk of concrete explodes beside me.
“I’ve got him,” Recon says, and I hear a shot from our side. Then all is quiet except X-Ray telling us that one of the two men on the ninth floor is by a window—yeah, no shit.
“Looks like our window friend on nine is stationary,” X-Ray says.
“He’s dead. I got him,” Recon says.
X-Ray says, “Other man on nine is on the move. So are our friends on the penthouse floor. Everyone’s converging toward the core of the hotel.”
“They’re going for the elevators,” I say. “I’m going in.”
I pat my helmet down and launch myself out of the stairwell toward the back of the casino. We took out three of the seven men who were on the casino floor. That leaves four plus one woman to watch out for.
