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The safety on Alek’s gun clicked off in the darkness.
A faint breeze blew across Lyon’s face, the smell in the tunnel shifting.
“I think we’re almost there,” Lyon said quietly.
They slowed their steps on instinct, wanting to be prepared for whatever was ahead.
The opening appeared suddenly in front of them, the tunnel widening into another room, almost identical to the one where they’d started.
It was empty.
“Home team one, Ivan zero,” Alek said.
Lyon used his flashlight to scan the room, a 30 x 30-foot box with low ceilings, some old rusted metal bins with wheels piled against one wall, and another set of metal stairs, this one leading upward.
“Bingo,” Markus said, his eyes shining in the dark.
“We have to be ready,” Lyon said, taking off the helmet. Alek and Markus followed suit. “Even if we’re careful, those stairs are going to make noise.”
He held the light on the metal door at the top of the stairs, focusing on the lock.
“Blow it off and take what comes?” Alek said, his voice hushed.
“It’s not ideal, but if someone’s on the other side of it, they might hear us try to work the lock. I like the element of surprise better,” Lyon said.
“Our silencers will muffle some of the noise,” Markus said.
“That’s optimistic,” Alek said. “That metal door is bad luck.”
“So the door makes noise,” Markus said. “It still won’t be as much noise as it would be without the silencers. And there are three of us. We can take whoever is on the other side.”
“Except we don’t know who’s on the other side,” Alek said.
They only had the drone footage, and that was all exterior, but Lyon had an advantage: Ivan was bratva, and Lyon knew how the bratva worked, knew what they considered when they made plans to secure a place.
Unless Ivan had deviated significantly, the majority of the security would be outside. It was always smarter to prevent someone from reaching a target than to try and deal with them once they had the target in sight.
“Markus is right,” Lyon said. “I’m betting we can take them. I’m not saying it won’t be messy, but I don’t think Ivan has a large number of guards inside the house, and our silencers will keep the men outside from hearing when we take them.”
“Your call,” Alek said.
Lyon started for the stairs. “Quiet and fast. I’ll take the door.”
They moved into position behind him and Lyon held up his fingers so they could see the countdown.
3… 2… 1.
Lyon moved up the stairs carefully but quickly, aimed his weapon at the lock, and fired.
The lock broke apart in a clang of metal, then hit the floor and fell down the stairs, making noise every step of the way.
Lyon didn’t have time to worry about it.
He briefly considered kicking in the door, then decided to open it in case they’d gotten lucky and no one had heard.
But when he opened the door, it was to two men hurrying around a corner at the end of a long hall, both of them in the process of drawing mean-looking Makarov semiautomatics.
One of them shouted in Russian.
