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She crawled into the brush-choked gully, scrabbling in rocks and roots and spiny foliage. Up over the edge of the drop-off. She wiggled through scrubby brush until she found a place to look down.
Jeremy lay on the ground, trussed and helpless, in a pool of blood, but still writhing. Ranieri had cuffed Manfred, too, but he was bleeding out. It was a long shot from here, with a PX4-Storm pistol, but the other M4’s and the Galil sniper rifles had been packed into the vehicle. She’d improvise. She focused on Ranieri’s dirt smeared face, took careful aim, relaxing, focusing, but the filthy bastard was a blur of constant, restless movement. She dogged his jerky image in the scope as Ranieri hoisted the writhing Jeremy under his armpits, dragging him over to throw right next to Manfred. Jeremy saw his colleague, the gaping leg wound, the blood. Jeremy’s slack face, his staring eyes.
The realization of what was about to happen hit Jeremy the same moment it hit Zoe. He jerked up, arching and straining—
Boom.She flinched as Manfred’s cell phone blew up, flipping his and Jeremy’s bodies both into the air. The cell had self-destructed shortly after the cessation of Manfred’s heartbeat.
That blast had to have killed Jeremy, too. Zoe braced herself.
Boom,the other phone detonated, in turn. She peeked out. Only the broken bodies of her team were lying there. So Ranieri had not been killed. He’d taken cover. Hiding like a lizard in the rocks. Cowed.
He must be so bewildered. So confused.
Her body shook with silent giggles. So funny. She hadn’t even considered those phone self-destruct mechanisms as a danger at all. They were accustomed to easy, smooth victories. No losses. No contest.
What a shame Ranieri hadn’t been crouching over her colleagues when it blew. That would have been so funny, she could hardly…even…standit. And the laughter was hurting her broken ribs. She groped for her personalized dose of Calitran-Z. Peeled off the adhesive, pushed the business side against her wrist.
She was alone now, and cut off. Only the pistol she carried, the thermal goggles around her neck, and--wait.Hold everything.
Excitement pumped hotly through her body. Parr wasn’t with the men. They wouldn’t have left her in the cabin. They would have given her an escape route to maximize her chances of survival. But Parr was emotional. She’d bonded with Ranieri. Probably fucked him left right and sideways already. And she was tough, too. No rabbit.
Parr had heard the shots and explosions. She’d creep back, worried and curious. The woods were thick, and she was probably shrouded in camo. No problem. Zoe lifted the thermal goggles, and quartered the hillside, scanning for that rainbow tinted glow. If she could cut Parr off, she could pick off Ranieri and McCloud when they came running to Parr’s aid.
Yes.Fifty meters up. Invisible to the naked eye, but Zoe’s eyes were anything but naked. Parr glowed in the woods like an opal.
Zoe’s blood-spattered cheeks hurt from grinning.
* * *
Keep it together,Parr.It was hard, to follow her own stern advice. Her hands were slick with sweat, clamped on the butt of the Glock that Bruno had given her, along with terse instructions.Point and click. If you don’t want it to go bang, don’t pull the trigger.Clear enough, but her heart thudded so fast, she was dizzy. She hadn’t been this scared on her own account, but the thought of Bruno, lying on the ground, bleeding—oh, God. Her knees almost buckled.
She couldn’t do what Bruno had ordered her. Not after she heard the noise. She had a gun, she could pull the trigger, like anybody else.
She shuffled down the hill, scared to her guts of what she might find there. She crawled down below the cliff’s edge, under a crumbling overhang, looking for a good vantage point with cover.
The long silence was scaring the crap out of her.
Wind sighed in the scrubby trees that clung to the rocky slope. She huddled under the overhang, and—ohGod—
Bats burst out, fluttering. She jerked back, almost lost her balance—
Zhingg, a bullet smacked the rock wall, right where her head had been. She slid and tipped. One leg slid off the ledge, sending a shower of dirt clods and rocks bouncing down the hill. Where thehell…?
Lily stared out at the grayish brown foliage. She leaned forward—
Zhhingg, another bullet whizzed past her ear, hit the cliff face, exploding in a stinging shower of rock and dirt. So close.
She was pissed. Enough of acting like prey. She’d hunt that dirty, rat bastard right back. She slithered on her belly, one hand awkwardly clutching the pistol, and dragged herself up between two big towers of striated black granite. She spotted the gunman, scrambling up the hill.
Smaller than she’d expected, dressed in camo gear. Loping up the steep mountainside with the grace of an Olympic gymnast doing a medal winning routine. He looked up. Their eyes met.
Holyshit!That was no man. That was Miriam! Howard’s nurse!
Miriam gave her a big smile and swung up her gun. Lily ducked.Zzhhing, a bullet ricocheted off the rock where her head had been.
Lily clenched muscle, teeth, fists.Not today, bitch. You’re not going to get me today.
Miriam was crawling hand over hand. Lily scrambled to use the moment of grace, crawling frantically up over the ledge and into the trees. She belly crawled, as quietly as she could, but still snapped twigs and thwacked boughs. Her heartbeat alone had to sound like distant thunder. An ancient tree had fallen years ago, and its whitened root system towered into the air like a skeletal fan. Best cover she could find. Also the most obvious. Too bad. Miriam would arrive any minute.
