He’s got blood running down his forehead from a cut near his hairline. "Fuckers won’t stop coming!" he yells, shooting over the barricade at the vague shapes moving up the beach.
"We need to pull back."
“I was told to hold here and I’m going to, damn it.” A soldier next to Gabe goes down screaming, a bullet in his throat. Gabe doesn’t hesitate—he grabs a grenade from the dying man’s vest and throws it across the pool area. The explosion sends several body parts flying into the air.
“It’s lost. We have to go!”
He refuses to move. “Enzo’s sending backup. We just need to hold out a little while longer.”
More bullets scream through the makeshift cover. I return fire, unloading my magazine like a madman at vague shapes in the gloom. So much gunpowder smoke floats in the air, it’s like a fog fell down on the island. I can’t tell how many of Medved’s men are trying to storm the center, but it’s a lot. Several fall before I’m forced back down.
The situation is dire. Lucy’s struggling to hold her position, but she’s getting pushed back. “I respect your bravery but enough’senough. Fall back to the building. That’s an order from your fucking Dragon.”
Gabe snarls at me. “You’re not my fucking Dragon.”
I grab him by the vest, yanking him close. The men nearby are staring, but none move to intercede. And why would they? These are my soldiers.
“Fall. Back.”
Gabe glares. For a moment, I think I might have to knock him out and drag him myself.
Until several explosions send debris and pool water splashing all over.
Men pour out from the Resort behind us, Enzo in their midst. They’re firing like crazy and start taking up defensible positions around the pool area. Medved’s people try to continue their charge, but the new influx of fighters manages to stem their tide.
Once it’s clear the center is going to hold, I manage to drag Gabe back inside.
He collapses against the wall, breathing hard. I stalk away and find Lucy tending to a minor injury on her leg.
“Make sure that idiot doesn’t get himself killed.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Lucy glances at the windows. Enzo and his squad are holding tight. “Medved’s not going to give up. He’s throwing everything at us.”
“We can hold out longer than he can keep coming. We’ll win this.”
As I stride away in search of where the fighting’s heaviest, I get a ping from Lady. I’m surprised to hear her voice in the middle of this. “I thought you were busy helping with the evacuation.”
“I’m an artificial intelligence, Massimo. I can do more than one task at a time. And I believe I’ve found Medved’s precise location.”
That brings me up short. “What are you talking about?”
“It was fairly trivial. There are cameras watching every inch of the island and I have a very good archive of photographs of Medved’s face. Using a very advanced machine learning algorithm of my own creation?—”
“Damn it, Lady, I don’t care about the technical details. I just want to know where he is.”
Lady skirts right up against the line of sounding annoyed. I didn’t even know she was capable of feeling that emotion. “As I said, I can pinpoint him, but he’s on the move. Shall I feed you his location data?”
“Do it.” I check my weapons and grab a few soldiers loitering nearby. “He’s the only person that really matters.”
“Sending you the information now.”
ALLIE
Ilast all of a half hour waiting around the apartment. I wash, dress, and pace the living room, but that’s not helpful at all. The big windows give me a great view of the fighting down on the beach, and it’s terrible.
Guns flash. Explosions detonate. I swear I can see men getting ripped to pieces. I have to pull the blinds, but I can still hear it.
Mass is down there. So are Gabe and Lucy and all the other people struggling to keep this place going. They’re protecting me while I’m hiding here doing absolutely nothing.
