“Two.”
The third man finds cover, rolling under a bush and I target number four, who is still charging across the lawn. When his guts are decorating the lawn, I swing the scope back to find the man behind the bush.
I’m distracted by a dark shape buzzing over the trees and streaking toward the mansion. “Fecking drone,” I mumble, “likely carrying explosives.” I know Colin hears me because there’s guns firing into the trees, but it’s too high for them.
Not for me. As it clears the last tree, I breathe, exhale, and fire. It explodes with a roar, raining down fiery hell, but it didn’t get near the house. There’s already two more drones on the way, ready to take its place.
“Get tae fuck, arsepiece!” I snarl. My first shot knocks one of the drones off course, wobbling over the swimming pool, then dropping in with a dramatic splash. The second is more nimble, dodging my shots. But I am the best shooter ever produced by the Ares Academy and I do not miss.
“Colin, move yer men!” I shout into my headset, “Ya’ got a drone heading in from the southeast, I must take it before it gets any closer.” Glancing down, men are racing away from that section of the grounds and I focus again. “Watch the pattern… there’s always a pattern,” I whisper. When the drone veers left again, I’m ready and it disintegrates with a blinding blue-white flash.
The first bullet hits the tower while I’m still disoriented from the blast and I can feel it sing past me. There’s something wet at the base of my neck and I know it nicked me.
Shuffling my rifle and ammunition to the other corner, I chance a quick look when the bullets peppering the tower stop for a moment.
“Sweet Jesus, what a mess.”
There are men advancing toward the house from two different directions, firing in a way that tells me these are professionals, not just guns for hire. I might have taken down four drones, but I see two more rise above the stone wall. Our guards have held off one of the forces, but the other group of men is mowing down MacTavish guards with superior firepower.
“Mala, get someone on the drones!”
“Aye.” She sounds remarkably calm for a woman who must be terrified for her children. “You’re spotting that force by the gate?”
“On it.”
My mantra starts again, though this time with less visibility, slumped down to avoid the bullets peppering the tower.
Breathe in… let it out… pull the trigger…
The corner next to me explodes into a storm of rock chips. Those fecks must have a cannon. It feels like someone dropped a wasp nest on me and the sting from the shards hitting me is bad.
Clutching my rifle to my chest like a baby, I roll over to the last undamaged corner and start firing with less precision, going for as many hits as I can before they demolish my last bit of shelter, and probably me with it.
Suddenly, I am so happy I told Dougal I love him. And he loves me.
There’s a huge explosion by the back gates, where I’d tried to escape the night of the fundraiser. Two military-style jeeps are pushing through the broken gates, but their progress abruptly stops as they’re both blown into scraps of metal rubble from behind.
“The boys are back,” Mala announces.
From there, it’s quick. The firefight is a blur of color and sound, muffled now by the violent ringing in my ears. There are moments that slow down to a crawl as I target another hostile and then speed up to the point that I scream and swing my rifle around when someone grabs my shoulder.
“It’s me, love! It’s me.” Dougal cups my face with his filthy hands. “It’s done.” He looks as bad as I feel, blood streaked across his face, his shirt’s shredded.
“You’re all bloody,” I offer blankly.
He glances down quickly. “Very little of it is mine.” His eyes widen when he sees the stream of blood on my shoulder and the back of my neck. “Wife, you’ve been hit. I must get you down downstairs.”
“I think it just grazed me,” I mumble, but suddenly, I’m perfectly content to let him carry me out of there.
“Get tae fuck, arsepiece!” - Scottish slang for “Fuck off, you anus.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
In which it seems like you just can't trust anyone these days.
Isla…
“My girl, I am so proud of you.”
