She reached the end of the alley and paused. Once she stepped out, she would be in plain view of the men crossing the grounds.
And not just them.
Overhead, the helicopter circled into view as it passed over the grounds again. She couldn’t let it swing toward the riverside wall, where Gray must have reached the tower by now.
She tightened her jaw and sprinted out into the open. She aimed her rifle high and fired at the aircraft. She focused on the tail assembly, the helicopter’s most vulnerable spot. Its tail rotor was critical for stability.
Unfortunately, it was a small target, especially for a shooter on the run. However, her main objective wasn’t to down the aircraft, but to distract it. She had already removed her rifle’s suppressor. The weapon chattered loudly as she fired. Rounds pinged off the helo’s undercarriage.
Then a sharper gunshot echoed behind her. A round sparked off the tail. The rotor remained undamaged, but the aircraft spun wildly.
She looked over her shoulder, knowing where the shot had come from, who had fired it.
Gray...
He must’ve reached the tower. She remembered him telling her the story behind the fortification, how an arrow shot from an upper window had killed a marauding khan centuries ago.
Gray must be trying to beat that sharpshooter’s record.
Another round fired from his position, shattering into the chopper’s windscreen. The aircraft bobbled, coming dangerously close to the rampart of the southern wall before veering off.
Praying the gunfire was mistaken as her own, Seichan ducked her head and sprinted away.
By now, the teams on the ground had also spotted her.
Bullhorns roared with orders.
Men shouted.
Rounds pattered around her, but the shadows, her speed, and the angry hornet in the sky all confounded their aim. The teams were fifty meters off and closing in fast.
She swung her rifle and strafed back at them. Earlier, she had stripped a spare magazine from one of the dead gunmen, but the additional ammunition offered her little comfort. She would soon run out.
A loud crash beyond the running men drew her attention. An armored van with a red shield emblazoned on it crashed through the church gate and headed straight across the grounds, bouncing over berms and curbs. She recognized the emblem. It was a unit of the Russian OMON—theOtryad Mobilný Osobogo Naznacheniya—the Federation’s equivalent of a SWAT team.
Screw this.
She faced forward and concentrated on reaching shelter. The nearest outbuilding was the monastery’s old refectory. She raced toward it. The red-brick structure was encased in scaffolding, but it was rusted and missing planks, as if a restoration attempt had been long abandoned.
Still, any port in a storm.
The refectory spread outward in two wings, each three stories high. Inside, there should be plenty of places to hide, to prolong this cat-and-mouse hunt, and possibly offer her a way to escape.
With that goal in mind, she sped toward the refuge.
As she neared it, a series of explosions erupted. Glass blew from the refectory’s windows, accompanied by black smoke and flickers of flames. The blasts deafened her, but not enough to keep her from hearing the other detonations, erupting in all directions.
Stunned, she spun in a circle.
All the outbuildings had become dull torches, lit by fires inside, casting up thickening columns of smoke.
Seichan understood.
Valya...
Just as Seichan had suspected, the woman had planted charges across all the structures.But were the bombs timed to explode after Valya left? Or is she spying from afar and spotted me trying to reach a hiding spot?
With no way of knowing, Seichan turned and headed toward the southern wall. She had already studied the monastery’s layout and noted there was a small archway that led through the wall and out into the neighboring park. Unfortunately, it was gated shut. She didn’t know if the barricade was locked or not—but she had no other exit strategy.
