“We don’t have time to deal with them one at a time.Go for the hard strike.”
This was them playing judge, jury, and executioner, and while it might not be fair, nothing in war ever was.
Movement out the corner of his eye had Jamie shifting position and opening fire on the cluster of Reborn IRA fighters who scrambled for cover across the way in the adjacent gallery.Jamie knew he was running low on ammo and would need to reload soon.Tariq touched his shoulder and jerked his head in the enemy’s direction.
“I’ll handle them,” Tariq said.
Jamie swapped positions with him and shifted around to face the decimated crowd in the grand entrance.Bodies lay on the floor around the pair of doors leading outside while those lucky enough to be alive wandered in a daze, a good amount of them splattered with Splice.Jamie knew the chemical could no longer harm him or his team, but he still felt a minor surge of panic at knowing it was present in the people around them.
People who would soon be dying.
Jamie caught sight of a familiar figure running down the side hallway, not bothering to gain cover every few feet.Trevor didn’t really need to when he could wrap himself in a telekinetic shield.
“Don’t bother with the wounded,” Jamie told him.
Trevor grimaced at that order but nodded his assurances.It was a harsh order to give, but considering almost everyone in the grand entrance and some of those outside were contaminated with Splice, saving them wouldn’t matter.If their wounds didn’t kill them, the chemical would.This was a fight, but it wasn’t technically a war zone.Jamie doubted a mercy killing would be appreciated by the public, even if that’s exactly what it would be.
A mercy.
Trevor picked his way through the wounded and dying on the periphery of the grand entrance.Jamie knew when he’d erected his telekinetic shields by the way people went from shocked to frantic when they realized they couldn’t leave the area.A flutter of fabric caught Jamie’s eye, and he watched as a woman in a voluminous ball gown suddenly crumpled to the ground.He thought maybe it had all become too much for her, or Splice was working exceptionally quickly on her, but then Katie touched his mind, her telepathic voice sounding tired.
Suicide bombers are no longer a problem.Still got hostiles in the museum.
“Let’s start clearing them out,” Jamie said as he reloaded.
A chorus of affirmative responses echoed over the comms.Jamie mentally tagged everyone with relief, but he came up one short.
Wraith?
Here.I’m making my way to Viper’s position, Sean said through a mental link.
“Wraith is clear,” Jamie announced for the team at large.“I’m heading toward the underground entrance.”
“Inferno and I will meet you there,” Annabelle said.
“I’ll cover you,” Samaira said as she braced her own assault rifle against her shoulders.
Tariq stayed behind to cover the area outside of Trevor’s shield in the grand entrance while they advanced toward the Exhibition Road entrance.The once-white marble statues had scorch marks on their surfaces from the fire, their shields having failed, and the floor was slippery from the water Samaira had created earlier.Jamie wished his dress shoes had more grip as they moved through the sculpture gallery in quick bursts of movement, using some of the larger statues for cover.
Annabelle and Alexei joined them as they approached the stairs leading down to the tunnel that connected the museum to the South Kensington Station beneath the Exhibition Road.Annabelle held up a stun grenade for Jamie to see and jerked her head at the stairs.
“Want me to clear the way?”she asked.
“By all means,” Jamie said.
Annabelle primed the device before stealthily creeping down the stairs far enough to lob it over the side and onto the lower landing.Then she hustled back to where they waited as, seconds later, the stun grenade went off.With the floor and walls between them and its debilitating sensory attack, they were fine.The Reborn IRA tasked with holding the tunnel entrance weren’t so lucky.
Their screams echoed in the stairwell as the stun grenade let loose a burst of light so bright that, even with his eyes closed, Jamie could still see it.The noise of its eruption was slightly muffled through the flooring, but it still made Jamie’s ears ring a little.Blinking rapidly, he took point on the way down, with Alexei right beside him, the two of them sighting down their weapons and clearing the way.Jamie kept his finger on the trigger, doing wide sweeps as they descended.
There weren’t many Reborn IRA left below.Faced with a resistance they weren’t prepared for, most had fled down the tunnel, either out through the entrance near Hyde Park or into the crush of people in the Underground.Jamie wasn’t happy about that, but the fewer enemies they had to face without proper field gear meant a lower chance of getting hurt.Alpha Team was hobbled by needing cover for protection more than the other side.
Drawn down into the brightly lit underground area, Jamie and Alexei held position at the bottom of the stairs and picked off their targets.With each person they took out, they advanced, taking back the area in increments until they were faced with a long hallway.At the end, one of the metal security doors leading to the tunnel beneath Exhibition Road was propped open, with only one man guarding it.
He opened fire, keeping them pinned where they were at the other end of the hall.When a lull happened, Alexei swiftly checked the threat before moving around the corner and down the tunnel.When the Reborn IRA guard popped back into view, Alexei took him out with ruthless efficiency.The body dropped to the ground, and Alexei listened intently for any hint of sound as he advanced.Jamie was halfway to his position when Alexei chanced a look into the tunnel proper.
“Think maybe running to Underground,” he reported, sounding annoyed about that.“Can go after?”
“Knight, you got police at South Kensington?”Jamie asked, holding up a hand to Alexei, silently asking him to wait.
