“The Met Police have it covered now.Hold your position in case they double back,” Liam responded.
Jamie signaled Alexei to stay put.“Confirmed.We’ll hold the tunnel.”
“Copy that.”
I’ll start scrambling memories, Katie said.
“We’ll guard the Exhibition Road entrance,” Annabelle said.
Jamie nodded.“Copy that.”
Annabelle and Samaira headed back upstairs to keep watch on the street level while Jamie and Alexei found what cover they could along the wall inside the entrance, which wasn’t much.
Alpha Team and the other UMG agents would do their best to keep whoever might survive safe and comfortable until the danger had passed.When all was said and done, their covers would remain intact.
The dead couldn’t speak, after all.
* * *
Kyle raced down Exhibition Road, the path he needed to take seared into his mind.He was glad for the long walk he’d done the other day.It made orienting himself easier, even at night.
Police and UMG agents swarmed the area outside of the museum.Police sirens whooped through the air as more people arrived to help with containment.Someone pointed and shouted at Kyle to stop, but he just kept running.He hit the intersection at Cromwell Road and sprinted across, breathing hard.The UMG, with the help of the police, had discreetly cleared several blocks around the museum, which meant he didn’t have to deal with vehicle traffic.
Rather than stay on the street, Kyle veered right, careening down the stairs of an Underground entrance to the tunnel that would take him to South Kensington Station.He wasn’t sure if it would put him ahead or behind Pavluhkin, but either way, he’d be on a more direct path to his target.
He came out in the underground tunnel with its brickwork walls and holographic adverts racing the length of long screens.Kyle caught his breath as he checked the tunnel in both directions and found it eerily empty.The only way to go was forward, so Kyle ran in the direction of the South Kensington Station.
His footsteps echoed in the tunnel, no matter how quiet he tried to be.Dress shoes weren’t meant for fieldwork, and he couldn’t hide his approach.At every curve in the tunnel, Kyle waited just long enough to be sure the coast was clear before running again.Kyle wasn’t sure if the lack of people was due to the UMG or whichever camp laid claim to the Reborn IRA fighters currently shooting up history in the form of art.
The tunnel took a sharp curve to the right, and Kyle checked for clearance before racing around it.The food stand at the end of the short section of tunnel had all its lights on, but no one manned the counter.Kyle would’ve passed it on by if not for the multiple bodies stacked up against a food case.He skidded to a hard halt before the next corner, staying out of sight.He swore under his breath as he took in the black and white uniforms of Metropolitan police officers.A thick pool of blood was forming underneath them, and Kyle didn’t bother checking for a pulse on any of them.
The Reborn IRA had clearly gotten the upper hand; he just didn’t knowhow.
The noise of a crowd well beyond the tunnel echoed down to where Kyle stood.He could hear several people angrily asking why they couldn’t enter the tunnel, which told him someone was standing guard.Whoever they were, Kyle doubted they were legitimate officers.Kyle flexed his fingers around the grip of his handgun.Slipping around the corner, he quickly ran toward the bright lights of the station pouring through the tunnel exit.He took the stairs near the entrance two at a time to the final landing right as one of the people arguing with a fake cop on duty pointed in his direction.
“What about that bloke?Why didheget to go down and we can’t?”
The man masquerading as a cop turned, but he was too slow.Kyle lashed out with his foot and caught him in the back of the knee with a hard kick.The man shouted in pain as he stumbled, unable to recover quickly enough to counter Kyle’s next attack.Kyle wrapped an arm around his throat in a chokehold and twisted him around, using his body as cover.Kyle put his back to the wall and brought up his gun, taking aim and firing at the pair of cops on the other side of the tunnel entrance who were already pulling out hidden guns.
The cops initially assigned to guard the tunnel hadn’t been armed police.The fact that these were just proved they were imposters.
The sound of the gun going off prompted everyone in the vicinity to scream and run.
Kyle slammed the butt of his handgun against the temple of the guy weakly thrashing in his arms to knock him out.Dropping him on the floor, Kyle ran through the panicked crowd and what space the threat of his gun allotted him, making it to a railing that overlooked the ticketing area and the gates to the Underground.He scanned the crowd with a sniper’s eye, knowing he couldn’t have been that far behind, just needing a glimpse of his target but coming up empty.
Spinning around, he raked his eyes over the crowd around him.Kyle caught a flash of blonde hair and the profile of a face he recognized from seeing it through his scope in Los Angeles.No hat this time, but that was definitely Oksana with Stanislav by her side, racing up the stairs to the food hall that linked to the street.
“Motherfucker,” Kyle snarled.
He got about five steps in their direction before the sound of fire erupting in the air had him diving for the ground, taking the people in front of him down with him.Twin pillars of fire burned through the air and the people unlucky enough to be in its way.The smell of cooked meat hit Kyle’s nose, and he gagged as he pushed himself to his knees, gun in hand.
The metahuman had arrived the same way he had, from the tunnel linking the station to the museums.Dressed in military gear rather than evening wear, Kyle pegged him as a Reborn IRA member, though which faction he didn’t know and couldn’t care.Sweat beaded on his forehead as the fire twisted through the air in unnatural ways.Knowing he only had seconds to respond, Kyle sighted down his gun, aiming for the metahuman’s face over his well-protected body.A headshot was always more difficult to achieve, but Kyle had been doing this for a decade.
The fire cut out at the same instant Kyle’s bullet found its target, a red mist erupting from the man’s head as the body fell to the ground.Kyle blinked sweat out of his eyes as he scrambled to his feet, making a run for the exit he’d seen Oksana use, shoving past people standing around in shock at what just happened.
Kyle was halfway up the stairs to the hall when one of Oksana’s bodyguards rounded the corner, gun drawn, but Kyle was quicker on the trigger.He shot the man in the gut, even as he threw himself to the side, getting out of the way of the bullets that peppered the spot he’d just been in.Running up the stairs, Kyle slammed the other man against the wall and rammed his knee into the bleeding wound in his midsection.
The man didn’t scream so much as vomit blood all over himself before Kyle quickly let him go.He slid to the ground, body splayed on the stairs.Kyle ran, too focused on the targets getting away to care about the bodies he was leaving in his wake.
