Neither of them mentioned that doing so was most likely a death sentence. Annabelle jerked her head at the stairwell door. “I’ll takepoint.”
“Go,” Jamie said. “Careful on the roof. There might besnipers.”
“I’ll wait for the jet to deploy its shields before I letanyoneout.”
The apartment building couldn’t hold the weight of the combat jet, but it was maneuverable enough that it could hold position close to the roof exit and activate its personal shield. He trusted her to make the call on when it would be safe to move hisfamily.
Annabelle slipped through the entrance into the stairwell. Murray stayed put, the veteran giving Jamie alookthat he recognized all too well from the stubborn members of his team—which was allofthem.
“I’ll keep you company on rearguard,”Murraysaid.
The older man wasn’t wearing tactical body armor, but he knew his way around a fight. With his team split up, Jamie wasn’t going to turn down thebackup.
“Appreciate it,” Jamiereplied.
Some part of Jamie wanted to ask Katie to find the metahuman with the null power, but Katie had a more important job at the moment. It didn’t matter that the mind of a metahuman was easier to find in a crowd than a normal human’s. Katie needed to find the suicide bombers before they killed themselves and took too many otherswiththem.
It was up to Jamie to keep hisfamilysafe.
By funneling them through the apartment building, Jamie knew he was putting other innocent civilians at risk. But they needed to get off the ground and out of the box Stanislav had managed to erect around theirposition.
Be unpredictable,Jamie thought as he and Murray pounded up thestairs.
Problem was, Jamie didn’t know what decisions he was making on the fly were ones Stanislavhadn’tseen. He had no way of knowing what future he was running toward. He could only hope it wasn’t one that Stanislavwanted.
The sound of gunfire in the lobby urged them on faster. Jamie made it halfway up the stairs on the second floor before he rocked to a halt. Murray managed to make it to the next landing before he realized Jamie wasn’t with him. The older man paused, turning to look downathim.
“Sir?” Murrayasked.
In a situation like this, most people would remain with their family. That was thelogicalthing to do. Jamie readjusted his weight on the stairs, bracing his assault rifle against hisshoulder.
“I’m heading back down,”Jamiesaid.
To his credit, Murray didn’t ask Jamie what the fuck he thought he was doing, but the expression on the other man’s face spoke well enoughforhim.
“Allright.”
Murray started down the stairs, but Jamie shook his head. “Your job is to protect the senator and hisfamily.”
Murray was too much of a professional to point out that Jamie was part of that family. Instead, he lifted one hand to snap off a perfect salute before hauling ass up the stairs. Jamie hurried down to the next landing, tilting his head to the side as he listened to the sporadic gunfire happening below. From the sounds of it, the people they’d left in the lobby were being overrun, and Jamie only had less than a minute before he came face-to-face with theenemy.
He decided to shorten thattimeframe.
The stairwell was a bottleneck with inadequate cover. It would be easier to hold the line with his enhanced strength, but the metahuman wielding their null power was still within range somewhere. So Jamie did what any good Recon Marinewoulddo.
Heimprovised.
Jamie quickly and silently descended to the ground-floor landing. Three security personnel lay near the doorway, and Jamie knew the dead when he saw them. One was still alive, somehow finding the wherewithal to fire at the enemy with shaky shots, but it was a losing battle judging by the spreading pool of blood underneathherbody.
Jamie knelt and took the gun from her hand when it clicked empty, placing her own over the hole in her gut. The gesture was meaningless, because they both knew she wouldn’t make it out alive, not without immediatemedevac.
“Kick their ass, sir,” she slurred, blood trickling pastherlips.
Jamie nodded, watching as she closed her eyes. He set aside her gun and pried another hand grenade off his utility belt as he straightened up. Jamie ran the risk of wounding one of theirs with friendly fire with this decision, but he didn’t think anyone on their side was still alive in the lobby. Declan’s people and the Sons of Adam weren’t taking prisoners in this fight. With that in mind, Jamie primed the charge and set it for a smaller than usual blast before he sent it spinning through the doorway at anangle.
The explosion shook the building, black smoke blowing back through the open door into the stairwell. Jamie was grateful for his tactical goggles and face mask that filtered out the smoke as he advanced. He stayed close to the wall, stepping over bodies of fallen security personnel and Boston PD. In some cases, it was severed limbs as those within the immediate blast range had been blownapart.
That didn’t mean everyone was takencareof.
