“Goggles on,” I whispered.
I flipped my night vision headset into place –
And suddenly I could see the hallway perfectly in shades of green.
Ciro and Romeo had theirs on, too.
They looked like fuckin’ aliens with those four lenses.
“Tiratore, stay in the room with the fuse boxes until you hear from me,” I whispered.
“Got it, boss.”
I stood behind Luciano and put my left hand on his left shoulder. My right hand held my gun.
“You hear any of your guys, you identify yourselfimmediately,”I whispered in Luciano’s ear. “Now go.”
I pushed Luciano forward and steered him through the darkness.
We passed through a study with bookshelves and a desk. Lots of old paintings on the wall, even a suit of armor standing in the corner like a museum exhibit.
The place looked like a horror movie through my night vision goggles.
We got to the end of the room, and I whispered, “Door.”
Luciano felt for the doorknob. Once he found it, he opened it up –
And I saw a guy in a suit in the next room over, feeling his way blindly along the walls. His face looked sickly green through the night vision.
“Who’s that?” he asked gruffly, his hand reaching for his holster.
“It’s Luciano.”
I stepped out from behind Luciano and aimed my silenced Beretta at theCosa Nostrafoot soldier.
Through my goggles, the laser light looked like a bright green flare on his chest.
“Oh,” the foot soldier said, relaxing. “Nobody told me you were – ”
Before he could finish, I pulled the trigger twice.
Pop pop!
The guy’s face looked surprised –
And then he collapsed.
THUD.
As soon as the guard hit the floor, Ciro and Romeo split off to the left.
Their job was to fan out through the house, get to the rooms where the foot soldiers slept in bunkbeds, and kill them.
Even if the assholes woke up, the room would be pitch black with the electricity shut off.
With Ciro and Romeo’s night vision goggles, it should be like shooting fish in a barrel.
Suddenly, another dude’s voice called out from the next room over. “What was that?! Edoardo, you okay?!”
