The rotors sparked against stone –
Crumpled like crushed drinking straws –
Stopped spinning –
And the entire helicopter slammed into the front of the mansion and crashed 40 feet to the ground, where it was crushed by an avalanche of stones from the building’s façade.
HOLY MOTHER OF GOD.
The other helicopters panicked.
They thought the shot had come from Luca, Tullio, or Santino, so two of the choppers started circling the roof –
While the other two landed on the lawn behind the house and immediately started disgorging mercenaries.
The ground assault had begun.
The helicopters in the air were moving around and were too difficult to hit –
But the choppers on the ground were sitting ducks.
It’s an old-fashioned shooting gallery,I thought as I sighted through my scope.
My first shot blew out the helicopter’s cockpit window –
And the second blew the pilot’s head apart.
Then I set my sights on the other copter.
That was when the mercenaries on the ground spotted me.
126
Niccolo
Inside The Tunnel
Valentino watched his Rolex like a hawk as I tried to dissuade him. Unfortunately, it was like trying to reason with a toddler.
“Rachel is a former MI6 agent,” I snapped. “She’s trained for this sort of thing – she’s been in war zones across the world!”
“I was there when the Turk invaded our home,” Val said calmly. “And I was in the shootout with Mezzasalma in the restaurant.”
“You’ve been in gunfights, true, but this is something entirely different,” I said. “This is a fuckingmilitary battle.”
“Adriano, Massimo, and Lars went into battle on San Michele,” Valentino pointed out, though he never took his eyes off his watch. “They faced down a sniper and a bunch ofmercenaries. So did a lot of brave men who laid down their lives for our family.”
Alright, so it wasn’t like reasoning with a toddler.
More like a very smart donkey who was stubborn as fuck.
I wanted to say,You’re a spoiled little rich kid who wants to play soldier –
But that wasn’t true, and I knew it.
Valentino had trained just as hard as any of our foot soldiers –
And he had made his bones several times over.
