Still, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m about to get really fucking screwed over.
“I guess two things can be true,” concludes Josh. “Logan is sending us on a suicide mission. But he’s also planning to save Piper.”
I nod slowly. “I’ll forgive anything if thatishis plan. But what Logan doesn’t know is that I’m not just his best soldier. I’m fucking unbeatable. Nothing can possibly stop me from saving Piper.”
Looking far from reassured, Josh follows me out of the plane onto the tarmac below.
Chapter 35
Quill
“No fucking way. No fucking way are we getting out of this alive. There’s just no fucking way.”
By now, I fully regret sharing my doubts with Josh. The words he speaks in a low, barely audible voice as he follows me through a number of different storage spaces, are doing nothing to appease my own nerves.
This is all fucked. I would never have gone on this type of mission back when I was working for Tragen. A contract is for a single man. I wasn’t trained for this.
Wiping out two entire criminal organizations in one go. The whole thing is fucking insane. Logan can’t possibly expect us to get out alive. At most, he’s hoping we’ll manage to sneak the bomb in, and then we’ll blow up with all of them.
There’s no fucking way, either, that the five men I spotted from the Moretti camp heading into the building twenty minutes ago are the only members of that gang. Does that mean there are more lurking inside? How many more?
We’ve seen neither Moretti’s men nor Coltello’s since entering.
I haven’t heard any gunfire yet, which means the two groups haven’t found each other either. It unsettles me not to have eyes on our enemies. The first thing I usually do when killing a contract is to stake them out. Know where they are at all times. There’s nothing more important than that. Right now, it’s like I’m walking blindly.
“Why can’t we just leave the bomb and get the hell out?” whispers Josh, shivering violently.
“It’s not powerful enough to destroy the entire building. Wehave to find them first, and leave it nearby.”
I’m sweating bullets. I’m lugging an AK-47 in one arm, the bomb in the other. I didn’t even suggest Josh take one of them. He’s so nervous he probably would have let them drop and blown us up before we’d even entered the building.
I glance at the timer I activated. Twenty minutes to go. I’d hesitated to start it already, but if we’re attacked before we can leave, at least, the countdown will have begun. It drastically reduces the chances of them getting out alive.
Not that I’m planning on getting attacked. Logan may view this as a suicide mission, but I’m determined it won’t be. I’m equally determined to follow through on his plan. Josh’s logic has convinced me. He may not give a shit about us, but as long as he cares about Piper, I’ll go along with him.
“Fuck,” hisses Josh suddenly. Then he points mutely to something on his left.
I creep back the few steps that separate me from him. Following his gaze, I can just make out a ray of light a few rooms down. There’s a presence over there, and whoever it is is being just as quiet as we are. Though I have no idea why.
Why would Coltello’s men be quiet? Do they know Moretti’s men are already in the building? Or do these men belong to the Moretti faction?
Regardless, we’ve found some of the men we’re supposed to kill, and I guess that’s enough. I’m not going to wait around for perfect conditions. I gesture for Josh to follow. Peeking through the crack in the hinge of the door, I have positive confirmation that the room there is occupied. There’s no way to tell which group the small group of men belong to, but at least we’ll be bombing someone.
I crouch down, sliding the bomb toward the wall noiselessly, and set it up. Maybe we’ll get out of this without a fight, after all. I hadn’t expected it to be so easy. I let myself breathe a sigh ofrelief.
Then I feel Josh’s leg nudge me, barely perceptibly. He’s sidled up to me, only now, he’s facing the opposite direction.Fuck.
I don’t need to turn around to know just how screwed we are. I don’t need to hear the whispered order to put my hands up, one of them still holding limply to the AK-47.
No use resisting. We’ve been found.
The only thing I can hope for is that the men behind us have just as good a reason for hiding as we do.
Inching back up, I train my eyes toward the barrel of the gun pointed straight at me. Then to the man who’s pointing it.
He’s surrounded by four others. They outnumber us, and yet they look just as stressed out as we do.
We’re clearly in the worst position. Sandwiched between them and the group behind us. And yet, every single one of us is trying to be as quiet as possible. It suddenly occurs to me that both these groups must have at least some intelligence on the fact that there’s going to be bloodshed tonight. This is a fucking ambush on all sides. With each group believing they’ve outsmarted the other.
