The report jolts me, a sharp boom that rolls across the landscape like thunder; a figure standing just outside the plant jerks backward and topples over.
CRACK! Another report from Nico's rifle.
"Shit. Miss," Silas mutters. "He moved." Then, louder, intense. "He's on the move! Running!"
There's another boom, but this one doesn't sound like a gunshot, although I'm far from an expert.
"Ohhhh…fuckme!” Silas snarls. "He hit a mine! Fuck me, he's in pieces. Jesus."
"All hold!" Nico shouts into his microphone. "The field is mined. Hold, hold, hold! Repeat, the field ismined."
"There's the twist," Silas says to Nico. "You know there was one coming."
"How—" I swallow hard over my tightening throat. “Now what? If the field has mines in it and his own goons don't know where they are, then how are our guys supposed to get closer?"
"Exactly the problem," Silas answers without looking at me. "We have no idea how many mines there are or where they are. It's a miracle none of our people stepped on one. But they have to stay where they are or risk ending up in pieces like thatpoor bastard." He chuckles—it's a dark sound. "I mean fuck, the dude’s legs went one way and his upper half another."
"Thanks for that vivid description, Silas," I murmur.
"Welcome," he answers.
That's when an overlapping barrage of gunfire erupts from the plant, answered by our guys in the grass.
The only problem is that the bad guys have cover, and ours do not.
And just like that, things have gotten seriously complicated.
17
DELIRIUM
JAKOB
I watch the whole thing unfold from the chair I'm tied to.
I hear the rifle report a half-second after the guy's head explodes. The second goon takes off running—into the field, for some reason, rather than back into the relative safety of the building. Panic makes you do stupid things, I suppose.
He takes off sprinting for who knows where, but he only gets a dozen or so steps before an explosion crumps the air, rattling the building and making the dust on the floor underfoot jump. The goon is blown to literal pieces, his legs essentially disintegrating while his torso flies in another direction.
The other three henchman, in the process of heading for the door, stop and whirl on Pugli, snarling at him angrily, pointing at the pieces of their compatriot.
You neglected to tell us about the FUCKING MINES!I can imagine they're saying.
Pugli answers calmly, in English, once he's gotten them to stop shouting at him. "I may have forgotten to mention the mines, yes." Something in his eyes tells me he didn't forget anything. "But it's in our favor. They can’t get any closer very soon, which means their greater numbers mean nothing.” He points at the catwalk, a good twenty feet up, which goes rightpast the bank of windows a third of the way up the wall. "One of you up there, two of you at the doors. The mines are all outside, so as long as you stay in here, you will be fine."
I wonder about that, but stay silent. I watch one of the three remaining henchmen scramble up to the catwalk while the other two approach the open door from opposite angles.
Catwalk henchman opens fire; I hear the concussions of my team returning fire, their rounds stippling the ceiling with holes that stream narrow beams of daylight. Below, the other two are opening fire now, and receiving it turn.
Hands grab my shoulders, and something sharp and cold touches the skin behind my left ear. "Not a sound. Do not even breathe, Caleb Indigo." Pugli's voice is hot and close. "Did you feel hope, for a moment?"
The zip ties around my ankles snap free as he slices through them, but he doesn't free my wrists. "Up. To your feet."
I'm forced to keep my hands behind me, the chair dangling an inch above the ground, hanging from my wrists by the zip ties. I can walk, but it's awkward, and I’m certainly not going to be making a break for it like this, wounded or not.
Clever bastard.
Although…the chair might just stop a bullet. Something to think about. For now, his knife pricks the middle of my back between my shoulder blades. "See that door over there?" A free hand points over my shoulder, and I follow with my eyes.
