‘No, it’s jammed,’ he tells her, heading swiftly for Jules, mind clear.‘We’re under attack.Get Penhalyx somewhere safe, do it quietly.Don’t wait.’
‘What about the East Wing?’
‘I’m taking Jules there now.’
Lachlan is at Jules’ side in less than five seconds, carefully loops a hand through his arm and guides him away.‘Apologies,’ he says to the people Jules was talking with.‘He’ll be right back.’
Without waiting to answer questions, he pulls Jules away towards the staff stairwell they used last time.‘What is it?’Jules asks.‘Is it Mimi?Is she—?’
‘Be quiet.’
‘Fuckinganswerme, Bodyguard.’
Lachlan doesn’t.
Along the way, they pass Roman, Vasily and Savannah.
Lachlan catches the other bodyguard’s eye.He’s holding a dead radio in his hand.‘Jammed?’
‘Unclear,’ he lies, doesn’t want the extra weight.‘Jules, with me.’
‘No, they’re coming too,’ the boy insists, slight panic in his voice shows that he knows something is up.‘I’m not moving unless they come too.’
Lachlan grits his teeth.‘Fine.’Fuck’s sake.‘Everyone stay quiet.’
‘What is happening?’Roman asks, falling into step as they vanish around the corner into the corridor framing the ballroom.‘Is it another storm?’
Lachlan scans the area before ushering everyone towards the same stairwell where he shot Fenwick.
He opens his mouth to respond when a heavy blast cuts him off.
A controlled explosion detonates somewhere inside the ballroom.
Lachlan instantly knows it’s the dome.
The sound that follows is unlike anything he’s ever heard.
An orchestra of screams erupting beneath falling glass in sheer panic.
Savannah cries out for her mother, trying to run back, but her bodyguard catches her immediately and restrains her with sharp, quiet commands.
‘Oh my God,’ Jules utters, visibly terrified.‘We’re being attacked again?’
‘Stay close to me,’ Lachlan instructs, moving swiftly onwards.He finds a small nook they can take a breath in.‘Everyone close your eyes.’
‘What?’Vasily asks, sounds terrified.‘No,no,if we’re going to die, I won’t close my eyes, I want to see—’
‘They’ll cut the power next.You’ll be night-blind.Close your eyesnow.’Lachlan has a feeling Julesisn’tgoing to do it, so he covers the boy’s eyes with his hand, closes his own and counts the rings in a cut-down tree.
One.
Two.
Three.
He hears another new kind of scream, higher pitched, opens his eyes to near total darkness.‘OK, open,’ he whispers.
‘Blyad,’ Roman mutters.
