Court reeled from another dizzy spell, but recovered and reloaded the rifle. He checked on the burning documents in the fireplace. Satisfied that this part of the operation had been successfully completed, he exited into the third-floor corridor, his small rifle out in front of him.
—
Claire Fitzroy was the first to hear the footfalls outside the door. There’d been some close shooting, right outside even, a few minutes earlier, but since then it had been quiet. But now someone else was coming. She squeezed Grandpa Donald’s shoulder tightly from fear. Her little eyes blinked hard from the stress, but they stayed focused on the bottom of the door to the hallway.
She heard the clang of metal on wood, more shuffling, and then the rattling of the latch. The door opened slowly, and Claire felt her grandpa’s thick arm squeeze tighter around the gun in his hand, now pointed at two sets of feet entering the room.
The left boot of the man in the back was wet and red.
“It’s Ewan, Sir Donald. Don’t fire.”
Claire started to crawl out with Grandpa Donald, but he pushed her back. He’d no sooner stood up when she heard talking.
Grandpa said, “Bloody good to see you, my boy!”
“Where are the girls?”
Claire recognized Mr. Jim’s voice, and now nothing could have stopped her from crawling out from under the bed. When she stood, she ran to him, crashed into his leg and waist, and hugged him tighter than she’d ever hugged anything in her life. It was a few seconds before she backed away and looked up at him. He wore a black vest on his chest and guns and bags on a belt and hanging off his legs. In his hand was a rifle, and his face and bald head were white as parchment paper and his brown pants were covered in blood.
His eyes were red and watery.
Sweat dripped from his face like rainwater.
Grandpa Donald noticed the stains on Jim’s clothes, too.
“Is that your blood, lad?”
“No, it’s not. But Iwasborrowing it.”
“Bloody hell, man. You need a doctor.”
“I’m good.” Gentry motioned to the Scottish guard standing next to him. “This guy says he’s with you.”
“Ewan has been quite helpful.”
“You trust him enough for me to hand him a weapon?”
There was a slight pause. “I do.” And then, “Just watch yourself, McSpadden.”
“Aye, sir.”
Court unslung the MP5 from his neck and handed it to McSpadden. Gentry pulled his Glock from his hip rig, kept it in his hand at his side. “Where’s Lloyd? I think I hit him,but he got away from me. I figured he’d be down here taking hostages.”
“Haven’t seen the cunt,” said Grandpa Donald, and Gentry looked down to Claire and Kate.
“Don. The language.”
“Sorry.”
Court looked around. “And Elise?”
McSpadden and Sir Donald pulled Mrs. Fitzroy from under the bed by her arms. McSpadden hefted her onto his shoulder and held the Heckler & Koch submachine gun out in front of him as he moved. Ewan led the way, with Sir Donald limping from his wounds behind him, wielding the stainless steel revolver. The two girls followed on the heels of their grandfather, and Gentry brought up the rear, staggering behind slowly now, bracing himself on the corridor’s walls and the railing of the stairs. Once Claire tried to hold him up, but he just smiled at her, said he was fine and that she should stay close to her grandfather.
The caravan moved slowly, as it was comprised chiefly of children, the injured, and the wholly unconscious. After a time, they made it down the stairs to the first-floor foyer. Gentry called out from behind, “Girls! Look right at your grandpa’s back. Straight ahead, you understand? Don’t look around the room.” Around them in the huge hardwood and stone entry was utter carnage. Four bodies right inside the blasted-open doors, two more bloody corpses in the middle of the room, and another two on the staircase alongside them as they descended. Both of the little girls began to cry. Kate coughed in the thick stench of cordite and blasted stone dust and burnt wood. At the base of thestairs, a prostrate figure moved and writhed. It was a bearded Middle Eastern man. He was alive, on his side. McSpadden passed him, as did the rest. Court was the last one to the injured man. Their eyes met for a second, but Court did not slow to help him.
The Gray Man showed no mercy to his enemies.
They moved out of the foyer and into an open sitting room, untouched by battle. The walls were lined with large family portraits. McSpadden paused to get a better hold on the Fitzroy woman, and Gentry leaned against the wall for a moment’s rest. Just then, a shirtless man entered from the far doorway. He was one of the Belarusian guards. He had a neck injury he’d wrapped with a towel, but his Kalashnikov remained in his right hand. Surprised by the entourage in front of him, he lifted his weapon quickly. Sir Donald opened fire with the revolver, blasting the shirtless man back through the doorway and onto his back.
