More explosions rocked their feet. A quick look out the window confirmed the entire east wing was falling into a hole. The fact that the west wing was reinforced to hold up this very room was the only reason they weren’t lying under ten feet of luxury mansion.
“We can defend ourselves from here, unless you’ve got any more fucking surprises for me?!” Dorian shouted, his hair now a mess from his panic. T.B. seemed to balk at that, and Dorian wondered if T.B. had, in fact, some other surprises for him.
Before he could address it, guards were screaming in the hall, and T.B. was shouting again, too. “They don’t have their driver, we can escape if we run.”
“We’ll hit the button,” Dorian said.
“No,” T.B. said. “I can outrun them in a car, but I’m not a fucking shooter!”
“Shelter in place, defend the room.” Dorian scrunched his face at T.B.’s insubordination, but went to the drawer in his desk and hit the big red button.
* * *
Adam shook the water from his hair. It was a climb up to the upper level since the stairs had fallen apart with the explosions. The fire had caused the water sprinklers to go off, soaking them all in the mayhem.
Once he reached the upper level, he bent to take a breath, checking on his friends behind him. Dan looked like an absolute fucking lunatic, shaking his wet hair like a dog. Tongue out and panting like one, too, with a crazy-as-shit look in his eye. Paul was stoic and determined, while Carlos wore the look of panic that they all felt but didn’t show.
Guards were scrambling toward Blake’s office, stumbling over rubble and falling roof panels. The west wing was still completely intact.
It was like a beacon on a runway. The guards rushing to defend it may as well have been airport controllers with little orange sticks.This way to kill Dorian Blake, sir.
Adam rushed the hallway, diving over broken furniture, dodging falling sculptures, and stumbling with the aftershocks of their explosives. Heavy footfalls behind him confirmed his friends were coming, too.
“This is taking too long,” Paul said as they stopped to catch their breath.
Two hallways.
Two crimson and gold hallways were all that stood between him and killing Dorian Blake.
“We’re giving him time to load up,” Carlos agreed.
Adam reloaded his gun. They needed to advance. They needed to push ahead. “Then cover me.”
He waited for each of his friends’ attention, and then nodded.
He lurched forward, pacing into a full-speed sprint as he pressed ahead. With his friends laying cover fire at his back, he advanced into the fray.
Making it all the way to the end of the hall, Adam grabbed the collar of one of the guards, pulling him back to stop him from running away. He threw him to the floor, kicked him down, and then finished him with a pistol.
Dan, Paul, and Carlos were covering the rear, still firing and picking off enemies that tried to flee. Another guard came at Adam’s front, knocking him back with a jab that drew blood from his nose. Responding swiftly, he punched back hard, and connected several times. Right, left, uppercut, and the guard was down.
Behind him, Dan, Paul, and Carlos advanced farther down the hallway, following him. They ducked for cover and shot at the guards who jumped out from the adjoining hallways to follow them.
“We’ve gotta push ahead more,” Adam said, wiping his face again. The ground shook once more, and this time the roof completely opened up.
“Shit,” Carlos said.
The floor beneath them began to separate. The west wing would officially be the last part standing, and they were on the wrong side of it.
“Jump,” Adam said calmly. He made a leap, landing upright like it was just as natural as walking. Paul landed next to him, then Carlos, and Adam grabbed Dan’s hand to pull him the last of the way.
It was still taking way too fucking long.
Desperation getting the better of him, he ran ahead without warning.
“Fucking hell, let’s go,” he heard Paul call.
Adam bolted ahead, shooting any enemy that came too close, Paul running at his side to do the same. At the back, Dan and Carlos ran backward as they covered the rear. They’d formed a full circle, springing forward like a wheel.
