Page 74 of No Safe Place

“And the rest of my money,” she said.

Shaw looked at her again, the conniving eyes behind her glasses. He actually admired her. She knew how to put the bite on when opportunity knocked, didn’t she?

“As soon as we’re done,” Shaw said.

“Which way do I go?” she said.

Shaw flicked on his MP5’s undermounted flashlight and pointed its beam across the sandwich board at the stairwell.

“Past the board,” he said.

She did as instructed and was coming past the sandwich board when Shaw’s silenced gun went click-clack. As the two rounds of 9mm Parabellum hit her in the side of the head just behind her right ear, she toppled forward like a sack of potatoes, her glasses shattering as she face-planted off the concrete.

Sometimes getting the money was the easy part, wasn’t it? Shaw thought as he hurried over and grabbed her ankles and dragged her into a broom closet under the stairs.

Staying alive to spend it, Shaw thought as he closed the door and scooped his brass and ran for the mouth of the tunnel.

Now, that was the real bitch.

64

We were coming up on the corner of the tunnel when behind me I heard Colleen kick something. It made a skittering sound beside me a second before I felt it ricochet off my left foot. As I swung the gun’s flashlight down, I saw it was a cell phone.

Not just any cell phone but a satellite cell phone, I saw as I knelt and lifted it up by its antenna.

When I realized what it was and that Daisy must have dropped it when she fell, I suddenly knew that what had made her flip out and run wasn’t a sudden bout of claustrophobia after all.

“Scotty, no! Come back! Come back!” I yelled at his back in the tunnel ahead.

But I was too late.

The rattle of automatic gunfire that started from around the turn of the tunnel was as deafening as it was sudden. I watched in shock and horror as Scotty’s light shook crazily and I heard him scream in pain as he fell.

“Back! Back! Back!” I yelled, trying to dodge around Jodi in front of me in the narrow corridor with the ballistic shield.

But I wasn’t fast enough.

Just as I came shoulder to shoulder with Jodi, a bright white blossom of gunfire came from around the tunnel corner ahead. I heard some rounds skip off the stone wall right beside me and some whip past my ear and then I felt a splash of something wet as Jodi suddenly fell into me.

I felt rounds smack into the shield as I finally dove forward and lifted it up in front of me. There was one and then another and then two more. Each made a clunking sound like an axe chopping wood.

When I glanced at the bulletproof aperture, it was just in time to see a gray smudge of lead smack a spiderweb crack across it. Another round hit almost at the same exact spot a split second later, dimpling back the cracked glass.

With my free right hand, I thumbed down the MP5 that I was holding to full auto, put the barrel along the side of the shield and pulled the trigger. Raking it side to side, I let off a long burst down the tunnel and then another and then a third, emptying the mag.

When I turned back, I saw that Colleen had already grabbed Jodi from under her arms and was dragging her backward. As I backed with her, keeping the shield in front of all of us, there was another burst of gunfire and another spray of lead pinged and punched off the shield. Bits of glass almost got in my eyes as it was hit yet again.

This shield was saving our lives at the present but it had its limits, I knew. Every time it was hit, its steel was weakened. Bottom line, we needed to get the hell out of the tunnel or we were going to die.

“Pull her into the side storage room there,” I called to Colleen behind me.

Another roar of fire came at us, chipping the brick opening as we all hurried in.

The first thing I did as I got clear of the corridor was replace the magazine of the MP5 and the second thing I did was stick it back into the tunnel without looking and pull the trigger until it stopped firing.

By the time it went click, the gun smoke was so thick and hazy, I couldn’t see the other side of the corridor. I put in another fresh mag and slapped down the bolt carrier before I turned to see Colleen giving Jodi CPR.

But it wasn’t necessary, I saw a moment later as I crouched forward with the light.

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