Page 7 of Silver Fire

“Yes,” Sophie replied as understanding dawned on her.

“You should keep a cell phone and a weapon down here,” Maia said, turning around and ascending the stairs back to the kitchen. She was busy entering notes on a tablet when Sophie returned with the wine.

Maia asked her some standard questions such as when the death threats started. Sophie informed her that receiving death threats was a part of her life as a daughter of a prominent nuclear physicist. However, threats in the last year had intensified before culminating in the attack last week when she was leaving her Kendo class.

“Your attacker had a mask, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“The police report said you were able to disarm him.”

“I caught his reflection when I was closing my Pilot’s liftgate. I was barely able to duck before he took a shot. Fortunately, he missed. I think I startled him when I went after him with my Kendo stick.”

Maia smiled approvingly before asking, “Who would want to kill you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did he say anything? Any accent?”

Sophie’s eyes widened. “He did! Come to think of it…hmm…I couldn’t place it. Why didn’t the Metropolitan police ask me about his accent?”

“I need to know who would stand to benefit or lose from your research.”

“I think my current research is not a big player here,” Sophie admitted. “But my father’s research is more controversial. It’s a bomb that can flatten a small town like a nuclear bomb without the after-effects of radiation.”

Maia’s eyes narrowed as she typed ceaselessly into her tablet. “Has anyone approached you about developing it?”

“A couple actually. But Blackstone International seems to be the most aggressive in sending proposals.”

“Christopher Blackstone?”

“Yes. Have you met him?’

Maia nodded. “Blackstone International is rumored to be secretly manipulating African conflicts. I’ll find out what I can.”

Sophie took a sip of her wine. She needed to pay more attention to world news rather than hide away in her laboratory. Blackstone International was her main supplier of raw zefinium and she had known Christopher almost all her life. All Sophie knew was the highest-grade came from a little section of land between South Africa and Mozambique. There were other sources around the African continent, of course.

Just when she was about to relay this tidbit to Maia, the windows of her kitchen exploded.

* * *

“Get down!”Maia shouted as she shoved Sophie onto the red-clay tiled floor and drew her 9mm. Assault rifle fire drowned the once pristine designer kitchen in chaos and that simply infuriated her. She saw her decimated cellphone on the floor. It had sustained a direct hit where she had left it on the kitchen counter. AGS would immediately receive notification that she had gone off the grid. The frenetic din of gunfire persisted before a couple of firebombs sailed through the shattered windows.

The assailants were smoking them out!

“Sophie, where’s the phone?” Maia yelled through the noise. The blonde woman had her arms securely crossed behind her head in a protective posture. She unfolded one arm and pointed to the console right at the entrance of the kitchen. “Let’s go.” She shielded Sophie’s body as they ran full tilt out of the kitchen. “Is there another exit?”

“Balcony,” Sophie whispered, starting to choke on the smoke as she grabbed her purse to get to her cellphone. Maia snatched the cordless phone off the small table and started dialing 9-1-1. More firebombs hit the living room. “They cut the phone line,” Maia said as she threw the cordless phone away. She pulled Sophie to a crouch behind an imposing marble half-column.

“Yes, 9-1-1? We’re at…hello? Hello?” Sophie looked at Maia. “I think they’re jamming cell phone reception.”

“Son of a bitch,” Maia muttered. She glanced at Sophie, who appeared to be holding it together, but for how long? “We’re gonna have to make a run toward the balcony. I want you to duck behind the sofa while I check out that exit. They may be waiting for us.”

The two women crouch-walked to the other side of the house. Sophie dove behind the couch as instructed while Maia leaned against the wall and started to push the sliding door. As soon as the door moved, gunfire cracked through the glass. Maia spied a couple of gunmen and squeezed off a shot, taking one down. She could probably barrel through them, but she couldn’t risk Sophie getting hit. She glanced back at the interior of the house. It was going to go up in flames soon, burning them alive. The gunmen had no intention of coming in. They were making sure no one got out.

“Jack,” Maia whispered.Damn it. She was not going down like this and not when her husband thought she was pissed at him. Well she was, but that seemed inconsequential compared to suffocating to death by fire. She scrambled back to Sophie.

“We need to use the cellar.”

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