Page 62 of Smoke and Shadows

“We have no choice. This ends now.”

“Viktor, she can’t do this alone,” Derek interjected.

“She won’t be alone,” Viktor said. “Is the Escalade bulletproof?”

Jack smiled grimly. “It is. What do you need?”

Rafiq Shadid was furious.He walked the length of the datacenter, getting angrier by the minute as he surveyed the remaining hostages. Baran thought he was so tough. Therewas nothing Rafiq obsessed over more than making Viktor Baran feel what he had felt when the man killed his mother. The codes were secondary. He had nothing personal against Baran’s agents. They were just a means to an end, and that was to demolish the great Viktor Baran.

It was unfortunate to have killed the young analyst, but Tim Burns was more important to keep alive.

“Are you happy now?” Pierce taunted him. “Holly was just an intern. Do you think Viktor cares that you killed her?”

“Shut up!” Rafiq screamed at her. “You’re next. Say your prayers to whatever God you worship.”

One of his henchmen rushed into the datacenter. “Ali is dead. I found his body in the medical facility. He was shot.”

“No,” Rafiq said as he whirled around and stalked toward Burns, butting the muzzle of his gun to his head, he said, “You said they were civilians. How could they get the jump on my man?”

“I—I don’t know.”

Rafiq cocked his pistol. “Bring up the footage of the medical bay from the past half-hour.”

“I’m not sure—”

“Don’t lie to me!” Rafiq screamed. The analyst flinched.

“Do it, Tim,” Pierce ordered.

Rafiq watched in disbelief at the video of Ali’s demise. “Cole.” His breathing fractured, his rage threatening to spiral out of control, and then he recognized the man on the bed. “Matsuda. You have Matsuda.” The codes became inconsequential. His enemies continued to win. He needed Baran’s pain right now.

“Dead,” he whispered. “You’re all dead. Call Baran. He can forget his thirty minutes.” He turned his burning gaze on Maia Pierce. “He can watch me execute you.” He raised his gun.

There was shouting, followed by shaking above ground, and then a plink of metal, followed by the loss of his faculties.Pain bloomed behind his head, his legs gave out, and darkness was pushing in. Everyone was scrambling, there were grunts of pain, and the exchange of gunfire was deafening. Rafiq Shadid realized that the warm, sticky liquid flowing out from him was his life slipping away.

“Rafiq is losing it,”Marissa whispered urgently through her phone. “Move in. Now!”

The men were going to ram their vehicles into the entrance of AGS. Though it was a bit too theatrical and something one would see in movies, given what had happened so far to the nation’s capital, it was up to par.

“Copy that. Floor it, Stark,” Viktor ordered.

Marissa took aim at Rafiq. She figured she could squeeze off two shots before she got blasted by bullets. As the sound of screeching tires grew louder and louder, she tightened her stomach muscles, took a deep breath, aimed, and took the shot. Everyone, except Maia, was stunned. The redhead sprang into action and kicked one of Rafiq’s men in the balls. Marissa noted that it was a fair retaliation because Maia’s hands were tied.

Marissa missed her second target, striking one of the henchmen in the shoulder, instead of the head. The last sight she had of the datacenter was the hostages fighting back and an assault rifle pointed straight at her. She immediately crawled on all fours as fast as she could to the exit panel before the bullets raked her former location. The spray of lead followed her like an avenging angel. She was so juiced up on adrenalin, she almost didn’t feel the burn on her butt cheek.Great. Did I just get hit in the ass? She fell out of the ventilation system by the wall opposite the datacenter.

Damn. That was a bad fall.Suck it up, Cole, she told herself and heaved herself up. A booted foot connected withher gut and knocked her on her back. Then she was yanked up by her hair and came face to face with one of Rafiq’s mercenaries. And just her luck, he was one big motherfucker.

“Give it up,” Marissa rasped. “Your boss is dead.”

“Yes. But I finish the job and that includes you, doll face.” The man sneered. Using her hair as leverage, he slammed Marissa, face first into the wall. Stars exploded in her head and she was close to passing out, but then she got yanked back up, and a fist connected with her gut.

Ah, hell, her ass was getting kicked. Viktor was going to get pissed if she got fucked up, and that would mean endless sparring sessions in the future. If she survived this.

Marissa didn’t straighten after she had hunched over, instead, she gathered all her might and rammed her shoulder into the man’s solar plexus. He grunted, but barely budged. He grasped the neck of her shirt, and she took the opportunity to unsheathe her trusty KA-BAR from her boot. On her way up, she stabbed her aggressor in his abdomen. He roared with rage as his hands wrapped around her neck, but before he could snap it, she twisted the knife, pulled it up, and gutted him.

The man released her neck, grabbing her shoulders, his eyes bore into hers with extreme enmity before taking her down with him, pinning Marissa under two-hundred-fifty pounds of muscle.

She didn’t know how long she’d lain there. The smell of blood and guts surrounded her while her mind tried to focus, the cool fluorescent lights above her appeared to dim and flicker. She was suffocating.

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