Page 71 of Beautiful Vengeance

“Marcus is hurt,” she panted when she got close enough that she didn’t have to shout.

“Shot?”

“Don’t think so.” Had to be his hip or leg. She crouched behind a tree several feet from where Trinity was hiding behind another, and looked up. “How many shooters are left?”

“At least six.”

“That helo’s getting close.” How many more shooters were coming?

She glanced behind her at the wall, now less than twenty yards away. It was an easy jump to grab the top of it, but swinging over it would leave them exposed. “I’m not going over it without the guys.”

Trinity nodded, her gaze trained on the terrain ahead. “Brody’s coming in from our nine o’clock.”

Kiyomi shifted her body to look in that direction, but whipped back around when something rustled off to her left. “I hear something,” she whispered, taking aim. Trinity did the same. They both stared through the trees, searching for movement.

A shot rang out from somewhere in front of them. Trinity grunted and cursed.

Horror ripped through her when she whipped around to see her friend lying on her back, face contorted in pain as she grabbed at her chest, her legs writhing in the dead leaves.

Without thinking Kiyomi lowered her weapon and raced for Trinity.

A flurry of gunfire erupted through the woods, twice the volume than anything they’d had before.

“Trin!” Kiyomi skidded to her knees beside Trinity, reached out to pry her hands away from her chest. Had the vest not stopped the—

Something hit her in the back of her thigh. Pain shot up her leg and through her entire body, stealing her breath. She was already convulsing as she hit the forest floor. Her vision went black, her body arching and twitching.

She lay there, unable to move, unable to cry out a warning to the others, the pain stealing the air from her lungs. Somehow she forced her eyes open, her blurry gaze landing on someone stepping out from behind a tree thirty feet away. A middle-aged woman approached her, weapon pointed directly at Kiyomi.

The woman’s eerie smile made Kiyomi’s heart kick hard against her ribs as the woman knelt beside her. Kiyomi struggled to suck in air, fought to reach for her sidearm.

The woman’s hand flashed out. Something sharp pricked Kiyomi’s neck. The pain receded, a strange floating sensation taking over.

Disbelief slammed into her as her eyelids began to fall. The woman looked like an older version of Amber.

The Architect had gotten her after all.

****

“Got her.”

Forcing back the rush of elation flooding her, Janelle tossed the empty syringe aside, seized the straps of Kiyomi’s tactical vest and began to drag her backward across the leaf-strewn ground.

Ten yards away, Trinity lay where she’d fallen. No longer a threat, and unimportant.

“Roger,” a female voice answered in her earpiece. “You’re clear. Helo’s moving to LZ now.”

“Copy.”

After a tense start to the operation where they’d lost sight of their targets for a precious few minutes, everything had gone perfectly. She’d lost several operatives, but that was a small price to pay to get Kiyomi.

A steady barrage of gunfire filled the forest as she dragged her prize backward to the wall. Her remaining operatives were keeping both Laidlaw and Colebrook busy, giving her more than enough of a diversion to take Kiyomi.

Two of her operatives swung over the top of the wall and landed lightly in front of her. Together they lifted Kiyomi over the top, where two more of her people waited to receive her on the other side. Janelle jumped up, caught the top of the stone and swung her body over it.

“Another helo’s coming toward us.”

Janelle glanced up to see a black outline in the distance. Possibly military. “We’ll be gone before they can get here.Hurry.”

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