Page 105 of Lethal Game


Chapter Twenty-Two

Sophia tried to regulateher breathing, but she had too much adrenaline in her system. Having someone wake you in the darkest part of the night, then telling you to be quiet and get your gun out, had that effect on a person.

It sucked.

It seemed like there were a hundred people running around the tent site, some yelling in a foreign language, others carrying what looked like pieces of pipe or tools. Her hands shook with the need to do something,anything, but right now the best thing for her to do was stay still and quiet and let her brain process what was going on.

Con had a man on the ground, his fancy rifle, or whatever they called it, aimed at his chest. Henry and Stalls exited the other tent, now wearing their body armor and carrying their rifles properly.

Their delay in responding to what could’ve been a dangerous attack wasn’t going to look good on any report.

Seconds ticked past and the noise and movement of people slowly calmed down, until she had no problem hearing every word Con said to his captive, despite the fact that she didn’t understand any of it.

Henry and Stalls came back around the tent.

“Sergeant, we found Macler and Norton. They’re unconscious about thirty feet away. Looks like someone bashed them on the head with something.”

“Probably a pipe or whatever the men who hit them could get their hands on,” she said.

Con said something to the man he’d been questioning. The man got to his feet, and backed away, keeping all of them in his sights until the darkness swallowed him whole.

“Sophia,” Con said, his gaze telling her to take care, or else. “We’ll be right back.”

She nodded, her throat too constricted to allow her to swallow.

The three soldiers vanished and she focused on the surrounding darkness. Shouts were still echoing through the cool, still air, but they were much farther away now.

If I were a bad guy I’d pick now to do something awful.Sophia backed into the tent until the shadows in the blind corner of the entrance hid her completely. She tilted her head and listened hard, not just in front of her but all around the structure. If someone wanted to stop what she was doing, damaging her diagnostic equipment would accomplish that.

There was movement in the darkness between the lab and the hospital. Two people emerged, walking toward her.

She took a step forward, intending to order them to stop, just as someone shoved a knife through the tent wall behind her.

Unknown parties coming at her from two directions. Wonderful.

She grabbed her open bottle of water and as soon as the head of the person who cut the hole in the tent came through, she tossed the contents in his face.

She pointed the Beretta at the two coming toward her from the other direction. “Stop.”

They didn’t stop.

She fired a warning shot in the air.

They stopped and put their hands up.

Behind her, the man who’d cut the hole in her tent had stumbled back and fallen, yelling in a language she didn’t know.

A large body whipped around the wall of the tent.

In the darkness, she couldn’t see who it was and shifted to point her gun at him, but he hurtled past her, launching himself at the intruder.

Connor.

After a brief intense wrestle on the ground, Con dragged the man by his neck around to the front of the tent where she could see him. He dropped the man on the sand and put the muzzle of his rifle under his chin.