Page 374 of Niccolo

---

And red mist exploded from his chest, directly over his heart.

“ROBERTO!” I screamed.

He stared at me, surprise on his face –

And then his knees gave out, and he toppled to the ground.

I raced over to him in panic.

The face I’d seen all my life –

Like looking into a mirror at a slightly altered version of myself –

Now stared blankly up at me.

I only paused a second –

I knew I had to keep running –

But seeing my twin brother like that…

It was like witnessing my own death.

I stumbled numbly through the undergrowth as I heard Adriano scream up ahead, “TAKE COVER!”

159

Sofia

Onscreen, Roberto was a tiny figure in the distance as he fell, dropped by one of our foot soldiers with a sniper rifle.

“There goes the moneyman!” Fausto said with a laugh.

I removed another piece from the board.

“Pawn takes bishop,” I whispered.

Seeing him get shot hurt the most because he was so close in appearance to his twin brother.

Niccolo…

Thatwas the one I was dreading.

160

Niccolo

Valentino was the next to go.

They shot him in the back.

One second he was trying to provide cover for Adriano and Dario –

And the next he was lying face-down in the grass.

Adriano leaned out from behind one of the stone monoliths, trying to get a better line of fire –

When several blasts of red pockmarked his white shirt and he fell motionless to the ground.

---