Page 21 of Shadow of Doubt

Repeating her previous command, she told him to stay right behind her. There was no telling what kind of reinforcements the assaulters had. They needed to get moving.Now.

Slipping into the hallway, they headed toward the apartment’s front door. With each room they passed, Sølvi did a quick peek inside and then positioned herself on the opposite side of the doorway to protect Grechko as he moved safely past. The bodies of Martin’s security team members lay everywhere, their corpses littered with shrapnel, bullets, or both.

Sølvi and Grechko were approaching the final bedroom when her eyes picked up something—the briefest glimpse of motion.

Pressing Grechko against the wall, she motioned for him to be silent and crept forward. The fourth assaulter sprung before Sølvi was even fully at the door.

Releasing her left hand from her weapon, she leapt forward, grabbed the barrel of his rifle, and pinned it against the frame, making sure to position her body outside his line of fire. As she did, she pumped round after round into his Kevlar face mask, hoping to penetrate one of the eyeholes and take him out.

The man was much bigger than Sølvi and used his size against her. Ducking his head, he pivoted off the door frame and brought the butt of his rifle crashing into her exposed rib cage.

A white-hot pulse of pure pain shot through her body and caused her to let go of the rifle.

No sooner had she done so than the man began to raise the muzzle to finish her off. Sølvi, however, refused to cooperate.

Her training had drilled into her never to surrender her advantage. And, if it was ever taken from her, to recapture it.Immediately.

She renewed her attack, launching herself into him, firing anywhere she might be able to avoid his armor until the slide of her pistol locked back, empty. There was no time to insert a fresh magazine. It was hand-to-hand now.

Unable to bring his weapon to bear, the assaulter wrapped himself around her like a giant crocodile and rolled her to the floor. There he began hammering her in the head with his Kevlar helmet.

With her arms pinned to her sides, there was no escaping the blows. Her only hope lay in a small Kydex sheath along her belt. In it was a backup knife, known asSgian Dubh.

Using her thumb to hook the curved, steel handle, she pulled it from the sheath, drove the scalpel-sharp blade deep into the inside of the man’s wrist, and ripped the knife down his forearm toward his elbow. The assaulter howled in pain.

As the man released her from his grasp, Sølvi didn’t waste a single second.

Pulling out the knife, she used her opposite hand to drive the man’s head straight back, exposing his throat.

She plunged the knife into the left side of his neck and, in one fluid motion, ripped it straight across to the other side.

With both his carotids severed, the assaulter began spurting blood all over the place. Sølvi scrambled quickly away from him.

Picking up her pistol, she inserted a fresh magazine and, ready to engage any additional threats, slipped back into the hallway.

The expression on Grechko’s face said it all. Sølvi could only imagine what a mess she looked like.

She hadn’t even bothered to assess her own injuries. There wasn’t enough time. Her number one priority remained. She needed to keep Grechko alive at all costs. It was imperative she get him out of the building and move him someplace safe.

“Let’s go,” she ordered.

With the Russian following tightly behind her, she led him to the front of the apartment, only to find that the heavy oak door had been blown completely off its hinges. The vestibule beyond was also destroyed and smoke was pouring out of the charred elevator shaft.

Judging by the looks of it, their attackers had not only used explosive-laden drones to attack the apartment from the outside but had also sent up a pretty good-size explosive via the elevator.Who the hell were these people? And how the hell had they found this location?The whereabouts of the safehouse, and the fact that it was occupied, were two of the most closely guarded secrets of the Norwegian Intelligence Service.

Figuring that out was going to have to be put on hold. Right now she had to concentrate on their escape. The only way down was going to be the stairs.

As they descended, the building’s internal fire alarms continued their earsplitting blare. They were joined in the stairwell by streams of frightened evacuees. Not wanting to add to the panic or draw additional attention to herself, she concealed her weapon.

Floor by floor, she moved Grechko deliberately, carefully, paying attention to every face and every set of hands they encountered. There was no telling who was friend and who was foe.

When they got to the ground level and everyone else pushed out into the lobby, she kept descending. There was no way to know who or what was waiting for them out on the street. She didn’t want to find out. She would take their chances in the garage. In the garage there was cover. And if there was cover, they wouldn’t be sitting ducks. They’d at least have a fighting chance of getting away.

At the garage level, she opened the door and scanned the vicinity. It looked safe. Nothing but parked cars and fluorescent lighting, but even down here, the fire alarms were still blaring.

Keeping Grechko close, she wove a path through the vehicles, readyto drop down at a moment’s notice if they heard or saw anything at all suspicious. They just needed to put a bit of distance between themselves and the apartment building. Once they had done that, she could take a moment to catch her breath. They were almost there.

Suddenly, tires squealed. The noise was accompanied by the roar of an engine. Sølvi looked over her shoulder to see a van racing toward them.

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