Page 30 of Tag

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“Private contractors,” I said. “Somebody with serious money wants her dead.”

Aponi scrambled to her feet, hauling her mother behind the desk as bullets tore through the wall above them.

“Back door’s a trap,” she shouted. “They’ve got us boxed in!”

Faron reloaded. “Then we make our own exit.”

I nodded toward the hall.

A grenade rolled across the floor.

“Down!” I yelled, tackling the nearest table just as it went off with a deafeningBOOM.

Smoke. Screaming metal. Dust and drywall in the air.

My ears rang, but I could still hear gunfire—closer now.

“Tag!” Aponi shouted.

I coughed, crawling toward the desk. “I’m here! Everyone okay?”

Faron emerged from the smoke, dragging a duffel of recovered weapons from under the desk. “We’ve got ten seconds before they breach.”

Aponi’s mother looked dazed but conscious. “There’s a tunnel under the pantry. Emergency evac for the girls. It leads out past the alley.”

I grabbed her arm. “Then let’s go.”

We ran.

Gunfire ripped through the walls as we ducked into the kitchen. I slammed the pantry door behind us, wedging a broken chair under the knob just as someone rammed it from the other side.

Tag dropped to his knees and yanked up a trapdoor hidden beneath the pantry shelf.

“Go!” he barked.

Faron first. Then Aponi. Then her mother.

I went last, pulling the hatch closed just as the kitchen door burst open behind me.

Aponi

The tunnel smelled like earth and damp concrete, barely tall enough to crouch.

I kept a grip on my mom’s wrist, guiding her through the dark with Tag’s hand resting between my shoulder blades.

I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. My brain buzzed with adrenaline and betrayal and the sound of gunfire still echoing in my skull.

My mother stumbled. Tag caught her.

“Keep moving,” he said. “We’re almost there.”

Faron’s voice echoed from ahead. “Light up ahead. I see it.”

We burst out of the tunnel into the rain-soaked alley behind the shelter.

But we weren’t safe yet.

A black SUV roared around the corner.

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