Page 71 of Ravens
“Nice, right?” Carter says proudly, and I can hear the smile on his lips.
“Nothing seen,” William says.
“Roger. Same . . . wait,” I say as the door flutters, and then pushes open. “Here they come.”
A few men in suits come out and look down the road. They stand there, one pulling out a phone as another two walk out to the road. The one on the phone pulls the door open, seemingly calling to someone within.
The call ends, and the agent slides the phone into his pocket, waving his arm at the others, who pull back from the road.
“Shit,” I mutter.
One of the front windows cracks, and I see the bullet hole, then it shatters.
“What the fuck, William!” I whisper-bark.
The agents pull out their sidearms and start scanning.
“They’re going to lock down, you idiot.”
Two more windows break and crash to the sidewalk. This is fucking . . . insane. August should be out by now. Just then, he steps out, but a second bomb goes off, and I gasp, looking left again off my scope before getting my eyes back on the building.
An agent grabs August by the arm and pushes him through the door.
“Motherfucker,” I hiss and start packing up my rifle. “William, I swear to fuck . . . I’d shoot you right now if I had the time.”
“What’s happening?” York cuts in.
“The cowboy and demolition man got trigger-happy,” I bite out and throw the gun case across my back as I race across the roof to the door.
“What are you going to do, Trip?” William taunts. “Just run in the front door?”
“I’d do it,” I breathe hard, “for anyone but you.”
“You will not breach that building, Tripoli,” York commands.
“Yeah?” I dive down the stairs as quickly as possible. “One of you pricks gonna do it?”
“Did you just call me aprick?” York says, surprised.
“Tripoli out.” I pull the bud from my ear and jam it in my pocket. To be honest, I don’t know what I’m going to do, but we have to get August out of there before Jeffries shows up and says he has no fucking clue who he is.
My feet hammer down the stairs, and then I’m taking two at a time and jumping down the last few to the landing.Think, Trip. What do you do?
We need another diversion . . .
I’m the best one. I’m theonlyone.
I launch out the steel door and run down the block, grabbing the corner of the building as I hurl myself around it and toward the front where the scaffolding is.Almost there.
I reach the road and walk under the scaffolding where sheets of heavy, foggy plastic ripple slightly. Hiding from sight behind them, I walk slowly, eyes on the front of the building where it appears between breaks in the plastic sheeting. No one is outsidenow, but with the windows blown out, I can see in, which means they’re looking out.
The lobby is wide open, with just a small desk in the center, maybe a few feet wide. The crack of another round makes me look up to William’s vantage point and then back at the building. I’m going to literally wrap my hands around his fucking throat if I survive this.
There is movement behind the desk that suggests at least one person is behind it. I stop and take a breath. We have very little time before reinforcements show up.
Digging into my pocket, I slip the bud back in my ear. “August, tell me you’re behind that desk.”
“Yeah, this sucks,” he says in a high-pitched tone, and I hear another voice nearby but can’t make it out. Obviously, he can’t let on that he’s wired.
