Page 80

“John, now!” Ayanna said frantically in my ear.

Immediately, my focus snapped back to the target, until it was just me and him.

I breathed slow, easy breaths, letting the rest of the world fall away, sharpening my focus to a razor’s edge. It helped that the target was the head of the guy who’d been tormenting my wife for the last month and a half.

The difficulty of the shot wasn’t only the distance—it was also the fact that it had to be a head shot. A one-shot kill, which was hard even for experienced marksmen. Normally, we aimed for centre mass because it was much easier to hit. But we couldn’t take any chances that Julius might survive, and Ayanna had ordered me to go ahead with my mission despite my doubts that he could be killed. She figured this would be the true test, one way or another.

I squeezed the trigger, and a second later, Julius’s head turned into an overripe tomato, splattered across the stage.

As a rule, I didn’t enjoy killing. But I had to admit that watching him fall gave me a strange high, especially after watching him hit Claire. At least it meant she wasn’t too close to him when I took the final shot.

In the end, he died like anyone else, and I was more confused than ever. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Claire was free, and it was over.

Or so I’d thought.

As soon as I heard Jim J’s voice in the distance, magnified by the massive sound system, I knew things would quickly go to shit. They always did when that guy was involved. As I watched through my scope, all hell broke loose. The sound of a few thousand screams, all at once, wasn’t something I’d ever forget. It was deafening.

The White Rose had underestimated the Order, just like I’d warned them against. But honestly, in that moment, I didn’t even care. All I could think about was Claire’s safety in this madness. Thankfully, she retreated behind the stage, away from the chaos.

Good girl, I thought, seeing her draw a weapon she’d somehow gotten her hands on. Just hang in there. I’m coming for you.

I stepped back from the window and slung the strap of the rifle across my body. I started to move the crates away from the door, but there were shouts outside, followed by gunshots. I pushed more crates in place, hoping that Hector’s squad would be able to handle whoever was fighting their way onto the floor. An obvious firefight started, with footsteps moving all over this level—probably looking for cover.

I ran back to the window and looked through the scope again, trying to find Claire. She wasn’t in sight anymore, which was for the best, because the whole thing had gone to shit. The White Rose had stormed the gates as planned, but they were fighting the Order and the Delta, and there was mass confusion.

The fight outside kept getting louder, with more voices, and I jumped when someone tried the door to the room.

“In here! Sir, I heard someone in here!”

Goddamn it. At this rate, I was never going to get to Claire in time. It’d take ages to fight our way out of here the old-fashioned way. I had confidence that Hector and his team could do it, but I couldn’t afford how much time this would take.

My eyes flicked to the open window. And I had an idea that was so insane, my wife would be furious if she knew about it.

She can be mad at me later.

I decided not to think about how fucking mental it was as I hurried over to one of the wooden crates. Some of them opened on hinges. With my foot holding down the hinged cover, I used the leverage to tear it off. Then, as soldiers banged on the barricaded door, I went to the window and removed the frame. It left a wide open hole in the wall that gave way to the side of the Pyramid, which gently sloped to the ground. The glass side was flat, creating a smooth, even surface. Below was a grassy courtyard—not much to accidentally hit.

I stood on the desk to get level with the window, then climbed out, carrying the crate cover with me. I held onto the window ledge as I got on top of the cover.

It’s just like tobogganing, it’s just like tobogganing, I chanted in my head.

And I let go, ducking low and holding on as tight as I could to the crate cover.

It was fucking nothing like tobogganing. Sparks flew from the friction between the cover and the windows as I slid down, and I kept going faster. Did I call the slope gentle before? It seemed steep as fuck now, and my heart practically pounded out of my chest.

The only upside was that nobody opened any windows below me, and it was over quickly. I hung on until almost the end, when a slight bump sent me flying. The crate cover got launched fuck-knows-where, and I ended up in a heap on the grass, bruised but alive. I hadn’t fallen far, thanks to sheer dumb luck.

Never again, I thought, wincing as I got to my feet. I nearly pissed myself.

Luckily, nobody was around to see that crazy stunt, and other than knowing my back and my ass were going to hurt like hell tomorrow, I was okay. I looked around, trying to figure out the best way to get to the park and find Claire.

As I got closer to the festival, civilians flooded the streets, desperate to escape. Everything was chaos, everyone was running for their lives, and I was worried I’d miss her. I made it to the park fence, scanning the crowd. I decided to do a loop around the perimeter and see if she was near any of the gates, trying to get out.

The White Rose was holding the northern gate, and there was no sign of Claire. Masked Order initiates started showing up in the streets. I crouched behind a utility box and shot as many as I could, but there were so many. I hadn’t known the Order had these kinds of numbers, and I wondered where they all came from.

It was when I rounded the corner toward the southern gate that I finally spotted Claire. The street had emptied, and she was standing by the fence, surrounded by a large group of White Rose soldiers wearing their gas masks. All but one.

She was talking to the unmasked guy, and something about him made my hackles rise. I’d never seen him around the garrison before, and he seemed…too confident. Too happy, given that we were in the middle of a fucking warzone. Claire’s expression changed from confusion to fear, and that was enough to make me break into a run, rifle raised.