Alpha comes next. His submachine gun let go so he can dart in from the side to grab her wrists. Safa pulls back enough to slip his grip. He comes with her, his hands cycling to gain purchase. She turns quickly, plucking the trigger as Alpha gets one hand under the pistol to throw the aim high and blow chunks out of the ceiling.
A fist thrown by Echo comes from Safa’s side. She lets go of the pistol and rotates to block and slam the blade of her right hand into his throat. He saw it coming and moved away an inch to deflect the power, but still reels back, gagging from the impact.
Another hand coming from the other side as Charlie joins the fray. Safa blocks, ducks, grips his arm and tries for the break at the elbow joint. Charlie counters the move and rotates his body to jerk his arm free. A foot comes at Safa’s knee joint. She lifts her leg to absorb the blow on her boot while slamming a fist into a black-clad face. Tango Two comes in from behind, still stunned that the woman fighting them is Safa Patel. Safa detects the motion and bends forward to back-kick as she throws a punch into the groin of Delta coming at her. Tango Two veers at the last second and tries to grab Safa’s ankle. Safa spin kicks over to rotate her body to face Tango Two and goes forward with hard punches raining out that batter Tango Two away.
‘UP HERE . . .’ Delta roars from the floor, his hands clutching his genitals from the hard punch given by Safa. Operatives and soldiers in the lobby, too afraid to run into the drawing room, snap heads up to the balcony above them and start running for the stairs.
Safa ducks, spins and blocks the fists and feet coming at her, and for a couple of seconds she holds them at bay. Neither winning nor losing. Neither gaining nor giving ground. One against five. The speed she generates is stunning. The acute, intrinsic grasp of situational close-quarters combat is almost beautiful.
Harry steams out and into the fight. The blink of an eye. He takes in the situation and knows he cannot fire for fear of hitting Safa. He slides the pistol into the holster and kidney punches Charlie, who sags from the power of the blow.
Alpha turns, ducks, weaves and comes in fast to tangle Harry’s feet with a vicious leg sweep. Harry takes the impact on his shins without a flicker of reaction and goes fast to meet the body of Alpha. Huge hands grip the leader of the attackers and sends him smashing into the railing of the landing. Harry powers forward, intent on kicking the man over. Delta comes in with a nasty blow to Harry’s right ear that snaps his head over, buying time for Alpha to recover.
Ben runs into the fray, slams Delta down to the ground and tries to stamp on his head. Delta rolls. Tango Two punches the back of Ben’s head and again feels that surprise at seeing the face of Ben Ryder as he staggers away.
Alpha pushes off from the bannister to surge into Harry, aiming low with a rugby tackle that drives Harry back into Roland and Susan trying to squeeze past them, with Miri and Ria dragging Bertie towards the next door.
Harry and Alpha go down in a heap, with Alpha on top slamming hard fists into Harry’s head. Alpha can fight. He is Alpha. He is the best at this. He will not lose. He punches hammer fists into Harry’s eyes, nose and mouth.
Delta sees Safa facing off with Tango Two, and rushes her from behind. Lifting her off her feet and down the landing as Tango Two darts out of the way. Operatives charge up the main stairs. Ben tries to block a punch from Echo, but gets battered back from the blows coming too hard and too fast. He spent six months being thrown about by Harry and Safa, but his mind was gone. He’d do well against normal people, but these are not normal people. They are highly trained and highly experienced at this very thing. Ben runs backwards from the barrage of blows slamming into his skull. He should get angry, scared even, but his mind runs clear without a trace of panic as he stops going back and purposefully runs forward into the fists to take Echo down.
Harry takes the punches. The fists slamming again and again. Alpha risks a look round. Echo is on Ben. Safa has been taken down by Delta, with Tango Two close by. More agents are running up the stairs. Bravo is coming with more up the hidden stairwell. He spots the targets trying to get through a door, and knows this day is won. Charlie is running at them, and there is no way they’ll get through him. One glance tells him none of the people with the targets have fighting ability.
A second for him to look round. A second for the sense of victory to lodge in his mind. A second for Harry to change and become the thing that gave birth to the legend of Mad Harry Madden. A switch in his head that prompts a whole new state of mind. As Alpha looks down, he sees someone else staring up at him. Their eyes lock. Alpha sends the punch down. A hard one delivered with every ounce of strength that is summoned by the sudden knot of fear in his gut caused by the utterly crazed eyes staring back at him.
That punch is caught in a huge hand that grips and twists. Instant pain in Alpha’s arm as it rotates the wrong way. A hand on Alpha’s throat. Mad Harry Madden rises up, lifting the lead agent with the strength of one arm alone. Alpha’s feet leave the floor. His right hand still gripped in Harry’s fist. His left hand scrabbling uselessly at the fingers round his neck that squeeze to cut the air and blood off. Bravo comes through the door. Seeing the mass brawl underway. Harry looks at Bravo. Bravo looks at Harry. Alpha looks at Harry, then at Bravo. Harry throws Alpha at Bravo.
Susan sees the threat with that protective maternal instinct driving her every move. She sees the black-clad figure coming hard at them and runs to stop him. Charlie slams into her, driving her back into Roland, then sets to work battering the group senseless. Bertie tries to fight in defence of his parents, but is back-handed away. Susan and Ria keep lunging at Charlie, desperate to protect Bertie. Roland cowers, screaming in horror.
Miri snatches a glance at her watch: six minutes two. She lurches to grab Bertie, heaving him up and into the wall as she covers him with her own body. Ria is thrown at them by Charlie. She crumples into a heap as the agent stalks forward to finish them off. Charlie goes in for the kill on Miri. His hands lifting as his mind forms the intent to snap her neck and then deal with the others. Miri looks up at him, and the last thing Charlie sees before the high-velocity round goes through his skull is the absolute lack of compassion in her eyes.
Delta flinches at the round whizzing past his head and sees Charlie shot dead. Another round comes in, millimetres away and smashing a huge chunk of wall away behind him. He blinks, goes to duck and finds Safa’s hard boot ramming into his groin for the stupidity of losing focus.