A single, concussive shot exploded in the silence, much louder than she would have expected it to sound from outside the house. Daniel—
Her eyes had darted to the direction of the shot though she knew better. In the fourth of a second it took her to recall them while simultaneously ripping her Glock from the holster, Hector’s fingers found what they were searching for. He extracted a five-inch serrated blade from the cuff of his sleeve. It sawed across the taut zip tie with a twanging snap. The same motion turned into a cast. She fired into his central mass as the blade flew at her face. She tried to dodge while she kept shooting, ignoring the sudden pressure that wasn’t quite pain as it slashed across her jaw—wasn’t pain yet, but would be soon, when the drug wore off. She could feel the heat of the blood coating her neck as she continued firing into Hector’s chest until the clip was empty.
Hector lay still, his open eyes still pointed in her direction, but no longer focused.
Moving in swift, jerky bursts, she wiped down the Glock and threw it over the banister, wiped and holstered the cutters, and retrieved her shotgun from the end of the hall, trying to concentrate on what to do next. She didn’t know what was waiting for her outside. As she crept down the stairs, her fingers worked quickly to make sense of the new damage. The assassin’s blade had just missed her carotid artery, hitting the bottom corner of her jaw and slicing halfway through her earlobe. The loose piece dangled against her neck. Beautiful.
She fished the remains of her left earring from the damaged lobe—just the hook was left, with a few tiny fragments of thin glass still stuck in the twist of wire—then removed the right. She stowed them in a pocket on the tactical vest. It would be unwise to leave such evidence behind. Even something so small could tip her enemies off, give them a reason to believe she was alive.
On the ground floor, she spared a second to take one quick look at Arnie. His face was turned to the floor. She could see only what was left of the back of his head. It was obvious that he hadn’t suffered, but that was weak comfort.
She’d planned to gather evidence on her way out, but she wasn’t sure she had time for that now. The dogs were quiet—did that mean everything was okay?
Well, after the volley of shots upstairs, it wasn’t like anyone outside was unaware of her presence. She sidled over to the door and crouched beside it, lower, she thought, than anyone would aim to shoot through the drywall. She reached over and pulled the door open a crack. No one shot at her.
“Daniel?” she called loudly.
“Alex!” he shouted back—he sounded as relieved as she suddenly felt.
“You’re okay?” she checked.
“Yes. Are you?”
“I’m coming out. Don’t shoot.”
She walked through the front door with her hands raised above her head, just in case. Einstein popped off the floor beside Lola and was at her heels.
She dropped her arms and jogged toward the Humvee. It was lit only by the lamps shining through the front door and windows, but from this vantage it appeared to be totally unharmed by their intentional accident.
Daniel slid out of the front seat.
“The shot?” she asked, her voice quieter as she approached. The dogs around the Humvee seemed relaxed enough, but…
“The last man. He must have climbed the side of the house to get away from the dogs. He was trying to edge around to the roof of the porch.”
Daniel gestured with the rifle to a dark mass crumpled on the gravel close to the east corner of the house. She pushed the gas mask back on her forehead, carefully moving the straps on the left side over her ear without touching it. She adjusted her trajectory, edging closer to the broken figure. Einstein shadowed her. A large standard German shepherd was pacing not too far off, seeming uninterested in the body.
Einstein suddenly sped up and passed her. He sniffed the body a few times while she cautiously picked her way forward, and then he turned to her with his tail wagging.
“Is that the all clear?” she muttered.
He kept wagging.
She leaned in for a closer look. It didn’t take long to see all there was to see. Impressed, she turned and walked back to the Humvee. Daniel was standing beside the open driver-side door, looking unsure what to do. He still didn’t appear to be having any kind of shock reaction.
“Nice shot,” she said. One bullet, literally right between the eyes. It couldn’t have been more perfect.
“I wasn’t very far away.”
He stepped toward her, closing the distance, and his gloved hands wrapped tightly around the tops of her arms. Then he gasped and spun to the side, wheeling her around so that the light was no longer behind her.
“How much of this blood is yours?”
“Not much,” she said. “I’m good.”
“Your ear!”
“Yeah, that’s not going to help anything, is it? You handy with a needle and thread?”
His head jerked back in surprise. “What?”
“It’s not hard. I can talk you through it.”