“Three.”

Jack pushed the door open and moved through, tracking high. The stairwell was narrow and tight and currently, they were hidden under the landing for the next floor. Slowly, Jack eased up the first couple of steps, back to the wall, Glock aimed upwards.

“Jerry?” The voice floated down from above. “That you?”

A dark-clad person leaned over the railing on the landing above.

“Sure,” Jack replied and shot him. The body jerked back and dropped out of view. Instantly, there was shouting from the first floor and footsteps pounding, getting louder as they neared the stairwell.

Ethan slipped past Jack, taking the stairs up two at a time. Harry was right behind him. They’d just reached the midpoint landing, where the stairs switched back, when the first-floor door slammed open. Ethan shoved Harry down behind the meagre cover of the railing and fired at the enemy piling through the door. From his crouched position, Harry also opened fire. One eye on the ground-floor door, Jack jumped up a couple of steps and added his own fire to the mix.

On the mid-landing, Ethan had to duck behind Harry. He had both Eagles out and was firing from either side of Harry. Jack didn’t envy the Kiwi the position. Two big, .50 cal handguns booming that close to his head had to be deafening.

The problem with the situation was that they were attacking the higher ground and the enemy were on their bellies, providing small targets without limiting their ability to return fire. The bad guys had all the advantages right then and the only thing Jack and the others were doing was wasting ammo.

Jack skipped back down into cover, tucked his handgun into his pants and swung the carbine around to the front. Taking a deep breath, he leaped up several stairs, brought the carbine up and unleashed it on full-automatic mode. The angle wasn’t great, his field of fire worse than that of Ethan and Harry, but that wasn’t Jack’s intention.

The stairwell was totally made of brick and cement. The first-floor landing was a slab of cement a foot thick. Rapidly fired bullets tore into its upper edge, chipping away at the cement causing dust and tiny projectiles to explode in the air—right in the faces of the bad guys lying there. Return fire stopped almost instantly.

Ethan sprinting upwards and the moment he cleared the stairs, Jack stopped firing.

Boom. Boom. Pause. Boom.

In the ringing silence, Ethan called, “Landing clear.”

A second later, more gun fire started up outside the stairwell and Ethan answered it as Jack and Harry hurried to join him. Ethan crouched with his back to the wall beside the open door, forces in the hallway keeping them pinned in the stairwell.

“I believe they’re aware of our presence,” Ethan said mildly.

“Appears so,” Jack replied dryly. “Any ideas?”

“Oh, plenty. You wouldn’t happen to have a grenade or another incendiary device on you?”

“Other pants.”

“Well, that limits our options. Cover me?”

“Got nowhere else to be.”

“Lovely. Wait for my signal.”

Jack sent a spray of bullets into the hallway from an awkward angle. Then Ethan was gone, sprinting up the second flight to the third floor.

“What signal?” Harry asked as the enemy resumed firing.

“I’m sure we’ll know it when it happens.”

They kept trading useless shots with the bad guys. In the infrequent lulls, there was also gunfire above them, but only an occasional shot, which meant Ethan wasn’t encountering too much resistance. The signal came when, from further away, more gunshots rang out. For a moment, the bad guys stopped firing at the stairwell.

Jack surged to his feet and took in the new hallway in a fast look. Four bad guys were entrenched in doorways about halfway along, two to each side. At the far end of the hallway, Ethan fired on the bad guys from the cover of an office doorway. Somehow, he’d flanked the enemy.

The enemy were scrambling for more cover and Jack added to the confusion. One poor guy actually came out into the hallway instead of back into the safety of the room. He went down, Jack uncertain if it was his or Ethan’s bullet that got him.

Jack got Harry up to date on which rooms the last three bad guys were hiding in and they swiftly took them out. They headed for the server room. While Jack and Harry covered the hallway, Ethan picked the electronic lock, which consisted of bashing a hole in the wall beside it to expose the wiring. Grabbing a handful, he turned to Harry.

“This will only give us about three seconds before the backup kicks in. Get ready.”

He nodded grimly and grabbed the doorhandle. “Just keep swimming.”

Ethan quirked an eyebrow at him.

Harry grimaced. “Ready.”

With a nod, Ethan turned his face away and jerked the wires out of the wall. Sparks flew, the indicator light on the lock went out and there was a faint clunk. Harry twisted the handle and pushed in the same moment. The door opened and he almost fell into the room.

Bang.

Harry cried out and fell to the side, pushing the door open even further. Jack whirled around, Glock at the ready, but Ethan was already moving. Eagle returning fire in one hand, he dragged Harry out of harm’s way with the other. Jack grabbed the back of Ethan’s collar and hauled them into cover faster.

“Well,” Jack muttered when they were all relatively safe. “That’s disappointing.”

“I probably should have expected it.” Ethan frowned as a bullet ripped through the doorframe a couple of centimetres from his shoulder.

“We all should have,” Harry muttered grudgingly. He peered at the tear in his right shirt sleeve.

“How is it?” Jack asked.

“Just a scratch, barely bleeding.”

“Ace, cover us.” Jack didn’t wait for Ethan’s affirmative before tearing a strip off his own shirt to bind Harry’s arm.

“It’s fine.” Despite his grumbling, Harry let Jack finish.

“It’s the little ones you have to watch.”

Harry grunted but it had a tone of acceptance, then groaned again in pain when Jack tied off the make-do bandage with a firm jerk.

Satisfied Harry was okay, Jack turned to Ethan. “Care to try your flanking move again?”

“I doubt I could. If they designed this place currently, there should only be the one entrance to the server room.”

“Probably. Do you think these guys are fanatical enough to set the bomb off while still in there?”

Ethan snorted. “I highly doubt it. They’re mercenaries, Jack, and I don’t think they’ve worked out how to take the money with them.”

“Did you get a look at the inside of the room?”

“Not a detailed one, no. I couldn’t see the device, but there appears to only be two guards.”

“Only two, huh?” Jack hefted his carbine. “Want some cover?”

Ethan smirked and re-holstered his guns. Taking out two knives, he flexed his wrists. “It would be appreciated.”

“Aim high,” Harry muttered, settling his own carbine into position. “You’ve already reached your shoot-the-bomb quota for the year.”

A little spark of hope flared in Jack’s chest. Perhaps he hadn’t ruined his partnership with Harry after all if Harry could tease.

Jack moved so he was closer to the doorway, carbine out. Ethan crouched at his feet, knives tucked back along his forearms. Jack counted down silently. On three, he stuck the mussel of his carbine into the room and fired wildly. Return fire stopped quickly and the moment it did, Ethan rolled in. Jack kept up the barrage while Ethan sliced and stabbed his way through the bad guys.

“Clear!” he shouted a surprisingly short time later.

Harry went in and, picking his way over the bodies, searched the large room. “Found it. Right in the middle of the server towers.”

“How does it look?” Jack asked as he kept watch at the door.

“Not good. I don’t think I can disarm this. It’s not something I’m familiar with.”

Halfway out the door, Ethan paused. “Perhaps I could have a look.”

Jack didn’t even have to think about it. Personal problems meant nothing compared to a bomb. “Yeah, go.”

Ethan turned, then stopped. “Before I do, I have something to tell you.”

He sounded so serious Jack’s stomach tightened in dread. Was this about why he hadn’t wanted to return to Australia?

“I discovered Porsche’s real name,” Ethan said softly. “It’s Sonia Bell.”

Jack let out an explosive breath. “Is that all?”

Frowning, Ethan added, “I do have a full dossier but now is hardly the time. Trust me. Confront her with that and she’ll falter.”

“Okay. Thanks.” He was relieved and, strangely, disappointed that’s all Ethan had to tell him.

Ethan went into the server room and Harry reappeared. “Shall we do this thing?”

As they started back towards the stairs, Jack said, “If we’re right about Sein wanting information, the best way to access it is through the senior director of operations. The SD’s office is on the second floor, front of the building. That’s where we’re heading.”

The second-floor landing wasn’t manned, as the first-floor one had been, so Jack and Harry made their way up cautiously but without resistance. The hallway beyond the stairwell door was another story. Enemy fire opened up the moment Jack nudged the door open for a peek. They waited out the first barrage, which pretty much reduced the door to matchsticks, then they took turns covering while the other checked the situation.

“One, two doors up on the right,” Harry muttered. “Two, three doors further up, one to each side. Two more at the far end, guarding the corner office. Couple more than your boyfriend said.”

“He’s not my boyfriend and two off is still pretty good. That’s the SD’s office,” Jack said.

They waited while the enemy killed the fuck out of the walls.

“He looked like your boyfriend.” Harry sprayed the hallway with bullets without looking.

While the bad guys were ducking behind their doors, Jack took a quick look. “Middle two have come forward. They’re just behind the solo guy. And it’s not that simple.”

After a moment, Harry said, “What relationship is?”

Jack glanced at him and got a grimace in return. “Tell me about it. Cover me?”

Harry checked the magazine on his M4A5. “I got you.”

While his partner distracted the bad guys, Jack ran for the first set of doors, feeling the deadly wind of several enemy bullets zip past him as he skidded into cover. He rolled and came up against the wall, flinching as the outer side of it was targeted. When Harry sent another barrage down the hall, Jack sneaked a look. In the micro-second between Harry pulling back and the bad guys coming forward, he darted out. In two long strides, he cut diagonally across the hall and threw himself bodily at the solo guy. They tumbled back into the room just as his fellows fired again. It was dirty and quick, but Jack broke the man’s neck.

Jack had no sooner got to his feet, when he was hit from behind. Twisting as he fell, he got an arm around the man’s neck. When they crashed down, Jack flipped them over, driving a knee into his groin. Shoving the bad guy’s carbine away, Jack grabbed the Glock from its holster and pressed the business end under his chin. The man froze.

“No need for you to die.” Jack took a couple of plastic cuffs from the guy’s belt.

Outside, the gun fight continued, which meant Harry was still going strong. Smiling grimly, Jack rolled the bad guy to his belly and cuffed his hands behind his back. He was just tightening the cuffs around the man’s ankles when a gun barrel was pressed to the back of his head.

Shit. One slipping past Harry was okay, but two? Two guns were still barking, so his partner wasn’t down, at least.

“Hands behind your head,” the bad guy growled.

Jack complied slowly. On the floor, the tied-up man chuckled.

“What are you waiting for?” Jack asked.

“Stark wants you,” the man holding the gun on him said.

“Who’s Stark?”

“You’ll—”

Bang!

A dead weight landed on Jack’s back. He tumbled forward, sandwiched between the bound guy and the hopefully dead one. A moment later, the body on top was hauled off.

“Fine time to be taking a nap,” Harry said.

Jack shoved up to his knees, then his feet. “I was getting tired of doing all the work.” He checked Harry over with a quick look, finding no blood. “Did you Butch Cassidy your way in here?”

“Huh?”

“Jesus, Harry, you’re not that young. We’re down to two bad guys?”

“And whoever’s in the office.”

Risking a glance out into the hallway, Jack was greeted by a quick spurt of gunfire. “Okay, I think I’ve got a plan.”