Jenner transmitted over the radios now. “Lorenzi, they are shooting hostages, say again, they are shooting hostages. Get your ass back here. We have to breach, now.”
“We encountered hostiles on our way back. Seemed to be a two-man patrol. We’ve eliminated them and will be on you in two mikes.”
Zoya and Lorenzi returned two minutes later. She was now armed with a SIG MPX submachine gun, and she wore a Glock 17 on her hip. Court informed her that she would go with him, back up to the first floor to try to hit the great hall from behind, and soon they were moving off in that direction.
* * *
• • •
Feodor Zakharov had relocated his guard force around the room, knowing that Zoya would be linking up with whoever was out in the hall and telling them everything she’d seen inside. He and Fox had also left the stage, and now they stood with Hines at the locked side door that led to a stairwell down to the two belowground levels of the castle.
His men stood more vigilant than before, and for this he was glad, but he worried he did not have enough guns here to stave off an attack from any large force. He ordered Fox to pick up a submachine gun from a dead security man, then he pulled his pistol and held it in his right hand while he looked at his watch. It had been only two hours since the plague had been released. He needed to stall and to keep stalling.
He also saw that it was time for his next speech. He talked for ten minutes on his sat phone to the security officials outside about war crimes committed by the Five Eyes organizations, focusing his ire on the United States and the United Kingdom. It was a short but rambling speech, and he promised another soon.
When this was done, he sat down at a table of CIA executives. “Long night, eh chaps?” he said. “But tomorrow you will all be free. No one else needs to die, on either side.”
DCIA Fred Capshaw was at the table. “What side do you even represent? You’re English, working with Russians. But there is no way Moscow sanctioned any of this.”
Zakharov leaned towards the man. With a smile he said, “I am a rogue elephant, sir. I need no sanction.” He waved his hand around. “Only men, matériel, and a plan.”
“You’re insane. You won’t change a thing with your crazy speeches.”
“We’ll see,” the Russian said with a bored shrug. “We’ll see if anything changes when this is over. You destroyed my plague, but you did not destroy my passion.”
He stood up and walked away.
* * *
• • •
Court and Zoya scooted down the narrow dumbwaiter; it was tight with their weapons and ammo, but they still had to use their arms and legs to keep from falling to the ground floor. Court fought the urge to press with his left hand and used his left elbow instead, which was as painful as it was inefficient.
Once they finally made it down into the kitchen, they brought their weapons to bear but saw no targets.
The rear exit was only twenty-five feet away, and they could see an explosive charge up against it, wired tightly against the door.
Quietly and slowly they picked their way through the kitchen, stepped through the larder room, and then entered a hallway that seemed to point in the direction of the great hall.
Court knelt in the dim light, his rifle in front of him, while Zoya stood behind. He keyed his mic. “Violator in position.”
Jenner spoke for the five men out in the corridor on the far side of the great hall. “We’re in position. We will breach when the shooting starts.”
“Understood.”
Together Court and Zoya moved forward up the hall, their eyes in their weapon sights, scanning as they stepped. They made a turn and saw the stairs up to the stage just twenty feet in front of them, while on their left were tables full of men and women in formal attire.
He leaned into Zoya’s ear. “Please, let me handle your father.”
Zoya began moving forward. “Move out,” she ordered.
With just a brief pause for a frustrated sigh, Court shot forward, passed Zoya, but knew she’d stay on his heels. They’d be exposed on the stage, but they were counting on drawing the attention of all the gunmen in the room just long enough for Jenner, Hightower, and the others to push in and start eliminating threats from behind.
More than anything, however, was Court’s desire to drop Zakharov the instant he saw him. He wasn’t going to give Zoya the burden of killing her father. She’d probably hate him forever for depriving her of this, but he knew it was the right thing to do.
But when he raced up onto the stage, he instantly saw that it was empty.
Zakharov had moved.
A shout came from across the room as the crowd saw the armed man and woman charging onto the stage. Court looked out over the great hall but saw no obvious threats in that first moment. Knowing he and Zoya would likely be shot dead instantly, he fired his rifle into the far wall, as gunfire was the cue for the others to hit the room.
The middle doors flew open forty yards opposite him, and Court shouted to Zoya, “Get down!”
* * *
• • •
As gunfire erupted from the back of the hall, everyone at the tables dove flat on the ground. Jenner and Lorenzi moved quickly to the right, back to the wall, while Hightower, Greer, and Travers went left. Immediately Hightower spotted a man aiming a submachine gun at the stage. He was one hundred feet across the room, but Zack shot him in the right cheek, blowing half his face off and spinning him to the ground.
Lorenzi found the second target, a man in the middle of the room who did not drop with the hostages but instead whipped his subgun around towards the gunfire behind him. Lorenzi fired a burst at the man, knocking him back onto a table, the linens there instantly stained with red.
Greer fired at the third target, a huge blond man with a handgun by a small door far on the side of the room. He’d been forced to rush his shot, however, and his rounds went wide.
Before he could engage again he was under fire from his right, so he swiveled to take on that threat, while the big man disappeared through the door, and several others raced through behind him.
* * *
• • •
Jenner kept moving to the right, scanning his sector, trusting Lorenzi to do the same. He saw an armed man close to the stage and fired at him, knocking him down. Another man stood up from behind one of the bars along the wall, aimed a weapon, and Jenner shot him dead, as well.
He then shifted his aim to the right, scanning for targets, but only saw a flash of light in the far corner of the room before his head snapped back, and his world went black.
“Jenner’s down!” Lorenzi shouted over the network, but the gun battle was too fierce to stop to render aid.