Hit ‘em where it hurts

he steady breathing coming from the other side of the room told me I was alone in my wakefulness. Tense and worried, I lay there mulling over every interaction with Karen, and wondering why she hadn’t made her move against Hayden during the time between Rose’s death and my arrival. Maybe using Hayden was just a fallback plan, one that had been triggered with the accelerated delivery date for Rosetta.

An explosion of barking from the distant kennels carried over the silent grounds, and almost sent me flying from the bed. I waited for answering barks to come from the rest of the pack out patrolling the grounds, but realized after a minute none were coming. Clambering upright, my heart raced when I couldn’t come up with any logical reason why the foot patrols would be suspended, especially after the traumatic events of yesterday.

I slipped out of bed to retrieve my Taser. Too late I remembered the Prada tote containing that weapon along with everything else Benson had sent was still in Hayden’s trunk. Preparation is everything, he always said. How could I have been so careless? What would I do if someone came bursting through our door? Throw my pillow at him?

It was the middle of the night and getting caught out of the room could mean serious consequences, but feeling like a sitting duck was even worse. Quietly pulling on jeans and a hoodie, I crept over to Hayden’s desk to fish around for her car keys. Her bedside lamp suddenly flicked on and I stiffened, caught in the act.

“What are you doing?” She propped herself up on an elbow, her face pinched in mistrust.

We stared at each other a moment. If I was truthful, I might well be on the next flight out to Karachi, but if I wasn’t, any chance we had of being friends would die an early death.

“I’m an agent with the State Department,” I confessed in a rush. “I’m afraid your life might be in danger.”

“I knew there was something weird going on, but seriously?” Her voice was heavy with skepticism.

Dashing back to my bed, I dropped on all fours to extract my ID. “I can prove it.”

As I rooted around in the mattress, Hayden called out, “You’re not doing much to boost my confidence level.”

“Here,” I said, presenting my State Department card.

She quickly sobered. “When were you planning to tell me this?”

“Um, now?” I shoved a stray lock of hair behind my ear and smiled weakly.

Another burst of howls erupted from the kennels, and Hayden jumped out of bed. She grabbed a pair of sweats from the floor and slipped them on.

“What’s the plan?” She sounded eager rather than angry.

Taken aback, I said, “You’re not going to kill me?”

She thought about it for a moment. “It’s irritating that people thought I was too delicate or whatever to hear the truth, but that’s not your fault. I can also say I’m not all that surprised.” She shot me a knowing glance. “You did get kind of sloppy here and there.”

I bristled for a moment before remembering we didn’t have time to discuss my tactics. “I need your keys. I might have, uh, stashed a few things in your car.”

She retrieved them from her purse. “Okay, let’s go.”

“You can’t go,” I protested. “We don’t know who or what might be out there. Lock up as soon as I leave, and don’t open it for anyone. I promise you, I’ll be right back.”

The lockset was sufficient for keeping out the casual visitor, but if someone really wanted to get in, a swift kick would probably do it. There was no time to waste.

“You have five minutes,” Hayden warned. “And then I’m coming after you.”

The halls were deserted. Dim wall sconces provided the only source of light, tapering off into total darkness when I reached the stairwell. Fortunately, long, narrow windows on the landing captured just enough moonlight so I didn’t kill myself on the steps. I made it down one flight and turned sharply to descend the next when I suddenly plowed into something instantly recognizable as a person. Hands clutched at me, and I reacted with an elbow strike–hard.

A cry of pain was followed by a familiar voice. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“Von?” I ventured, taken aback.

He flipped on a flashlight and placed it under his chin. The effect was a creepy Halloween mask, but one definitely recognizable as Von. He rubbed his midsection where the point of my elbow had connected.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I said in a harsh whisper. “You’ll get expelled if anyone finds you creeping around.”

“Is Hayden in your room?” he whispered.

I sent him an odd look. “Really? Since when have you been into her?”

“Riley, listen to me,” he said. “Perimeter alarms have been tripped, and Hayden could be in danger. I detected at least four, maybe five intruders entering the grounds by the northwest boundary.”

I reared back in astonishment. “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t have time to explain everything, but I’m with the State Department, and I think something is going down.”

“You’re with the State Department?” I sputtered in outrage. “When were you going to tell me?”

“Uh, now?” He pulled a slim leather wallet from his back pocket. Flipping it open, he shone the light on a card identical to the one I’d been issued, but the name next to his picture read “Devin Sanderson”.

“You’re Devin?” That confirmed Karen was his handler, too.

“I’m assigned to Stef, and you’re here to protect Hayden, just like Rose was,” he explained. “I wanted to tell you, but after Rose died we put everything on lockdown.”

“Who’s we?” I demanded to know. “Because if you’re talking about Karen, she’s no friend of mine.” I explained what I’d found on Rose’s phone, and my suspicions.

Von swore. “I just texted her. If she’s betrayed us, whoever’s on the grounds now knows we’re coming.” He shifted on his feet, thinking fast. “Keep your weapon handy, and go stay with Hayden. I’ll see if I can delay them.” He whipped out his phone.

“Who are you texting?”

“Major Taylor,” he said, as his fingers flew across the keyboard. “If I text the word “scorpion”, she knows I mean business.”

“Scorpion? You got scorpion?” I huffed with indignation. I was surprised she hadn’t assigned me “kittens” and “puppies”.

“Now go,” he ordered, turning to leave.

“Uh, Von? My, uh, Taser? It’s kind of in Hayden’s trunk.” I felt like a complete fool. “I was just going out to get it.”

He heaved a sigh and pulled a .9mm pistol out of his jacket pocket. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, I have a Taser, and you’ve got a gun?” I asked, forgetting my embarrassment.

“Riley!” he snapped through gritted teeth. I think I liked the flirty Von better. At the bottom of the stairs he started toward a side door, one that usually triggered an alarm that would wake the whole place up. I started to protest, but he cut me off. “Don’t worry, I disabled it.”

We ran out the door— and smacked right into Sam.

“What’s going on?” Sam gasped, taking a step back.

“Get back inside,” Von ordered. “It’s not safe out here.”

“Well, it’s not safe inside either,” he protested. “Stef is hiding in my room because you told him they were coming for him, whoever they are. It doesn’t help that the dogs are barking their heads off.” Sam caught sight of Von’s weapon. “Whoa, dude, what’s with the gun?”

“Intruders are on campus, and my guess is they’re coming for either Hayden or Stef, or both,” he told him. “We’re agents with the State Department.” He thrust his ID at Sam.

Sam stood speechless for a moment before turning to me. “Both of you?”

I nodded.

“Then let me help,” Sam said. “Stef and Hayden are my friends, too.” Then he met my gaze. “I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

Von paused for a moment, most likely calculating the low odds of survival if he took on a team of armed intruders alone. He nodded curtly. “Stay close.”

We dashed in the direction of the parking lot, keeping to the shadows, which wasn’t difficult. As we passed by Hale Hall, I waited for ninjas to burst out from the nearby trees, but nothing moved. Even the barking from the kennels had stopped.

“What happened to the dogs?” I whispered.

“Good question,” Von whispered back. “My guess is they’ve been neutralized.”

The thought of anyone laying a finger on sweet little Scout royally pissed me off. As soon as I had my Taser and a few other choice accessories, I was going to go all ASPCA on them.

We made it to the car park without any alarms being raised. The three of us crouched down low as I led the way to where we’d left the Mercedes. There was no getting around the short honk of greeting the car gave when I disabled the alarm, and we all froze.

“What are we doing?” Sam hissed.

“Riley needs a weapon,” Von answered.

Easing the tote out of the trunk, I unzipped it and pocketed my Taser. I also grabbed the set of throwing stars and a smoke grenade for good measure, shoving them into the kangaroo pocket on my sweatshirt.

“What else you got in there?” Sam asked with the enthusiasm of a kid let loose in a toy store.

“Here, take the other smoke grenade,” I offered, digging it out. “And I think you’ll like my baton.”

“I think there’s a dirty joke in there somewhere,” Sam said with wry amusement.

“Are we done here?” Von asked. “Riley, go back through the side door and keep watch over Hayden. Sam, come with me. I know where they entered the grounds, and I bet we can intercept them on the back side of Watson.”

Sam reached up and cupped my cheek. “Be careful, Agent Riley.”

I grinned, excitement and fear heightening my senses. “You, too.”

Sam flicked open the baton. “Let’s roll.”

We split off, the guys sprinting toward the tree line while I went back the way we came, zipping from tree to tree until reaching Hale Hall. There I hugged the outside wall, taking the route around the back of the building.

Gunfire echoed from the direction the guys had taken, and I stiffened. A few lights flicked on overhead, thinning my cover.

What if something had happened to them? As the trained agent, Von would take the lead on any action, but who knew what waited for them in the darkness? It took all my will to dash away from them and in the direction of Watson Hall. Hayden was counting on me.

From the corner of my eye I caught sight of two silhouettes emerging from the tree line. Whoever they were, we would converge on the upper girls’ dorm at almost the same moment. Pulling the smoke grenade from my pocket, I jerked out the safety pin before yanking on the pull ring. There was a four to five second delay to detonation, so the grenade had to land where the intruders would be in the span of a few breaths. Aiming for a spot roughly fifty feet ahead of the first guy, I let it fly.

A loud popping noise preceded a couple of frightened yelps and a spate of coughing. Running until I practically slammed into the side door of Watson, I reached for the handle, but a horribly familiar sound, like the noise a bullet makes when it whizzes by your head, caused me to hit the ground. Looking up, there was a metal dart lodged into the wooden doorframe, still quivering from its flight. The bastard had shot a tranquilizer dart at me. That answered the question of how they planned to get Hayden to cooperate.

A figure dressed all in black charged in my direction. Scrambling to my knees and grabbing the throwing stars, I flung one at him, followed by another and another. I’d only ever thrown at stationary targets, so I waited in terror for a dart or bullet to come flying out of the darkness.

Instead the man stumbled and let out a roar of pain. A gun fell from his hands as he clutched at his thigh. He howled again as he wrenched out the star.

“End them before they end you,” I whispered, Benson’s voice spurring me on as I leapt to my feet and hurdled headlong at my attacker. His head snapped up at my approach, and we both started in surprise as we recognized the other. The man with the horn-rimmed glasses forgot his wound and lunged toward his weapon. Somewhere in the back of my brain I realized my life depended on not allowing him to reach it first.

Hit ‘em where it hurts flashed through my mind as I launched into the air and aimed a strike at his bleeding leg. His blood-curdling scream didn’t quite mask the crack of breaking bone as his leg folded at an unnatural angle. I tumbled on the soft grass but quickly regained my feet, dimly aware my knee hurt like hell but more concerned about the other man emerging from the smoke cloud. It was Mr. Mustache dressed all in black, and he looked pissed.

Level the playing field. I dashed to pick up the discarded gun. Before I reached it, another dart went singing by, and I rolled empty-handed into the grass. He kept coming, loading another round into his weapon. I jumped back on my feet and whipped out the Taser.

Before he could raise his gun again, I fired. The prongs hit the mark and latched securely onto the front of his shirt. I pumped up the electricity and waited for the look of shock to cross his face. Instead he smiled. Tapping his belly with a thud, he grinned maliciously. “The new Kevlar vests are a marvel, wouldn’t you agree?”

Dropping the Taser in panic, I turned and ran. Hope jolted through me when I spied Major Taylor standing directly in my path. Her face was so pale and cold, it could have been carved from stone. Then she raised her gun.

“Stop right there,” she ordered.

“He’s right behind me!” I shouted. “Shoot him!”

“I said stop, Riley.” She pointed the gun at my chest.

I stumbled, shaken to the core.

“Shoot her!” Mr. Mustache yelled.

I met her unwavering gaze over the barrel of her weapon. “Benson trusted you!”

At the mention of his name, something flickered within the lifeless depths of her eyes. Suddenly she yelled, “Down!”

I plowed into the dirt at her feet as the gun roared over my head. I looked up to see her locked in a firing stance, a trail of smoke curling up from her weapon. I followed her gaze to the man clutching his throat, disbelief crossing his face as his life poured out between his fingers. Slowly he collapsed on the ground.

The side door to Watson Hall banged open, and Major Taylor and I both jumped. Hayden stood on the threshold, her face white with fear. A man stood behind her with a gun jammed against her cheekbone. Dressed in black like his companions, he had a frenzied look about him, as if he knew the mission was falling apart. A desperate man is a dangerous man, Benson would say.

Major Taylor aimed her weapon at him.

“What are you doing, Taylor?” he sputtered. “Put the gun down.”

“I can’t,” she said, seemingly as surprised as he was. “I made a promise.”

He darted a glance between the Major and me, tightening his chokehold on Hayden before cocking his gun and taking aim at my heart. “Drop your gun, or I pull the trigger.”

After a second’s deliberation, Major Taylor let it fall to the grass.

“You, girl,” he said, “kick it over to me.”

Rising to my feet, I shot a look at Major Taylor and hoped she got the message. No matter what she’d done or what price we had to pay, whether it was forfeiting her life, my life, or even Hayden’s, we couldn’t let him take Stephen Frasier’s daughter alive. The damn software program should probably never see the light of day, but it wasn’t getting handed over to someone who would kill to get their hands on it.

Show no fear. Absurdly I tried to remember if that was Benson’s rule #5 or #15.

I slowly nudged the gun over, stopping directly in front of Hayden. Her teeth chattered from fear or cold, or maybe both. Her feet were bare, and she wore only her long T-shirt and sweats. Her wide eyes met mine.

“Stop,” the man ordered. “Now pick it up by the barrel, and give it to me.” Once he had both weapons, there’d be nothing to stop him from killing us and taking Hayden.

Here it was, the moment of truth. The one I’d trained for all my life, and the one I’d hoped would never come… but Benson was there. I could hear him over the blood rushing through my veins, and over the pounding of my heart. Fight fair if you can, dirty if you must.

I leaned over, pretending to reach for the gun barrel, and then I dove straight into Hayden’s mid-section. The gunman’s grip was no match for her reflexes, and she whipped out of his arms. They both lost their footing, and all three of us went down hard.

Major Taylor was there before we hit the ground. She grabbed for the gun still gripped in the man’s hand, and he yanked her off her feet as well. We were a tangle of bodies locked in combat as the two of them wrestled for the gun. I wriggled out from under Hayden, who had collapsed, her breath coming in painful gasps. Crawling behind our attacker, I threw an arm around his neck and pulled. If Major Taylor could hang on another thirty seconds, he’d choke out.

The three of us struggled for several seconds, and I could tell he was weakening. Only a few more moments, and this would be over. With a last burst of desperate energy, the man almost wrenched the gun out of Major Taylor’s grasp, but she held on. I could hear people running toward us, calling our names. I even heard a bark and hoped it might be Scout cheering me on.

And then the gun went off.

The man in my arms slumped. I relaxed my grip, but I was strangely light-headed. Looking down, I grimaced at the exit wound in the man’s back but was bemused to see blood gurgling from my shoulder. Concerned faces crowded around. Some I recognized, others I didn’t.

At a familiar voice I glanced up to see Karen shouting for an ambulance. Von and Sam popped up behind her with twin expressions of horror on their faces. I opened my mouth to warn them about Major Taylor, but with a sigh I slipped into oblivion.