Yasir shook his head slowly, his voice dropping dangerously low as he told his brother what to say.
“No business. No weapons. No deal.”
“Why not?” Maggie asked, her pulse quickening.
“We cannot trust you,” Tahiil replied.
Ekaterina was nothing if not a good negotiator. If anything, their lack of trust could help Maggie and Ashton stay in the compound long enough to find Leon. So, she improvised.
“If you’re worried about collecting the shipment, I can arrange for them to be brought here, or collected by your men at a location of your choosing. I’ll even stay here until they arrive, if you insist. My choice of buyers is limited in this country.”
Yasir stroked his long beard as his words were translated. “It is strange that you chose to come here when you did.”
“Meaning?”
Ugaas froze at her side as Yasir spoke, his already worried expression turned to something close to despair.
“We found a mole within our ranks today,” Tahiil relayed, “and then you show up out of the blue. It is also strange that the same man who introduced us to the mole is the same man who brought you to our meeting.”
Yasir continued, standing from his chair as his voice grew close to shouting while Tahiil rapidly translated.
“In my experience, where there is one rat, there are many.” Yasir stabbed a finger at Ugaas. “If you are a rat, then so is this bitch and her guard. There is only one way to deal with those who try to betray me, and it is the same way we deal with the infidel scum we fight against.”
Yasir continued, but before Tahiil could translate, Ugaas dropped to his knees and pleaded with the terrorist leader. Tears spilled down his cheeks and desperation soaked into each of his words as they spewed from his mouth.
Ashton tried to pick Ugaas up, but one of the guards behind them shoved a gun in his face.
Yasir swept a hand across the air like a knife and sneered down at Ugaas. He said something with an air of finality to it.
“What did he say?” Maggie asked Ugaas.
Ugaas looked up at her with haunted eyes. “He said that—”
Maggie never got to hear what Yasir said. Before Ugaas could finish telling her, Yasir took one of the guns from his men and shot the man clean in the head.
Blood spattered across Maggie’s and Ashton’s faces, pieces of Ugaas flying through the room and sticking to the walls in globs of red and black.
Tahiil laughed and gave an order to the soldiers, eyes alight as he translated for them. “Take them out back, with the other one.”
Ashton moved first. He made for Yasir, but his men were on him before he could so much as take two steps in their leader’s direction. A fist smacked into his jaw, followed by a brutal kick to the stomach from another as an arm wrapped around Maggie’s waist and pulled her back.
She kicked out as the men continued to assault Ashton, tackling him to the floor. Her foot caught one of them with a satisfying crunch before another snatched her feet and held them together, no matter how much she tried to wriggle free from his grasp.
They were outnumbered and unarmed. Knowing it was useless, Maggie stopped struggling and fell into a dead weight as they hoisted her and Ashton up and carried them out of Yasir’s room.
Instead of leaving the way they came, the men, followed by Tahiil, carried them down a second hallway and through a door that lead to the back end of the compound.
Two of the soldiers dragged Ugaas’s dead body behind them, talking jovially as they walked, like it was just any other day. Ugaas’s head was obliterated, the close-range shot blowing a hole straight through the poor man’s skull. Maggie bit back tears as she caught sight of the photo of his son, the corner peeking out from his jeans pocket.
A security light blasted on as the macabre band marched outside, illuminating the plot of land with a bright yellow glow.
Dark smears trailed through the sand-covered dirt. In the center of the plot, lit up like a stage, was a mound of dug-up earth. Shovels lay beside it, along with a large, human-shaped hole at least six feet deep. Surrounding the hole lay smaller mounds of recently upturned dirt that had been patted back down. Maggie was under no illusion of what lay underneath, even if the graves held no markings of memorial.
Maggie struggled to see more from the way the men carried her, but something else caught her attention as they drew nearer. Something else next to the vacant hole.
It grew clearer the closer she got to it, and her heart plummeted as realization kicked in.
It was Leon. Unmoving and lying in a pool of his own blood.
Maggie screamed. They were too late.
Chapter 11
Ashton must have spotted him, too, because his voice added to Maggie’s cries.
Leon.
Dead.
Maggie thrashed in her captives’ grasp, twisting, kicking, punching, and scratching until she broke free. Landing on the ground with a thud, she scampered across the sand to where her lover and friend of over twelve years lay, still and silent as the night around them.
The men didn’t come after her. Where was she going to run off to? Not far given that they were in the middle of nowhere and she had multiple guns pointed at her. If she dared try to shoot off into the darkness beyond, she’d be dead before she reached the compound wall.
“Leon,” she said, in a high-pitched wail. “Leon, wake up.”
He didn’t move, his face turned from her as he lay in a crumpled mess. Maggie turned him to face her with gentle hands, only to find them slick with the blood that covered every part of his visible skin and stained his sodden T-shirt.
“Please, wake up. You can’t leave me. Not like this.” Through tear-blurred eyes, Maggie knelt by his side and battled the tidal wave of grief that crashed into her.
They’d been too late.
She’d failed Leon.
And now she and Ashton would die, too. All because of her.
Maggie craned her neck to the stars and blinked through the tears that streamed down her face. The little balls of gas twinkled down at her, the crystal-clear sky giving way to their brilliance as they witnessed Maggie’s entire world crumble into nothing but ash.
“Enough,” came a voice behind her. Maggie spun and saw Tahiil arrive to spectate the ordeal, a smug, satisfied smile tugging at his lips.
Without thinking, she got up and charged the man, ready to gouge his eyes out with her bare hands.
Yasir’s men intercepted her before she got very far, pulling her back like they were trying to draw back a wild animal.
Tahiil stood unmoved and unimpressed. “Not so fast, Ekaterina, or whatever your name is. We’re not going to kill you that fast. You haven’t dug out your graves yet.” Tahiil clapped his hands. “Get to work.”
He gave orders to the men, some of whom followed behind him as he returned inside the compound, leaving Maggie, Ashton, and the two dead bodies with the six remaining armed soldiers.
They released Ashton and ushered him forward with their guns, yelling at him and pointing to the shovels.
Ashton swore and spat at their feet before collecting a shovel and coming to her side.
“Mags,” he said, words thick with emotion. “Maggie.”
He shook her shoulder, but she didn’t budge, too lost in the cataclysm before her.
“I’m sorry, Ash,” she murmured.
Ashton knelt and wrapped an arm around her. “None of this is your fault. None of it, you hear me?”
But it was. She knew the risks involved in coming here. Maggie should never have allowed Ashton to take them. “You wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t suggested it,” she said, unable to look him in the eye.
“Yes, I would,” Ashton said, a single tear trailing down his dust-covered cheek. “We tried, Mags. We did all we could, but it just wasn’t enough this time. Now, come on, you need to get up.”
One of the men barked at them and zipped his lips as a sign for them to be quiet.
Maggie put a hand over Leon’s chest, ignoring them. They didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
“Leon, I—”
She straightened at the feel of it, the shred of hope pulling her out of the whirlwind of grief and despair. The faint thuds of a heartbeat thrummed under her fingers.
Leon wasn’t dead.
He was far from fighting fit, but she hadn’t lost him. He was alive.
Maggie released another cry, this time one of sheer relief. No one seemed to notice the change as her mind kicked back into gear and took stock of their situation. Her hand tightened around the fabric of Leon’s shirt as resolve washed over her and solidified into clear intent.
Leon was alive, and she was going to ensure he stayed that way.
Pulling Ashton down into a seemingly sorrow-filled embrace, Maggie brought her lips to his ear. “He’s not dead,” she whispered.
Maggie felt Ashton’s tense muscles relax a little as he let out a relieved shudder.
“We’ve got to find a way out of this,” he replied.
“We will. We’ve come too far for it to end here. I won’t allow it.”
“Me neither.”
Maggie kissed his cheek. “On my move.”
They untangled themselves from each other and got to their feet again.
One of the soldiers grew impatient with their lack of digging and stepped forward. He brought a hand across Maggie’s face with a hard smack that almost floored her, but she didn’t retaliate. Not yet.
Maggie turned back to him, holding the side of her face as blood trickled down her lip. She displayed the shock and fear the man expected to see.
He would soon live to regret his blow, though not for long.
In the meantime, Maggie collected a shovel, and she and Ashton got to work on digging one of three graves that would remain empty. They needed to play it smart and bide their time. Taking out six armed men wouldn’t be easy, and there would be plenty more inside the heart of the compound.
Sweat fell in beads down her forehead by the time they’d finished digging the second hole. Figuring it didn’t much matter now, she tugged off her wig and tossed it into the growing pile of earth she and Ashton had excavated from the packed ground.
The soldier who’d hit her clicked his fingers and pointed to the lifeless body of Ugaas. His gesture was clear enough, despite the language barrier.
Dropping their shovels, Maggie and Ashton dragged poor Ugaas from where he’d been dumped and carried him down into a hole. Maggie closed his lifeless eyes and hoped that his family would be safe from Yasir’s wrath now that they knew he was an infiltrator. People like the terrorist cell leader didn’t stop at killing those who’d wrong them. They went after everyone you loved and wiped them out with ruthless disregard.
Once Ugaas was lowered into his final resting place, the soldier in charge pointed to Leon next.
“He’s going to be too heavy,” Maggie said, formulating an opportunity to strike.
Ashton nodded without comment and took his position at Leon’s head. Maggie moved to his feet, and together, they made their fake attempt at heaving Leon up off the ground.
She hoped their struggle didn’t hurt him or worsen his injuries. With so much blood and in the shadow-laden area the overhead security light created, it was hard to tell the extent of the damage Yasir and his people had inflicted.
The soldiers laughed at their struggle at first, but the head’s impatience flared again, and he soon sent two of the other five soldiers to aid them with Leon’s large frame.
Maggie tipped her head to the man at her right. Ashton nodded in understanding and reached for the shovel, his knuckles turning bone white as he gripped the handle, ready when she was.
Though the men still wore their rifles strapped around their shoulders, they needed to abandon their grip on the weapons to help out. As expected, they split up, one coming to either side of Leon, which was exactly what Maggie had anticipated.
They only had one shot, and Maggie made the most of it.
As soon as both soldiers bent down to tuck their hands underneath Leon, Maggie and Ashton wielded their shovels in unison and brought them up against their targets.
Maggie put the entire weight of her body behind the blow and sent the metal edge of the spade into the man’s neck.
A sickening squish was accompanied by the spurt of arterial blood as it rained from the gash in the man’s throat, the end of the shovel scraping the bone of his spine as it cut through muscle and sinew.
Ashton’s adversary didn’t fare well either, both soldiers bleeding profusely and summarily incapacitated. Seeing the fate of their comrades, the other soldiers reached for their guns.
Maggie knew this was coming and spun behind her dying victim. She wrapped her arms under his armpits and bore his weight to keep him from falling. Now the perfect shield from the bullets that flew from the other terrorists, Maggie reached for the AK-47 and took aim.
Ashton had hold of his soldier’s gun, too, and together they released a tirade of bullets at the enemy, stepping out of range from Leon to ensure no stray bullets sunk into him.
The body of her human shield slammed into her with each bullet it took on her behalf, the force of it a very real reminder of the peril they were in. One round from one of the rifles was enough to end you, quick and clean.
Maggie fired at the soldier in charge, paying him back for the slap by sinking three rounds into his chest. With all the men down, both ex-agents turned to Leon and hoisted him up from the ground. There was no time to celebrate—already cries from within the compound rang out in response to the storm of gunfire.
“Which way?” Ashton asked, taking in the towering, impenetrable walls that ran the length of the compound in each direction.
Leon was in no fit state to risk the wilderness behind them, and they were too far out in what appeared to be a barren stretch of terrain for them to easily disappear.
“We’ll need to go straight through.”
Ashton set his jaw in determination, and they rushed forward, fast as possible given the load they had to bear. Leon was a lot of things, but small wasn’t one of them, and Maggie’s muscles strained under his weight with each step.
Footsteps sounded from behind the door they’d been brought out of, and they shared a look.
“I’ve got him,” Ashton said, taking on the full burden of Leon. “You take care of them.”
Maggie nodded, her heart close to bursting as Leon raised his head a little and planted his feet on the ground, roused by all the commotion. It was a good sign. Now they just had to make it out alive.
Men burst out from inside the compound, slamming the door against the wall as they charged toward them.
Thanks to the narrowness of the door, Yasir’s soldiers were forced to exit one at a time, allowing Maggie to clip them with relative ease. The first one fell flat on his face, causing the next man to stumble while the rest struggled to jump over them both. They were all dead in seconds.
Maggie didn’t think twice about stepping over the dead bodies of terrorists to enter the compound. She crept through the door, gun at the ready for anyone who dared get in their way. It was shoot to kill, and Maggie was an excellent shot.
More charging footsteps resounded from both ends of the hallway. Ashton dropped Leon on the ground, resulting in a pained groan from the injured man. Noise was good. It meant he was still alive.
The approaching men arrived at Ashton’s side first, and Maggie helped him send round after round into the heads, necks, and chests of each one.
“I’m out!” Ashton called, pulling the trigger of his pilfered weapon. Maggie’s rifle hadn’t fared much better, and she checked the magazine. One bullet left.
“Leave it to me.” Pressing her back to the wall on her right, Maggie inched to the corner of the hallway where the next set of terrorists approached from.
Maggie waited until the last moment, clutching her rifle like a baseball bat.
Without t
hinking better of what she was about to do, she pivoted, turned the corner, and rushed the first man she met with a vicious swing.
The hilt of the gun collided with her enemy’s jaw with a crunch that sent his teeth flying.
Before he knew what had hit him, Maggie twirled him around, shoving him into the next attacker while simultaneously snatching his rifle.
A symphony of bullets from the remaining men rang through the hallway, and Maggie dived behind the wall, falling on her back and aiming with her new and fully loaded gun. Expecting her to still be standing, the men weren’t looking at the floor when they rounded the hall.
Blood spattered the walls in garish red, falling over her in warm raindrops as each man fell lifeless around her.
Ashton whistled in appreciation. “Well, that’s one way to clear a room, Mags. Now, let’s bounce.”
Maggie got to her feet, almost slipping on the blood, and hurried to help her friend with Leon. Leon groaned again, coming to as they hoisted him back up and around Ashton’s shoulders. “Maggie?”
“Yes, it’s me,” she replied, caressing his face as his eyes blinked open. “Ashton, too. We’re getting you out of here.” Maggie turned to Ashton and pointed down the left branch of the hallway. “Take him down that way and out into the courtyard. There are plenty of cars.”
Ashton balked. “And what the hell do you think you’ll be doing while I get the big man into a getaway car?”
“I’m going to finish what Leon started. Yasir and Tahiil need to be stopped.” Maggie handed Ashton her rifle now that they had more than enough to choose from. “Go! I’ll be right behind you.”
“Are you insane?” Ashton shouted as a lone soldier stumbled into Maggie’s massacre. He gasped before reaching for his gun, but Ashton released shots into his leg, arm, and chest before he got the chance to strike. “We need to get the hell out of here before the rest of Yasir’s brainwashed troops come and blow holes through us all.”
“We can’t allow them to live. Not after the damage they’ve done.”
A bullet zipped between their faces. Ashton hissed as plaster flew off the wall upon impact and scratched the side of his face. Blood dripped down his cheek in crimson tears.
Hit List Page 8
