Brett Battles - The Destroyed

The man called out her name again. She ignored him and searched along the wall for something that would trigger her memory.

A sudden, muffled crash caused her to whip around. It could have only been someone breaking through the front door. Maybe he’d been telling her the truth. Maybe there were others.

It didn’t matter. Others or not, she had to get out of there now.

Where the hell is that damn switch?

As she desperately tried to find the window release, she heard the spit of a sound-suppressed gun, followed quickly by several more shots.

Where are you? Where are you? Where Hold on. What was that?

She moved her gaze back a few feet. She’d been looking at a bookcase, then the top of the dresser. There’d been something, something that had seemed familiar.

There!

She rushed over to the dresser. On the wall just above it were several framed photographs. They were all shots Julien had taken around Rome. It was a specific one that had drawn her attention-an image of a fountain in a small plaza where two kids were jumping in the water.

“See,” Julien had said. “To play like this is an escape to a different world. Simple, huh?”

She lifted the picture off its hook. Behind it, recessed into the wall, was a plastic switch that looked like it might turn on a light.

As she started to reach for it, there was a second crash. Not the front door this time.

The door to her room.

Quinn twisted around in time to see the front door fly inward on its hinges.

Both he and Nate pulled out their guns at the same time, and aimed them toward the still-unoccupied opening. Quinn didn’t like this one bit. Based on the conversation he’d had with Peter, it was clear the former head of the Office had been charged with finding Mila, so it didn’t take a genius to figure out that whoever had just busted down the door was probably working for him. Mila was a loose end on a termination Peter had ultimately been responsible for. That meant it was a mess he’d want to clean up before anyone else found out.

“We can’t let them see us,” Quinn whispered. “I don’t want anyone knowing we’re here.”

“Do we take them out?”

“Not if we can help it.” That would cause even more problems.

“I’m heading your way,” Daeng said over the comm.

“No,” Quinn said. “We don’t know where they all are, so someone might be watching the entrance. You’re no use to us dead.”

“Neither are you.”

Someone moved a few inches into the doorway and tried to look in. Quinn let off a warning shot, hoping that would delay them long enough so that he could figure something out. Instead, it elicited a round of blind fire into the room.

Not wanting the strike team to just rush in, Quinn and Nate shot back.

“We need to get in the bedroom,” Quinn whispered.

“You hold them. I’ll get us in.”

As Nate ran back to the closed bedroom door, Quinn let off a couple more shots. How much longer they could keep the others out of the apartment, he didn’t know, nor did he have any idea what he’d do if they came in.

Behind him, there was a loud crash, followed quickly by a second one.

“Come on,” Nate whispered.

Quinn sent three more rounds through the apartment then sprinted to the back end of the hall.

The door to the bedroom had been cracked nearly in half. Nate pushed it and the chair that had been jammed under the knob out of the way.

“Stop,” Mila said as Quinn and Nate rushed in.

She was by the dresser, holding a pistol. Both men halted a few feet inside the room.

“It is you,” she said.

“Of course, it’s me,” Quinn replied. “But we can say hi later. Right now, we’ve got to get out of here.” In the apartment, more bullets smacked into the walls. Soon the others would realize the return fire had stopped and they’d rush in. “If we can get to the kitchen, we can get out the window and drop down to the courtyard.”

She seemed to be contemplating something, then said, “You’d better not be lying to me.”

“Lying?” Nate said, annoyed. “Those aren’t rubber bullets they’ve been shooting at us.”

Mila lowered her gun. “We don’t need the kitchen.”

She reached over and flipped a light switch that had been oddly installed inside a wall divot above the dresser. From the left came the faint sound of metal moving against metal.

“You want out, follow me,” she said.

She hurried over to the larger of the room’s two windows and pushed on it. It moved several inches. She pushed again, and this time it popped out of the opening, and fell out of sight. A few seconds later, there was the crash of glass as it hit the ground. Mila was already climbing through the opening.

Daeng’s voice suddenly cut over the comm. “I’m on the street. Do I come in or not?”

“Clear out the hotel,” Quinn said quickly. “We’ll meet you at the emergency rendezvous point.”

“Are you sure?” Daeng asked.

“Yes.”

Daeng hesitated. “All right. You will make it, right?”

“That’s the plan.”

Nate nodded toward the window. “Go with her. I’ll buy us a little time.”

Quinn went after Mila and stuck his head out the window. The space outside was a narrow gap, not much more than six feet wide between adjoining buildings. On the ground below was the shattered window. Unfortunately, there were no exits at either end, just walls that would trap them there. Behind him, he could hear Nate shoot off a couple of rounds.

“This way!” Mila called out.

Quinn looked up. She was a floor above him. Her feet were on Julien’s building while her hands were pressed against the one on the other side of the gap. She was working her way toward the roof two more floors above. It wasn’t exactly the best escape route ever, but better than any of their other choices.

Quinn moved out and joined her. He’d made it about half a floor before Nate exited the apartment and started climbing behind him.

There was no question they were in a race against time. If the others stuck their heads out the window before the three of them reached the top, it was all over.

Hand, foot, hand, foot, up, up, up.

Quinn kept glancing down at the opening into Julien’s apartment.

Any second now.

He was so focused on watching for the danger below that he wasn’t paying attention to his own position. As he reached up, he found nothing for his hand to grab on to.

The top! Dammit!

He tried to snag the edge, but his balance was off and he started to swing to the side. Suddenly, a hand thrust out and grabbed his wrist, steadying him.

“I got you,” Mila said.

He clamped on to the lip of the building and let his feet drop against the wall so that he was dangling high above the ground. Pushing up with his arms, he swung his legs over the edge, and rolled onto the safety of the roof.

“Thanks,” he said to Mila.

She grunted in response as she moved a few feet away, her gaze suspicious.

Quinn glanced back into the gap just in time to see Nate grab for the top. He guided Nate’s hand up, then hooked him beneath the arms and pulled. As he did, a head appeared out of Julien’s window. The man looked down first, then twisted around and looked toward the sky.

“Hang on,” Quinn said, yanking as hard as he could.

Just as Nate cleared the edge, two bullets slammed into the wall inches from where he’d been.

“Had to leave the bag,” Nate said.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Nate glanced around. “Where’s the girl?”

“What?” Quinn twisted around, his head jerking side to side.

Mila was gone.

Near the middle of the roof was a small structure that undoubtedly served as roof access for a set of stairs. But using them would be suicide. They were on the building right next to Julien’s. Trying to leave from it would be a foot race they’d lose for sure. He couldn’t imagine that Mila hadn’t realized that, too.