The Painted Messiah (38 page)

He turned back and saw two men run out to the second storey terrace, spinning and firing on full auto at Ethan. Malloy took one. Ethan dropped the other.

At impact with the windows, Kate used a cross-handed draw to produce two Steyr tactical machine pistols. The two guards had their weapons raised when she took them with her left hand. Bremmer, who was stilling reaching for his sidearm, Kate took down with her right.

When she had emptied both weapons Kate dropped them and pulled a fresh Steyr from one of the holsters on her thigh. She finished the guards and Jeffrey Bremmer with kill shots as she walked toward Corbeau, who had risen from his seat but had made no attempt to reach for a weapon.

'On the floor!' Kate told him. When he hesitated, she pulled her Navy Colt with her left hand and fired once into his leg. Corbeau went down hard, screaming incoherently. Kate kicked him in the face, breaking his nose.

Tossing the Navy Colt aside, she forced Corbeau's hands behind his back and locked his wrist's together with cuffs. She set the Steyr on the floor next to him and then tied his feet with a length of rope. 'Your package is in the library, Boy,' she announced.

'Grounds are quiet, Girl,' Ethan answered.

'Man?' Kate asked.

'No sign of North,' Malloy answered.

'We'll find her.'

Taking up the Steyr, Kate walked toward the narrow hallway leading out of the library. 'I am clearing the second floor, gentlemen.'

Leading with a concussion grenade Kate walked toward the main hall, ready for resistance, but the hallway before the stairs was empty. Kate went room by room through the second storey, tapping closets, wardrobes, and doors with small bursts of gunfire before opening them.

When she had assured herself no one was at her back, she reloaded and headed for the stairway. 'Second floor is secure, gentlemen,' she whispered.

'I'm coming in,' Malloy announced.

'Hold your position!' Kate said.

'Position is secure.'

Chernoff and Xeno were at the bottom of the stairs when they heard the sound of automatic weapons in Corbeau's library. Xeno started back, but Chernoff took his arm. It was too late to help Corbeau, and they both knew it. They heard more shots, from the roof this time, and then the sound of a grenade exploding close to the guardhouse.

Three men came running toward the stairs, but Xeno stopped them. 'Wait for them here,' he said, signaling them to either side of the stairway.

He signaled Chernoff toward the back of the house. At the windows overlooking the backyard she saw the pilot in the grass. Next to him was a man wearing headgear and a hood. The helicopter was empty, the blades
still twirling. She heard shots and another grenade exploding on the opposite side of the house. She crossed the main room heading to the front window. 'One in the back!' she called.

At the front of the house the gate was still closed, but both guards were down. 'Both guards down at the gate!'

Slipping out the side of the building not far from to the basement entrance, Chernoff found three more down. She looked up at the roof as she pressed close to the side of the house. One man holding the pilot. Two or three on the roof. Another pair on the second storey . . .

Against three times that number! It didn't make sense. There had to be a second wave coming through the tunnel from the lake or hitting the front gate - or both.

Which meant it was time to go.

She hit the wall on the run, snagging the tiles at the top and swinging one leg over. Pulling her Glock free, she studied the woods beneath her but saw nothing besides the predawn shadows and wisps of fog.

From Chernoff's position atop the wall she could see the helicopter and the pilot through the leaves but not the other man. Had he seen her? Was he coming?

She waited, watching the backyard with her gun ready. When he broke from behind the heavy cover of the tree branches close to the wall he was running toward the house. Chernoff fired three shots at the man, two in the chest for takedown and one in the head when he hit the ground. Then she took aim on the pilot and put one bullet in his skull. In case they were hoping to use him to fly out.

She heard a single gunshot fired from close to the front gate but couldn't see who had fired it. It didn't matter. She slipped both legs over the wall and dropped into the brush. Like Brand and Kenyon, Helena Chernoff headed in the direction of the lake.

'Man is down!' Ethan shouted. Even as he said it, a bullet hit him in the back. The impact sent him sliding headfirst toward the edge of the roof. His first coherent thought was that the slug had not penetrated his armor, but he was going to die from a headfirst plunge from the roof. He snagged his ice pick from his belt and swung its point through the slate. The immediate effect was to throw his body to one side. Getting both hands on the pick, Ethan's legs arced round and ended up hanging over the roof's guttering.

Pulling himself back and standing up again, Ethan saw his Kalashnikov had fallen into the shrubbery. He brought his second weapon off his chest, snapped the folding metallic butt into place, and climbed the steep grade back to the top. The man who had shot him was already through the front gate and starting toward the house. The rover. Ethan hit him once with a headshot and then strapped his weapon back to his chest.

Extending a length of his rope, he looped one end around the chimney and ran for the edge of the roof. At the end of his rope, his body swung back toward the house, and broke through the library window. He landed only a few feet from the devil himself.

Kate rolled a concussion grenade down the main stairwell, then pulled the second Steyr. Wielding both guns she was almost down the stairs without incident when two men slipped into position from different hallways - one in front of her, the other at her back. Seeing the muzzle flash of the Kalashnikov in front of her, Kate leaped over the bannister, emptying both weapons as she dropped. She hit one man hard but the second pulled back too quickly.
Tossing the empty machine pistols aside as she rolled, she freed her Kalashnikov and came to sitting position with her back to the wall.

'I think I could use some help,' she whispered.

Kenyon's shots had pounded against Xeno's vest, forcing him back to cover. For a moment he waited, his chest heaving, his breath fast and shallow. He could hear Kenyon calling for help and signaled the man next to him that there was still someone on the second floor. 'Wait for him,' he whispered as he sent the man to the other hallway.

Ethan had already tossed Corbeau over his shoulder and was coming to the top of the stairs when he heard Kate ask for help. Dropping Corbeau to the floor, Ethan descended the stairs with his AKS-74 on full auto. 'I'm on the stairs,' he said. 'Man, are you hit?'

There was no answer.

Xeno leaned against the wall, holding his weapon close to his chest, the muzzle up, his finger pressing the trigger.

He heard Brand's voice above him. 'I'm on the stairs.

Man, are you hit?' And then he was coming down the steps. Like Kenyon he jumped the last two metres and hit the floor hard.

The moment he did Xeno swung out, his gun level and set on full auto.

Ethan saw Kate on the floor, her shoulders leaning against the wall. She had one gun but two hallways to cover. Jumping over the bannister he dropped the last six feet. As he did a uniformed guard moved into view in the living room with a handgun. His first shot hit Ethan, but he dropped when Ethan opened fire. A second man came in low, sliding across the floor on his shoulder with a Kalashnikov on full auto and using the corpse of the man who had just fallen as cover. Ethan swept the point of his weapon down across him but the clip emptied out. He heard Kate's firing directly under him, but was not conscious of the Kalashnikov at his back until a spray of bullets slammed him face first into the wall. He dropped across Kate, tossing his emptied weapon aside and pulling one of his Steyrs. The man in the living room came up, having reloaded and opened fire again, but Ethan hit him with a long blast from the Steyr.

As he spun to cover the other hall way, Kate slumped lifelessly to the floor.

'Girl is down!' he called, touching the torn armor over her heart. 'Talk to me, Man! Repeat. Girl is down!'

The moment the shots started Xeno felt a strange stinging sensation close to his hip and another in his arm. As

he rolled back to cover, half-a-dozen rounds slammed into his chest and side.

He checked his wounds, one in the arm, one close to the hip below the line of his vest - and one, he realized, in the centre of his chest, the bullet having penetrated his vest.

That one scared him, but at least he was still standing.

Malloy sat up like a man pulled out of a deep sleep. 'I'm coming,' he muttered and tried to stand without much success. He could not remember where he was and it occurred to him he might be drunk, at least until he looked around and saw his helmet, headset, and the AKS-74.

The helmet, he realized, had taken a round - which explained the wooziness and headache. As he collected the gun, like a boy gathering his shovel from the sandbox, he realized the voice he had heard calling him back to consciousness could not have come from the headset. He had lost that when he was hit.

It must have been the memory of Gwen telling him to wake up. He smiled at the thought of so many mornings coming slowly awake while she coaxed him out of bed and he tried to talk her back in . . .

He heard a shot fired without understanding its source. Even the distinctive crack as it passed his face and the thunk as the bullet struck the earth several feet behind him made no immediate impression. The next bullet struck him squarely in the chest. That had the effect of awakening him to the fact that he was exposed and someone was still trying to kill him.

He rolled hard to the left and kept rolling when he heard more shots. When he came up, he pulled his MAC-10, located the man at the edge of house by the muzzle flash of his gun, and leveled his weapon. He felt the hard punch of a bullet strike the heavy padding at his shoulder. The gunman was going for the head. He answered with a burst that hit brick and danced toward flesh. The man spun round once like a dervish, his arms reaching out as he dropped to the gravel.

Malloy came to his feet slowly, his head throbbing now. Loading a fresh clip, he began a broken-field run toward the house. At the terrace Malloy did not bother opening the door, but crashed through the glass. He saw Ethan squatting protectively over Kate's prone figure, and understood at once something was wrong.

As the two men recognized one another they both relaxed. Just then a gunman stepped into the open with his Kalashnikov on full auto. Malloy dived across the floor and came up in a seated position firing a full burst as several rounds pounded into his vest. The man went down, and Malloy tossed his emptied MAC-10 aside. The wind knocked out of him, his chest and stomach heaving, Malloy crawled across the room and joined Ethan.

Xeno staggered back along the wall looking for others, but no one was left. At the front of the house he could see three men down just inside the opened gate. If there was someone still on the roof it would be suicide to try to get to the cars.

He thought about going over the wall, but with his wounds he realized he couldn't make it.

He heard glass breaking, weapons firing, the cry of a man hit, and then one of the weapons clattering across the floor.

His only chance was to get to the tunnel and then make his way down to the boats. From there he could get across the lake.

He closed the basement door quietly and limped slowly down the wooden steps. He stopped midway and reached under his vest to touch the blood. He checked its colour - dark. That meant the bullet hadn't punctured a lung. He reached under his armor again and felt a piece of the bullet wedged into the bone. Unless it was just a fragment, that was good. It might hurt like he was dying but it wasn't going to kill him. Just a broken sternum, an arm and a hip. Xeno took a long, painful breath and finished descending the steps. Fighting nausea and dizziness he leaned back against the handrail, trying to clear his head. There was still time, but it was running out. He had to move. He had to get out. He just needed to get past the nausea and he was going to be all right.

He took a deep breath and looked across the basement toward the door to the tunnel. He took a step and the floor seemed to tip out from under him as the room twirled. He was conscious and sucking air when he hit the concrete, but then everything went black and cold.

'She's dead,' Ethan whispered. His voice was tinged with awe. The possibility of Kate's death seemed never to have occurred to him.

Malloy touched Kate's vest. Like Ethan's and his
own, it had been ripped apart by several bursts of the Kalashnikov's 5.67 millimetre ammo.

At least there was no blood. Or maybe he just hadn't found the wound yet. He pulled her hood back, exposing her neck and jaw. He stripped his glove off and laid his fingers across her neck, praying he was wrong, but the carotid artery was silent.

He looked at Ethan, whose eyes behind his hood were wet and dilated, and then made sure Kate's mouth and throat were clear. Pinching off her nostrils Malloy brought his mouth to Kate's cold lips and breathed. He pulled back and then breathed into her lungs again. He heard Ethan praying and whispered his own.