Page 118 of Agency

As she spoke, something clicked deep within the recesses of the safe, and a low hum suddenly began, like a capacitor on an old camera winding up to build a charge.

“What was that?” I asked, taking the satchel from her as the wind-up finished. I slipped the bag’s shoulder strap over my head.

“A primer,” she replied, “for a whole lot of C4. This house is going up in five minutes, and there’s no way even I can stop it.”

Alarm bells immediately sounded in my head.

She pushed me back towards the office safe’s exit, and then I was out into the unfinished sub-basement and heading for the ladder. I began to clamor up. Distant sounds of gunfire were already chit-chattering their way down through the lid, and over the coms as I neared the opening in the ceiling.

“Alpha falling back, making my way to the house’s doorway. I’ve dropped one of them, but they’re on full auto and trying to pin me down.”

“Careful, Alpha!” Andrew shouted over the coms. “There’s trip wires!”

“I see them, Bravo. Charlie, where’s my cover?”

“Taking out a second incoming vehicle, Alpha. Four more hostiles on the way. Scratch that. Three more. Shit! Another van. How many of these guys are there?”

“Shit!” Rapid gunfire, but not the distinct rhythm of full auto, sounded upstairs in the house as I stepped off the ladder, my eyes searching in the dim light for Andrew. Nothing. He must have gone upstairs to join Jericho.

More gunfire and more swearing from the guys as I turned back to offer Aunt Val my hand. I pulled her up the rest of the way.

“Outside!” she shouted.

My carbine was up as I spun, and then we were both firing through one of the back window at a black-clad ghost of a figure just rounding the corner. The operator jerked and fell, and glass came down in sheets, crashing across the basement floor like a sheet of ice suddenly melted back into water.

“Charlie,” I barked. “One hostile in back. Anymore incoming?”

“Can’t tell,” Morgan snapped back. “Too busy killing his friends.”

“Shit,” I said, glancing to Aunt Val. “There’s more and more coming.”

My aunt’s face didn’t pale, didn’t even twitch. “Tell them to fall back through the house to the backyard, then circle away from the street and make their way to the garage along the side of the house.” She checked her watch. “We have four minutes.”

“Four minutes till the charges go off?”

She nodded. “My HOA might send its own assassins after me.”

Grinning, I relayed her instructions to the guys.

“Way ahead of you,” Jericho growled back amid gunfire. “Reloading, Andrew! Cover me!”

“I’m busy with the—”

“One’ll do! Cover me!”

More gunfire, and Aunt Val and I were already running through the shattered glass of the rear window and into the backyard. She covered my right flank as I went left, and her shotgun boomed as soon as we split ways.

I didn’t look back, just kept moving as her boots fell in line behind mine. I proceeded to stairs leading to the upper deck. Jericho and Andrew were both visible within, taking cover behind decorative stone walls as two more operators fired from the entryway and into the house. The rear windows were already shattered, and glass littered the deck in front of me.

“Covering, Alpha,” I shouted as both Aunt Val and I dropped to our knees and began to fire in through the rear, theclack-clack-clackof my own AR-15 fire punctuated by the booming bass of her shotgun. Our gunfire peppered and bit into the entryway, and the two operators slammed themselves into cover as Andrew and Jericho both popped up from theirs.

“Move, Alpha, move!”

“Breaking cover and moving to the house,” Morgan said over the coms. “Be there momentarily!” He’d taken rope, and there were plenty of trees up there. Any of them would be perfect for an emergency rappelling point.

I kept firing as my two partners in the house exited. A third hostile, though, came in through the front entrance and decided to make a break for us as Aunt Val’s shotgun ran dry.

There wasn’t even a click.