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Chapter twenty-seven

Wait and See

Eoghan

I would rather have stormed the Durante compound with Yuliya, instead of Jericho. The man was absolutely insufferable.

It wasn’t that he said anything much. He obeyed orders just fine, but there was something in those strange hawk-like eyes that seemed to take everything in and judge it in the worst possible light. There was an undercurrent of condescension, even when he was nodding at you in agreement.

It made me uneasy, even now, as we waited outside the Durante walls, lying in the tall grass.

Fucking landmines…

Paradigm certainly seemed to have an SOP about things. They liked taking all the guards out at once. A tactic that would have worked better if there weren’t bombs buried in the ground.

I glanced through the scope of my rifle, the little crosshairs following the guard I was assigned to kill on command. Everyone was awaiting my signal with bated breath.

But we were here, just waiting.

It had taken at least an hour to get here, crawling through the mud and grass, the cold ground scraping along our uniforms as we slithered our way like serpents. We did not know how long that endeavor would take, and we gave ourselves more time than we truly needed. That was fine for me, of course.

I can be a patient man as long as it does not involve a certain someone…

My hand ached from the new scar. I had cut my hand dozens of times in the blood oaths my father had instilled in his army, but this was the first where I cut so deeply. I liked the feel of it as I palmed the grip of my rifle.

I was certain, in my deluded way, that if something bad happened to her, I would feel it, right there, in my left hand. If she were hurt in some way, my hand would turn black and break off on its own accord to warn me of her demise.

My mind and my soul lived in two separate worlds sometimes, my soul far more sentimental than I should allow it to be.

I waited, with thoughts of Kira on my mind.

The gate I was looking through was made of iron, closed and ancient, allowing me a small view into the back garden of Cosima’s estate. The back garden was the closest to the office they were likely to hole themselves in, and I had a straight view to the targeted entrance into their large compound.

It was eerily quiet. I wasn’t sure if that was because of the frosty day, or the underlying tension that had taken the city. Everyone knew that something would happen. How could they not? Cosima had attacked my home, and she had been warned.

She would have tripled her guards, and been ready for retaliation.

Still, something bothered me about this whole thing.

The guard my sights were on turned, quickly, as though his name had been called.

He waved, and I followed his gaze to a little girl who was standing in the middle of an open door.

She wobbled on unsteady feet, wearing a plaid dress, her hair in a mass of ribbons.

Behind her was a woman with an apron around her generous waist, and she was laughing.

Morelli’s girl. Her eyes were as silver as his, with a vibrancy that only children could have.

The child tried to walk outside, only for the woman to snatch her hand and lead her back inside. She waved, her limp hand flapping in the air, as she yelled in a cute, baby voice, “Ciao-ciao!”

My heart broke, just a little. If Cosima was the reason for the landmines, then she had not thought about her child at all. Landmines are more likely to kill children playing in the garden than they were to kill combatants—that was true in old war zones, and remains true now.

I remembered how appalled Kira was to learn that there were guns on the decorative tables that littered the bloody house.

Since then, I have started reconsidering everything.

Should we even be eating with steak knives?

Or should we start having our meat pre-cut into bite-sized pieces in case the little one tried to grab at the knife?

I still had no answers for that, and Kira seemed to have good control over him at the dinner table.

Still, shouldn’t I have an opinion on these things?

Whatever those might be, I knew that landmines were a bad idea. A really, really bad idea.

“Make ready,” I said quietly over the radio.

My body felt coiled and tense, like a serpent ready to attack.

Something was bothering me. Everything felt like it was about to go awry. My palms itched, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I was frantically looking around as if the answer lay somewhere in the grass.

The guard seemed to see something, his eyes squinting as he took another tentative step. It was like he could see something in the darkness of the woods, but couldn’t quite make it out.

The sun was past its zenith, and noon sun had given way to the afternoon, and the guards, quiet and vigilant, had quietly changed.

I did not like this.

We were still waiting for Kira’s backup. We had hoped to catch them at the end of the earlier shift, before they could have fresh guards at the walls. Fresh guards meant they were rested, and I wanted to take away that small advantage from them.

What the hell was taking the support element so long? They should have been able to leave a fake crew there, and then moved to our position. But they hadn’t.

Then I heard the faint sound of multiple gunshots, distant enough that I knew something had happened with the support element. Kira. What happened to Kira?

Then the guard at the gate looked around, his eyes squinting. They were all alert now, having heard the shots. Fuck.

One of them shouted, and pointed, and another came forward from the gates, looking into the woods. It was only a matter of time before he stumbled onto us and saw us.

He took another step out, looking around as if to search for unknown threats in the woods—the unknown threats being us, lying in wait.

He took another step, and I heard a click. He looked down, his eyes wide as he yelled, “Cazzo!”

And in an instant, he was blown to hell, his body nothing but mangled pink mist, as the explosion rocked the ground beneath him.

“Now!” I yelled into the radio.

The element of surprise was gone. The next thing that would happen were more soldiers coming out here to collect the bits of their dead friend. We could not lose any more of our advantage.

With a scowl, I focused my sights on a single guard, squeezed the trigger, and fired.

His head exploded in his helmet, his body falling to the ground in a massive heap.

A hundred other shots fired, and guards went down one by one, and in the strange silence that came after, the only thing I could hear was a child’s scream.