Page 172 of Stolen Empire

Then the world explodes.

His shot booms in the air, and takes me in the back, and the impact drives the air from my lungs.

The vest absorbs the bullet, but the force of it still slams me forward as I continue to fall to the ground like Dimitri taught me, hitting the asphalt hard.

Pain radiates through my chest and ribs, but I don’t move.

I writhe, unable to cover my head to protect myself as I struggle against the suffocating feeling of being hit.

But I'm not feeling pain as much as dysphoria.

The tree lines erupt.

The Morozov and Vetrov fire overlaps in a disciplined weave that is almost beautiful in its coordination.

Bullets tear through the air over me, creating a crossfire that leaves the Radich soldiers nowhere to run.

They try to return fire, but they are pinned, caught in a killing box with no escape.

Men fall.

Blood spreads across the cracked asphalt.

The sound is deafening, an assault of gunfire and shouting and the sharp metallic sound bullets hitting their vans.

Koval is standing over me now, reaching down, trying to grab my arm to pull me up.

He means to use me as a shield, to hide behind my body while he returns fire.

I see his hand coming, and I twist away from him, forcing my body to stay low even as my instincts scream at me to run.

Dimitri emerges from the tree line, moving at a sprint.

He closes the distance between himself and Koval with terrifying speed, and I see him raise his weapon.

Two shots, fired in rapid succession.

Both of them hit Koval in the chest, and he drops like a marionette with cut strings.

He hits the ground beside me, his eyes already going glassy.

The contract on Dimitri's head ends right there, with Koval's blood spreading across the asphalt beside my body.

I scream. scrambling backward in a move that could get me killed, but I've seen enough bloodshed for a lifetime.

I don't want his blood on me.

The Radich family breaks and tries to run.

The soldiers who are still alive turn toward their vans, desperate to escape, but Artemy anticipated this.

A flanking unit cuts off their escape route, forming an impenetrable wall.

The Radich soldiers are caught between two fires now, with no way out.

Most of them choose surrender over death, dropping their weapons and falling to their knees.

The gunfire begins to slow, then stops entirely.