A muted explosion chased the space behind their fleeing heels. Smyth turned in place, still running, and loosed several bullets in the direction they had come. Kinimaka ducked as return fire whickered overhead.
The leader barked a resonating order, signaling the start of a prolonged bombardment. Bullets flashed through the air and impacted against the shiny walls, cracking the hard surfaces. Hayden and her entire team dived headlong, hitting the floor and sliding with solid momentum. Komodo and Smyth rolled as they slid, coming around with guns already blazing.
The battle raged as Karin, Hayden and Kinimaka scrambled behind a round maroon-colored pillar. Chips of plastic showered through the air around them as their enemies concentrated their fire power. Smyth and Komodo rolled the other way, having to lie lengthways behind the short wall of a semi-circular water fountain. Komodo slithered until he could poke his head around the edge, and fired a few rounds.
Then he turned to Hayden. His eyes said it all. They were dangerously low on ammo.
Keep moving, Smyth was mouthing at her. She knew the military man’s mantra by heart. To stop was to die. She sat with her back to the pillar and surveyed the area. Karin pointed out the exit, dangerously exposed at the end of a long, wide corridor.
“How many of those assholes are left?” she asked Kinimaka.
“Best guess? Eight, maybe a few more or less.”
Karin grasped Hayden’s hand. “What is this? What’s going on?”
Hayden weighed the impact of revealing her fears and decided against it. “Not sure. Yet.” Both Karin and Kinimaka had loved ones out there and to start worrying about them now wouldn’t help anyone.
“We need to break for that exit,” she said. “Before we run out of ammo. What we need is a diversion.”
“What about that?” Kinimaka pointed overhead. Hayden took it in and looked speculatively at him. “Can you take ‘em all down?”
The Hawaiian raised an eyebrow. “How long have you known me?”
“Alright.” Hayden signaled Smyth and Komodo. As she peered out she saw the attacking unit creeping forward in perfect formation whilst still firing. It was going to take a miracle to get all of them out of this one alive.
She prayed. “Go.”
Kinimaka rolled onto his back and fired toward the ceiling. All his remaining shots went into breaking the supporting cables that tethered half a dozen swirling plastic displays to the roof. As the displays plummeted down, the SPEAR team rose and ran.
Hayden saw the albino dive sideways as the enormous hard plastic casings shattered against the mall floor, crushing several of his men and making a noise like several RPGs exploding. Three men made it straight through by sliding, but lost their weapons and came up holding knives.
Smyth and Kinimaka were in their faces. Smyth shot the first point-blank, then upended his empty rifle to club the next across the bridge of the nose. Despite the audible crack, the merc didn’t even flinch, just snorted and lashed back at Smyth. The ex-Delta soldier took a swipe across the cheek; blood flew and he hammered the butt of his rifle into the guy’s teeth. The merc lunged a second time. Smyth let the knife pass less than an inch from his body, trapped the arm and broke it. At the same time, he disabled the man with a heavy blow to the temple.
Komodo dispatched his own adversary just as the albino hit them. This man didn’t fight conventionally. He slid in, taking Komodo’s legs, but not just tripping him — the blow almost broke Komodo’s shins. He yelped in agony. Smyth covered for him, stomping toward the albino’s head. When his foot landed it crushed nothing but empty space; the albino was already up, lithely twisting around behind him and encircling his neck with a thick arm.
Hayden saw the albino’s power and the sudden panic in Smyth’s normally sardonic face as he felt his adversary’s strength. She couldn’t fire for fear of hitting her team mate so she bounded over the gap between them. The roof displays had devastated the ranks of their attackers, but several were groaning and already rising to their knees.
Hayden punched the albino in the soft place behind the ear, then put a choke hold around his own neck. She expected him to fall back, but was amazed when he bunched the muscles in his neck and fought her grip. She had never known anything like it. Even as she applied all her strength she couldn’t actually tell if she was making any impression.
Smyth twisted hard. The albino didn’t shift an inch. His lips moved as he whispered something into Smyth’s ear.
“If this were prison, soldier, you would be my boy.”
The three fighters struggled hard, locked into position, as precious seconds flew by. When Komodo approached the tableau, the albino only grinned. “C’mon, boy, I’ll take you too.”
But then Kinimaka broke it all apart by hitting the albino with a waist-high tackle. Hayden was flung aside. Smyth hit the floor hard. The albino cracked his head against a pillar and looked stunned. Kinimaka pushed away.
“We gotta go!”
In an instant they had turned and were sprinting for the exit. The albino shook his head to clear his daze. His men picked their way through the display wreckage, bruised and bleeding, and searching for lost weapons. Hayden pushed the rest before her. She was now the only one with any ammo, and needed to cover the escape. For precious seconds they ran unhindered, seeing the double exit doors loom closer with every step. Blackness pressed hard against the glass and people strolled along the broad expanse of Pennsylvania Avenue outside. More than escape, it offered divine freedom. She couldn’t believe they had all escaped this latest skirmish intact.
Hayden risked a glance back. The albino was drawing a bead on her, one eye closed. She saw his wrist flex, then felt the punch of the bullet as it struck.
She staggered, gasping. Ahead, Kinimaka turned, eyes suddenly wider than she had ever seen and burning with fear. Hayden put a hand to her waist, but felt nothing. Her legs were still working.
“Jesus,” she breathed at him. “Must have ripped right through my jacket.”
Kinimaka breathed deep and reached for the swinging exit doors. Cold air flowed into the mall.
Hayden slowed. The gun cracked again and this time she felt the bullet as it punched through her abdomen, felt the gout of blood explode from her body, felt her nails rip as she grasped desperately for Kinimaka and missed, falling hard to the cold mall floor.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kinimaka ducked as another bullet passed close to his head. With one heave he managed to lift Hayden’s inert body and drape it over one of his massive shoulders. He knew full well what was happening here. He had heard the albino’s comment ‘The Blood King sends his regards’, and knew time was of the essence. He should get word to his family right away, but Hayden was his closest family now and she needed him.
They rushed out of the mall into the cool night. The bright lights of Pennsylvania Avenue bathed them in stark unreality. Life wasn’t about eye-catching colors, provocative billboards and gleaming cars. It was struggle and desperation and momentary bursts of pure pleasure. It was dirty, unforgiving and ever-changing.
Komodo dashed out into the middle of the road, stopped a car and hauled out the driver. Without ceremony, the rest of the team piled in, Kinimaka holding Hayden across his lap. She was still breathing, and he kept every emotion reined in as the world passed him by.
“Nearest hospital?” Komodo cried.