Mother was on a nearby stage, taking cover behind one of the random stone objects in the Pit and firing at the two remaining D-boys with a pistol when she heard Schofield's shout.
She turned fast and loosed a volley at the fleeing Noonan. She didn't hit him, but her burst did cut him off from the exit, forcing him to stop and take cover behind a stone block.
She didn't get to see if this actually helped Schofield, though,
because the momentary distraction had given her two Delta opponents the opening they needed.
One of them nailed her in the chest with a dozen rapid-fire shots from his Colt. Of course, her borrowed flak vest was bulletproof, so the shots just jolted her backwards, shot after shot after shot.
Under the weight of heavy fire, Mother staggered backwards, and just as the D-boy firing at her raised his aim for the kill-shot to her head—
—she dropped abruptly—
—into the water, and the kill-shot went high.
Mother sank underwater.
Brief merciful silence.
Then she came up—knowing what would be waiting—breaching the surface with her pistol extended, and nailed the two D-boys just as they themselves fired at her.
The two Delta men dropped, their faces bloody messes.
Mother sighed with relief.
It was then that she felt an odd swell in the water around her.
She turned . . .
. . . and saw a large bow-wave surging through the water toward her, the high dorsal fin of a tiger shark scything through the waves, charging at her.
'Oh, no way!' she yelled. 'No fucking way! I've survived far too much today to end up as fish food!'
She fired her pistol at the inrushing shark—blaml-blaml-blaml-blamt-blam'.-blam!
The shark didn't slow down.
Mother's shots hit it, but the big shark just powered through the waves.
Blam'.-blaml-blam!
The shark still didn't slow down.
It rose out of the frothing water, jaws wide—
—just as Mother, still firing, raised one of her legs instinctively and—
—chomp!
The shark clamped down on her left leg.
And Mother didn't react at all.
Her left leg was her artificial leg, made of titanium. A replacement for an injury from a previous adventure.
Two of the shark's teeth broke. Shattered into fragments.
'Try eating this, motherfucker,' Mother said, levelling her pistol at the tiger shark's brain.
Blam.
The shark bucked violently in the water, but when it came down, it was stilled, dead, its jaws clamped around Mother's left leg, as if even in its last moment of life, it had been unwilling to let go of its prize.
For her part, Mother just kicked the 10-foot shark away from her and leapt out of the pool to get back into the action.
While Mother had been firing at the shark, on the other side of the Pit, Schofield had chased after Noonan and caught him—tackling him—just as he had arrived at the open doorway to the dungeon.
The ISS man tried to kick Schofield clear, but Schofield just flung Noonan back into the dungeon and started hitting him—with venom.
One punch, and Noonan staggered backwards.
'I know you pulled the lever . . .' Schofield said grimly.
Second punch, and Noonan's nose broke, spraying blood.
'I know she died in pain . . .'
The third punch, and Noonan's jaw broke. He slipped, lost his footing.
'You killed a beautiful thing . . .'
Schofield grabbed Noonan two-handed and hurled him headfirst into the guillotine. Noonan's head slid into the stocks underneath the razor-sharp blade, which itself was still held up by the shuriken.
'So now you're gonna die in pain . . .' Schofield said.
And with that Schofield yanked the shuriken out of the guillotine's wooden guide rails—causing the blade to drop the final two feet.
'No!' Noonan screamed. 'Noooo—!'
Chunk.
Noonan's rat-like head hit the stone floor like a bouncing ball, his eyelids blinking rapidly in those first moments after decapitation before they settled into a blank stare, forever frozen in a final look of absolute utter horror.
Ten yards away from the guillotine, floating in the shark-infested water, Aloysius Knight was engaged in the fight of his life with Wade Brandeis.
With their equal Delta training, they were perfectly matched, and as such, they traded punches and tactics, splashing and ducking under the surface in a fight that could only be to the death.
Then suddenly both men rose above the surface, nose-to-nose. Only now Brandeis had a small gun pressed up against Knight's chin. He had him.
'I always had the wood on you, Knight!'
Knight spoke through clenched teeth:
'You know, Brandeis, ever since that night in Sudan, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you. But until right now, I'd never thought of this one.'
'Huh?' Brandeis grunted.
And with that, Knight yanked Brandeis around in the water and brought him right into the path of the inrushing second tiger shark.
The big 10-foot shark rammed into Brandeis at full speed, taking him in its mouth, its gnashing chomping teeth inches away from Knight's own body. But the shark only had eyes for Brandeis, drawn by his bleeding right hand.
'Sleep with one eye open, you fuck,' Knight said.
Caught in the grip of the massive shark, Brandeis could only stare back at him—and scream as he was eaten alive.
Knight clambered out of the water, out of the bloody froth that had once been Wade Brandeis, and headed back to join Schofield.
Knight rejoined Schofield behind the guillotine—at the spot where Schofield had just pulled the wounded Rufus out of the line of fire of the four ExSol men now traversing across the Pit's stone islands.
Schofield had also collected some weapons—two Colt Commando assault rifles, one MP-7, one of Knight's H&K 9mm pistols, plus Knight's own fully-loaded utility vest, taken from one of the dead Delta men.
Mother joined them.
'Hey, Mother,' Knight said. 'Last time I saw you, you were inside that maintenance shack in the Talbot, just before it was RPG'd by the Demon's boys. What'd you do, hide in the floor?'
'Screw the floor,' Mother said. 'That damn shack was hanging from the roof of the hold. It had a hatch in the ceiling. That was where I went. But then, of course, the whole fucking boat sank . . .'
Knight said, 'So how did you know we were here?'
Mother pulled out a Palm Pilot from a waterproof pouch in her vest. 'You've got a lot of nice toys, Mr Knight. And you,' Mother turned to Schofield, 'have got MicroDots all over your hands, young man.'
'Nice to see you, Mother,' Schofield said. 'It's good to have you back.'
A volley of bullets from the ExSol men hit the guillotine.
Schofield turned quickly, eyeing the open doorway ten yards away.
'I'm going upstairs now,' he said abruptly, 'to get Killian. Mother, stay with Rufus, and take care of these assholes. Knight, you can come or you can stay. It's your choice.'
Knight held his gaze. 'I'm coming.'
Schofield—still wearing his stripped utility vest—gave Knight one of the rifles, the 9mm pistol and the full utility vest he had picked up. 'Here. You can use these things better than I can. Let's move. Mother, cover fire, please.'
Mother whipped up her gun, sprayed covering fire at the ExSol mercenaries.
Schofield dashed for the door. Knight took off after him . . . but not before quickly grabbing something from Mother.
'What are you taking that for?' Mother shouted after him.
'I've got a feeling I'm gonna be needing it,' was all Knight said before he disappeared through the stone doorway after Schofield.