13. Addie #2
I didn’t wait to see him fall, as much as I would have liked to. Instead, I snatched my Glock and returned fire, not giving a single fuck who was inside the building shooting live rounds at recruits. Down the first hallway, a body dropped at the end and my lip twitched with the ghost of a smile.
This was my purpose.
This was where I felt alive.
Dak and I entered the hallway at the same time, guns raised, eyes scanning every inch of every dark space.
At the first doorway on the left, I swung around the frame, popping off two quick shots at the armed dummy in the corner.
I heard Dak do the same at the door on the right, then we moved on down the hall.
Behind us, the rest of our team cleared both rooms, confirming no other hostiles were hiding out waiting for our backs to turn.
Ahead, where the first body fell, the hallway diverted into a T-shape, which completely screwed Ethan’s initial strategy.
“Plan, boss?” I murmured, knowing he was right behind me, watching my back like always.
“Split into two teams. We’ll go left. Dak, take your team right. Locate the big guy but do not engage unless you have to.”
Dak nodded once in my periphery, moving up to the corner. I did the same on the left, careful not to tread on the fallen figure. Up close, I realised it was just another dummy, and there was a gun slot in the wall in front of where it fell, looking directly down the hallway we’d just come through.
Sneaky bastards.
“Bodie, Aidan, stay here and watch these corridors.”
“Yes, boss,” Aidan murmured, while Bodie grunted his assent.
“Move out,” Ethan ordered quietly, and we peered around the corners again.
Noting that nothing had changed in the last twenty seconds, Dak and I crept forward in our respective directions. I put him out of my mind in favour of my own corridor while doing mental bullet math in preparation of having to change the magazine over.
I had twelve shots left in this one, and fuck knows what else waiting for me round that next corner.
Creeping forward on silent feet, I paused, pretending the darkness was cocooning me, instead of staring back.
Mindful of this being a time trial, I inhaled steadily, then peered around, squeezing the trigger twice on the exhale.
Ten.
Another body dropped at the end of another barely-lit hallway. Gun still raised, I scanned the length of the corridor, ready.
“Another T-shaped hallway, with two doors in the middle. One left, one right,” I murmured.
Eth drew level with me, his own gun held aloft. “You take right, I’ll take left,” he ordered, voice low and fraught with tension. “Ace, cover our rear.”
Ace nodded once, jerkily, but was happy to have something specific to do. He walked backwards as we led the way, pausing at the closed doors to listen.
Gunfire sounded on the other side of the compound, prompting a large, black figure to dash from the left side of the T across to the right. My bullets trailed the uncannily fast form, mere centimetres from clipping it.
“Fuck. I think I almost shot our mark,” I said, eyes wide.
Ethan blinked at me. “I think so,” he agreed, raising a hand to the mic on his collar. “Dakarai, mark incoming to your position.”
“Fuck,” Dak swore through his own mic. “We’re pinned down, boss. Multiple hostiles surrounding us. Especially if the big guy is on his way over. Backup requested!”
More gunfire followed the request, drowning out anything else he might have said.
Eth immediately sent Aidan and Bodie over. We were to clear this side, then circle around the same way Beckett had, hopefully catching him off guard from behind.
On the count of three, Eth and I both kicked in the doors, loosing several quick shots at the dummy targets waiting for us inside.
“Clear!” I called.
“Clear!” came Ethan’s echo a heartbeat later.
Four.
Four shots. Four chances to make a name for myself—to be noticed for something other than my appearance.
Back in the hallway, Eth, Ace, and I dashed to the end, relieved that nothing else lay in wait for us. Just the door Beckett had disappeared through, and only the gods knew what on the other side.
“Ready?” Eth asked.
“Ready,” I said, then, he kicked it in.
Bang. One down just inside the door.
Bang. Another by the exit.
Bang. A third in the centre of the room.
Eth took out the last in the far corner, then the three of us sprinted across the furniture-laden space, following the sounds of gunfire in the adjacent chamber.
“Report,” Ethan barked into his comms.
Several seconds passed before Mercy answered. “Two friendlies down, three hostiles including the mark pinning us in the hallway.”
Ethan’s eyes clashed with mine as she relayed the fact that two members of our team had gone down in the skirmish.
Was it too much to hope that one was Bodie?
Conversation passed wordlessly between us—a definite pro on the pros and cons list of attaining friends on Academy grounds—so, I understood without him having to verbalise that my TL wanted me to go in first. I was most accurate and therefore most likely to hit them where it hurt in the split-second advantage we might have.
We loaded fresh magazines into our guns, waited for gunshots to cover the sound of the door opening, then jumped into the fray.
And what a fray it was.
This room had been set up like an office, with a solid timber desk in the middle, close to us. It faced a set of sofas—upon which our mark sat with a mug perched on his leg like it was time for tea and biscuits, watching as Evander held the rest of our team at bay.
Two bodies with red patches lay on the floor face down, but I didn’t spare the time it took to identify them.
Evander copped one of my bullets to the middle of his vest, taking him down and allowing Mercy to press in from the other side, knocking him out cold with the butt of her gun.
Ethan darted in behind me, popping a shot in the couch cushion just to the left of Beckett, allowing us to surround him, guns drawn.
Slowly, he placed the mug down on the table, then raised his hands. A small smirk played at the corner of his lips.
“Hold out your hands,” Ethan ordered, snatching a cable tie from his trouser pocket.
Beckett wordlessly complied, staring at me over my TL’s ducked head. “What’s the plan from here?” he asked. “Drag me out by my feet?”
I snorted, wrenching the comms from my ear. “Please, you’re walking your own ass outta here, big guy.”
His smirk grew. “Now, Dek.”
Before I had a chance to process the meaning behind those two words, every single one of my comrades collapsed around me.
Fuck.
Beckett rose slowly, still grinning, uncannily reminding me of a cat toying with a mouse.
Fuck.
“For all intents and purposes, your teammates are dead. Now, I’ll ask again, Sinclair: will you be dragging me out by my feet?” He practically purred, extending his restrained hands in a gesture of goodwill I didn’t for a second buy into.
“No,” I murmured softly.
He drew closer still. “No? Then what—”
His sentence died on a grunt as my elbow met his belly, driving the wind from his lungs. I followed up with a kick to his shin and a knee to the balls, though it missed and got his belly again.
Beckett doubled over, his body naturally seeking air, but not before I ducked beneath his towering form to catch him over my shoulders.
Fuuuuuck.
He had to weigh twice as much as me, at least. By some minor miracle, I did not collapse, but instead took two purposeful strides to the door.
“No,” I repeated, huffing. “I won’t drag your ass outta here… but you can bet I’ll carry it.”
Beckett didn’t even try to fight me. He just chuckled softly like I’d surprised him. The chuckle rolled into a laugh, thrumming through my shoulders. He didn’t stop laughing until I set him down outside the compound’s exit, what felt like an eternity later.
Pearce met us on the other side of the door, incredulity scrawled across his features as he clicked a button on his watch and a robotic voice sounded over the speaker system.
“Seven minutes, twenty-seven seconds.”
“I have no idea how you managed that, Sinclair,” he said, eyeing me from head to toe, “but that was fucking impressive. Well done.”
“Thank you, Sir,” I replied, breathless and dizzy, all but collapsing onto the floor in exhaustion—but for an arm that prevented me from doing so.
I blinked up, not into the steady gaze of my friend, but the conflicted stare of my physical instructor.
Ethan and the rest of the team meandered out seconds later, grimacing and rubbing their skin like it was covered in nettles. To my relief—and annoyance—every single member filed out unharmed, including Bodie Travers.
Bigger fish, Addie. Bigger fish.