Page 87 of Double Shot
“Right, twelve o’clock leads to the foyer, staircase will be on your left, I am getting two heat signatures on the second floor, two to three doors perhaps down to your right. Reinforcements are advancing, Red Queen. You’d best make your move.”
“Copy.” I got up, the two in the hall at my three o’clock, incapacitated by the teargas. I double tapped them both. I wanted to feel bad about it but leaving them alive at my back wasn’t an option.
Survival of the fittest, baby…I heard Kyle say in my head.
“Red Queen, you’d better move, you’d better move now!”
I slung my rifle, picked up the launcher and as the first man crested the threshold of the double front doors, I repeated the trick and launched a round into his chest, knocking him back into his companions and out the front door.
It wasn’t a teargas round, this time. I ducked behind the solid staircase and squeezed my eyes shut as debris from the explosion rocked the front of the house and dirt, rock, and the smell of explosives, flew past me.
“Red Queen, Mary Bloody Queen of Scots!”came through my earpiece.
“You say the sweetest things to me, what’s my count?” I asked.
“The rest out front are fleeing, there are at least two more in addition to the one with our asset. Hold your position, Red Queen – two pawns are making for the main stair.”
I held my position beneath the sweeping staircase, my back pressed against the wall, and after reloading with teargas dropped the launcher to my hip, swapping it for the rifle, holding it at the ready as feet thundered down the stairs above me.
“Jesus!” one of the men said as they slowed, boot falls crunching on the debris on the bottom steps.
“We aren’t paid enough for this shit, let’s go.” Getting a glimpse of them, they were in suits, and had pistols. No rifles, no body armor, holy fuck this was so above their pay grade.
The pawns skirted out the door and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“Red Queen, board is clear.”
“Copy, White King. Advancing.”
I went up the stairs, rifle at the ready.
“Blast it, I’m reading seven new signatures, possibly a shielded saferoom, end of the hallway past the door I believe to be holding our asset. Watch yourself, Red Queen.”
“I’ve got it,” I murmured, and at the top of the stair, I paused.
“They’re coming right for you, Red Queen.”
“Not a lot of cover, White King.”
“You know what to do,”he reminded me, and the surety in his voice bolstered my confidence.
I launched a teargas grenade around the corner without looking, less for the teargas to incapacitate, although that was a bonus, but more for the cover the smoke would provide me. These guys weren’t pawns, unfortunately. How did I know? They didn’t just open up in my general direction like the trained monkeys downstairs.
“Looks like I’ve leveled up, baddies just got harder,” I commented dryly.
“Look alive, Poppet.”
“Uh, trying tostayalive, White King.”
I went down on one knee and made myself even smaller, predicting that when fire came, they would aim for someone much taller than I was, expecting a man, and if I made myself even smaller than that? Well…
I ducked around the corner and let loose with some rounds and took out their point man with at least three shots, two center mass which was just fucking useless – they had body armor, but the third was a lucky shot, blowing apart the top of his leg.
He fell back into his compatriots, and they moved him to the back of their ranks. They couldn’t see through the smoke, clearly, or they would have aimed lower, but they didn’t open up full auto like the dipshit downstairs, either… as Roan would like to say;bollocks.
“What’s it look like?” I asked.
“They’re falling back.”
