Undercover Badge; Next Generation

Chapter 46

I stole up the stairs. The upper level was just offices on the perimeter of the room with a walkway surrounding the perimeter like a balcony. I peeked over the railing. There was another guard up here. I went up the second flight and found another guard across from me. The third level was blissfully empty. As I cleared the top of the stairs I looked out and up towards the hole in the roof and approached the railing. There, on the bottom floor, far side, all the guys in my team were lined up on their knees with their backs to my new position. Kat stood on the other side of them, James to her right and behind her. Lastly, Matthew was sat on the floor, his twisted leg looking helpless and like he'd been through a woodchipper.

I looked around. There, to the left - I winced. It was one of the members of team four next to one of their guys, probably the guard who had been up here, dead and on his back. I quickly made my way to him and hooked my fingers under his bulletproof vest, tugging with all my weight to get him as close to the railing as possible. Then I made my way to the member of team four, unclipping the harness from his body before clipping it around my own and tightening the straps just in case. The bag came off my shoulder and I did what I'd watched Amir do – pull a sniper rifle from its case and set it up. My mother's sniper rifle. I quickly knelt next to the corpse of their guard and, feeling super gross about what I was about to do, I lay down on the floor on my stomach and arranged the rifle across his chest as I'd seen Amir do. You're using a corpse as a rifle stand, my conscience screamed. I shut it down.

As I was looking through the scope, I twisted the nobs and dials to work on the rifle's focus. I pushed my glasses up my nose.

There they were; Kat, James and Matthew, facing my direction but giving their attention to Duncan before them, who'd dropped his phone somewhere during my escapade to wave a gun.

"Pathetic!" he was saying on roaring laughter. "This is what they sent for you?" he waved at the remaining eight of my team who scowled at him. The smoke had dissipated to the point of almost gone. What am I going to do? I had no idea what I was doing. I fit the butt of the rifle flush up against my right shoulder in the curve between my collarbone and shoulder. I used my left hand to guide the body of the weapon, leaning forward into my arms, and pressing my cheek flush to the stock. My right hand instinctively went to hold the gun near the trigger, and I set my sights on the action. What are you going to do? And why does this feel... right? I breathed in deep, let it out. Yes, concentrate on your breathing.

In. Out.

"Your team is useless." he was roaring in laughter, waving a massively ostentatious gold hued gun around. I curled my lip in disgust.

"Stop it, Duncan." James snapped. He stepped forward. "Kill me, fine, but Kat and Matthew have nothing to do with this. This is about you and me, and nothing else." Duncan chuckled good naturedly, and then pistol-whipped James so fast I flinched, and he went down like a brick before rolling to his knees and spitting blood.

"I'm going to kill your son now." Duncan stepped forward. As if instinctively, the crosshairs in my sight found the back of his skull. I could do this, I could make this shot cleanly-

"No!" Kat screamed and launched herself to right in front of him and I jerked the gun away. If I'd pulled the trigger, the bullet would have torn through his skull into her - she was a foot shorter than him. Jesus, Kat. I quietly lined the shot up again, my skin crawling.

Duncan pulled a second gun as gaudy as the first and aimed it at James. I had to strain my ears to hear his next words. "I'm going to pull this trigger." He told her quietly, indicating the gun in his right hand on Matthew. "And if you move an inch, I'll fire on James too. So you're going to stay right in front of me, little Kat." If I shot at Duncan, I'd kill Kat. What could I do? Mother fuck-!