The Sixth Day (A Brit in the FBI 5)

“No, master, no one can get in. The door is barricaded. We will be safe. Hold still, I will unhook you.”

“Call Roman. He must come.”

“Master, your brother isn’t here, but we have the house as a defense. I have the guns. The room is safe. We will be safe.”

“I smell smoke, Iago.” He was whimpering, like a child. He was afraid, she saw his eyes were wild. Again, he whimpered, “Iago, I’m scared.”

“Don’t worry, master, you know Master Roman installed a chemical-fire suppression system throughout the house and in these rooms so there could never be any harm to the equipment. We will be safe enough. Nothing bad will happen to you.”

“Nothing can happen to Isabella, either! They can’t take her from me, Iago. I must have her.”

She saw Iago had been moving around the room, setting switches into new positions, filling the magazine of the handgun.

There was banging, and they heard shots being fired. Calls and screams.

“Prepare yourself, master. Here is a gun. All you have to think about is pulling the trigger. That’s right, put your

finger just there.”

The sound of automatic gunfire came through the doors. They all froze, waiting. Isabella prayed harder than she ever had in her life. Iago and Radu had their guns aimed at the door. She heard a noise on the other side of the door and yelled as loud as she could, “Please, be careful. They have guns!”

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

The sky around Mike was on fire. As she dodged flying debris, her mind focused on only one thing—Nicholas. She shouted his name again. “Nicholas!” Nothing but the roar of the flames. She remembered an orange glow moments before the helicopter jerked wildly—she realized it had been a missile shot into the fuselage. She thought of Gareth and sent a prayer.

She stood on the roof of the immense house. Where was he?

A man’s voice. “Mike!”

She ran to the western edge of the roof to see Nicholas dangling off the side, his body sideways, one arm on the fast rope, which had miraculously hooked onto a window frame. Gareth was alive and cursing a blue streak, hanging on to Nicholas’s hand. Both of them had fallen? Below them, the chopper was burning on the grounds.

Nicholas’s face was black with smoke. He gave a laugh and a beautiful white-toothed smile. “Hey, so much for a surprise attack. Mike, Gareth and I went over together. Only one problem—I don’t know how long this rope is going to hold, and Gareth is getting concerned.”

“Hang on.”

Mike unwound a tactical rope in her kit and looped it twice around an air vent. She leaned over the roof edge. “The rope won’t be strong enough for the two of you at once.” She wrapped the rope around her waist and threw the last fifteen feet over the edge. “Gareth, you come up first. Yell when you’ve got a good hold.”

Moments later, Gareth called, “Have it,” and she sat on the roof and braced her feet against the roofline.

She shouted, “Go, I’m ready.”

She felt the jerk and the sudden load of weight as he let go of Nicholas’s hand. It felt like hours before Gareth finally made it up and over the roof. He lay there for a moment, breathing hard, then unwound the rope from his bloody hands and tossed it to Nicholas. “Mike, let’s do him together.” He wrapped the rope around his hands, and the two of them held steady as Nicholas climbed up the side of the house to the roof.

When Nicholas rolled over the edge, onto the roof, Mike sat down hard on her butt. She was sweating, her muscles burned. Nicholas looked to be in one piece, but she’d bet the wound in his side was bleeding again.

“Gareth, there’s a first-aid kit in my bag. Your hands are a wreck. Nicholas, do you know your face is black?” Where was her brain? “And how is your side?”

“My side is maybe bleeding a bit, but I’m all right. The pilots?”

Gareth shook his head. “The missile took out the cockpit. The chopper flipped over in midair before it went over. They were gone before it hit the ground.”

Mike closed her eyes against the pain of it. Between curses, Nicholas got on his radio and relayed their situation. Adam had heard the whole thing, but the chopper’s comms were down so he couldn’t speak to them.

“Adam, you probably can’t hear me, but we must abort the mission. I hope the Zodiacs are waiting.”

Gareth got painfully to his feet. “We’ll shimmy down the side of the house and get to the boats, if they’re there.”

Mike said, furious, “Stop it, both of you! We are not aborting this mission. There haven’t been any more attacks. We can’t let the pilots’ lives be wasted by giving up now. Nicholas, give me the shaped charge. We’re going in.”