“Marcus!” Adelaide shouted.
The distraction was well-timed.
"Go boy! Kill," Stephen said to his dog, pointing at the man under the tree. The dog went after Marcus, who was still trying to get out from beneath the heavy foliage.
Adelaide spotted the dog going towards Marcus and aimed at it.
“Hey over here,” Suzanne called out from right behind Adelaide and Adelaide turned just in time to receive a bullet between her eyes.
Marcus had only come out from under the branches when he came face to face with the angry dog. His gun had gone missing within the branches. He tried to fend off the dog with one hand while searching for his gun with the other. Tanner bit hard into the hand Marcus had used to hold him off. Marcus screamed in pain as the dog pulled on his flesh. He tried kicking but the dog wouldn’t let go.
From his already blurry vision, he saw Suzanne and Stephen come to stand over him with guns drawn.
“Please,” he begged. “Have mercy on me, high priestess.”
“Tell your dog to stop. I want to question the man,” Suzanne said.
“Tanner, stay,” Stephen said, and the dog looked up at him and whined after releasing the man. He ran to stand beside his master, who bent to pet it. “Who’s a good boy?” Stephen asked his dog, who was panting happily.
“Who are you going home to?” she asked in Russian. For the first time, she realized how young he looked.
“Hey, no fair. Speak so I can understand!” Stephen said as he stood.
Ignoring him, Suzanne said, “Talk to me.”
“My mother. And my little sister,” the man said in Russian too.
“Where did you serve while in America?”
“I served in the military. Why did you
turn, high priestess?”
“It’s a lie, Marcus. There’s no home. You’ll continue serving the organization till you die. Think of all the horrible things you’ve done already. There’s no end to it. That’s why I’m going to put you out of it now. I’ll be joining you soon. I hope you understand,” she said. Slowly, she pulled the trigger, closing her eyes before shooting.
Stephen jerked in surprise at the shooting, not understanding what had happened.
“The way you guys were talking, I thought you were going to spare him,” Stephen said.
Suzanne's eyes remained closed. Despite her attempt to fight it, a teardrop ran down her cheek.
“Hey, what’s all the shooting about?” Bucky said as he stood behind Stephen. He was panting from running. He held a gun in his hand too. “I thought you’d been attacked.”
Stephen turned to him. “I was attacked. Suzanne, here, helped me.”
That was when Bucky saw the dead man.
“Hey, this guy had asked about you just a couple of minutes ago. He claimed to be part of our travel team,” he said.
“And you led him straight to me,” Stephen said. He was becoming suspicious of Bucky. Had Bucky given him away?
“You are in the military too, aren’t you?” Suzanne said to Bucky as she turned to face him.
Bucky raised a brow at the lady. “Yes, I am. Who are you?”
Ignoring his question, she turned to Stephen. “You still want to help, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. But don’t tell me you want Bucky in on this. He could be the enemy,” Stephen retorted. Bucky looked at Stephen in surprise.