The Rising Sea (NUMA Files 15)

“We need to get out of here,” Kurt said.

“You said we needed to take the high ground.”

“That was before the high ground became a barbeque.”

Kurt urged her forward and the two of them ran down the stairs only to find the door stuck. Kurt put a shoulder to it but it wouldn’t budge.

“There’s something up against it,” Akiko said, looking through a small window at the top.

Kurt stepped back, preparing to charge forward and hit it like a battering ram. But before he could move, a salvo of bullets punctured the wooden door from the other side.

Kurt plastered himself against the stairs and avoided being hit, but Akiko took two shots to the chest and fell backward.

Kurt rushed forward, shoved the crossbow through the small window at the top of the door and aimed it downward before pulling the trigger.

A shout of pain came from the other side of the door. It was followed by breaking glass and erupting flames of another Molotov cocktail. Flickering orange light visible through the window told him the room outside was on fire, all the beautiful tapestries and old furniture.

Staying low in case another wave of bullets came through, Kurt crawled to Akiko. She lay on her side, grabbing her midsection. She wasn’t bleeding and Kurt noticed a web of Kevlar beneath the ancient metal plating.

“I was wondering why you bothered to put that on,” he said. “Apparently, not all technology is bad.”

She forced a painful grin. “We have to get out. This won’t protect us from the smoke . . .”

“Can you stand?”

“I think so,” she said, getting to her feet and then doubling over almost as quickly.

She began to cough and Kurt could feel the irritation building in his own lungs. He needed to find another way out and he needed to find it fast. He glanced back up the stairs, took a deep breath and ran into the thickening smoke.

9

“THIS WAY,” Kenzo urged. “Quickly.”

He spoke with nervous energy as he led them through a section of the ancient castle that Joe didn’t recognize. “This isn’t the way we came,” Joe said.

“Shortcut,” Kenzo insisted. “It’ll keep us hidden. If they’re out there and we’re in here, it will be better for us all.”

They came to a wooden door that Kenzo opened with an old-fashioned key. It swung outward and then bumped against something.

Squeezing through, they found themselves in a rotunda. A body on the ground had stopped the door from opening all the way. Kenzo crouched beside it. “Ichiro. One of my earliest followers. He left an abusive family to come with me.”

Joe reached down and felt for a pulse, but a quick look told him it was too late. Ichiro had been riddled with bullets at close range. “He’s dead,” Joe said. “And this means our attackers are obviously inside the castle.”

Kenzo nodded. “The question is, how many and where?”

A trail of blood led to a far door. “Let’s not go that way,” Gamay suggested.

The shooting picked up outside. As if things were reaching a frenzy. The scent of burning wood was growing stronger. “We can’t go back the way we came,” Paul said.

A third door in the rotunda stood across from them. The other option was a flight of stairs that wound around the rotunda up toward a small door.

Kenzo stood and rushed toward the third door, grabbing the handle and pulling.

“Wait,” Joe called out.

It was too late.

Kenzo had already pulled the door open. Pent-up flames and smoke exploded from the hall beyond, bursting forward in a flash as new oxygen rushed into what had been a stagnant, air-deprived hall.