MORNING SERIAL
THREE bursts of gunfire from several guns, and now I could tell the shots were coming from the other end of the corridor – and in the distance somewhere outside of the hotel was the hurried growl of jeep engines coming through the concave echoes of the deserted streets.
Another gunshot, but this time down the corridor and Stelly dived for cover – no, it was not a dive, but a smooth movement to the side and he bent carefully into a doorway.
He was just a few yards from my position now, and I peeked out and he saw me and our eyes locked and, by god, if he didn’t grin that lipless grin of his at me.
It was what I needed, this jolt of electricity from this repugnant humanoid, and I darted into the corridor and down toward the room, but I was no more than half way when Lou emerged from it, stumbled from it, although she straightened quickly and it was clear she was not hurt, and that she was holding a gun. In the movement and from the mist of adrenaline, my first thought was that it was not Evgeny or Viktor’s gun.
“Where are the others?” I said, but Lou lifted her pistol and fired several times – I hit the floor quicker than my weight would force me down, but she continued to fire, not at me, but past me, the bullets splintering the doorframe Stelly was hiding behind.
I looked over my shoulder from the ground to see Stelly rush in his bare feet across the corridor and attempt to clatter through the emergency staircase door, but as he did so Lou continued to shoot and in the last yard she hit him – in the side or the arm or the head, it was impossible to tell at that pace – but blood spilled, it puffed into the air, and he went through the door headfirst with legs buckling, like a battering ram.
And then there was silence and Lou was standing over me.
She was breathing heavily and did not take her eyes off the doorway.
CONTINUES TOMORROW