Targeted Read Online Free PDF Page B

normal.
    Rebecca needed to adapt or die.
    * * *
    Brandt couldn’t get a bead on the gunman. They were playing
a dangerous game of cat and mouse, only Brandt wasn’t sure who was the mouse
right now.
    As much as he hated to admit it, each time he did fire, his
aim got further and further off. He was losing blood, and the pain? Well, the
pain was his constant friend now.
    His body subconsciously protected his side, pulling his
shots up short.
    Screw his subconscious. Rebecca was in danger.
    Ditching his pack, Brandt charged straight at the guy,
firing where the gunman should come out. But he never appeared. He must have
gone inside the tomb. With Rebecca.
    Not good. Not good at all.
    * * *
    Rebecca stood as the gunman walked into the tomb. There was
no point in hiding now. He had the feral grin of an animal about to make a
kill. There may be no one in the Knot to go and brag to, but this man wanted to
see her die, right in front of him.
    No matter. She needed him nice and close.
    Rebecca hit one last keystroke on her computer. The gunman
must have realized that something was wrong with his Gamma monitor, as it
vibrated in his hand just before its screen went red.
    She’d found their microwave communications and patched into
it. Once he was in range, Rebecca convinced the device that the man’s handprint
was no longer his own. The assailant’s eyes dilated as he tried, to no avail,
to override the self-destruct mechanism. He tried to hurl the object away, but
it exploded in midair, knocking him back, slamming his body against the marble
before it slid down to rest still on the tiled floor.
    On one hand, she was horrified at the sight. On the other,
no matter how inappropriate, she wanted to jump for joy. The last of the gunmen
were dead.
    Brandt limped forward from far down the hallway. “Rebecca…”
    That’s about when that damned whistle of an RPG filled the
chamber.
    * * *
    Brandt wanted to rush forward and protect Rebecca, but he
knew he would never make it in time. The best he could do was throw himself to
the side as the rocket hit the dome.
    The mausoleum shook as the roof tumbled down. Shockingly,
though, the building held. It was on fire, but it held. Could it stand another
attack?
    Moonlight filled the hallway. Brandt glanced up. If
moonlight could get in, bullets could get out. Swinging his gun up, Brandt found
the minaret that the RPGs had been launched from.
    He breathed in, despite the pain. He braced his arm against
the smooth marble, since his body might betray him. He bled on the snowy-white
floor, waiting for the RPG operator to take aim again.
    How long could it take to reload, anyway?
    Time slowed as Brandt watched through his rifle sight. Once
there was movement, he held his breath, slowing his heart rate. The man sprang
up with the RPG launcher on his shoulder. The mechanism blocking a head shot.
Brandt took the next best thing.
    Pulling the trigger sent shards of agony down his side,
settling at his hip, but the shot was off. Even though the man tipped over the
side of the minaret, he had already launched the rocket. It sailed the short
distance until it exploded against the main dome of the mausoleum, shattering
it.
    Brandt turned on his heel to see Rebecca disappear behind a
pile of rubble and dust.
    “Rebecca!”
    No matter that the building was falling down around him, he
pushed off the arch and headed to the tomb. Chunks of fiery plaster and heavy
marble fell around him, but he had eyes only for the broken doorway.
    Brandt used the last of his strength to shove away a support
beam and duck under the arch. He stumbled into the crypt to find it relatively
unscathed. The inner dome had fallen onto the thick marble screens and acted as
a shelter from the destruction from above.
    Rebecca rose behind the crypt, coughing, but alive.
    He rushed forward, falling to one knee.
    * * *
    Rebecca watched Brandt go down.
    No! They couldn’t have survived so much to lose him now.
    “What’s wrong?” she