her eyes and tried to push to her feet.
Suddenly, blinding pain exploded behind her eyes, and the world went black for a moment. It took a second for Iris to realize that the ringing sound in her ears was the dying echo of a gunshot ringing through the laboratory's maze of hallways.
The flood of energy was gone.
Her vision seeped back, bringing with it the dim lights lining the corridors. Though the surge of energy had abated, debris continued to fall in sporadic thuds around her, echoing down the hallways. She no longer felt anything from Boris Grinkov, not even pain. Only a cavernous emptiness she'd never felt before, not even from Alexander Quinn.
The nausea built, thick and fetid. She swallowed convulsively, pushing herself up the wall into a standing position. Sudden, dark emotions shook her, pushing her back to the floor. Rage. Hate. Vicious determination.
Footsteps moved closer, coming down the hallway around the corner. The urge to run pushed her back to her feet again, but the only two exits she knew of both lay around the corner. The person she heard approaching stood between her and escape. She started to run in the other direction, but her legs wouldn't move.
Her knees buckling, she fell to the floor, catching herself with her hands. Pieces of debris dug into her palms, but she barely felt the sting, too overwhelmed by the approaching darkness. A hard pain formed in her side, as if someone had kicked her. She found it difficult to breathe.
She pushed to her feet again and leaned against the wall, turning her head toward the sound of the approaching footsteps. Through tears of pain, she saw it was a man dressed in black jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt. A black ski mask covered his face, but as he strode purposefully toward her, his steps slow and steady, she glimpsed a pale patch of skin on the inside of his left wrist.
'That was a gunshot, wasn't it?' Tom asked.
Maddox double-checked the dock's 18-round clip and tried to hide his rising panic, 'Yeah, I'm going back in to get Iris.'
'I'll go with you.'
Maddox shook his head. 'Someone has to protect these people until the extraction team arrives.'
'Be careful.' Tom said.
Swallowing a wave of nausea, Maddox nodded and headed back toward the lab.
Maddox stepped inside, took a deep breath, and listened over the thunder of his pulse. The building was unnaturally quiet; from their hiding place, they'd seen several vehicles speeding away from the laboratory, while other people ran down the rutted roads through the driving rain. Was anyone besides Iris left inside?
He took a few steps down the hallway, wincing as his toe caught a chunk of ceiling and sent it clattering down the hallway in front of him. The hall way was dim, it only by low-wattage emergency lights. Apparently whatever had caused the building to shake had knocked out the power, as well.
He crept down the hall, taking care not to displace any more debris, and turned the corner. Ahead in the gloom, he spotted what looked like a body lying in a heap halfway down the hall. Panic overcame caution for a moment, and he raced toward the crumpled form.
Halfway there, he realized that it was a man's body. The man lay face down drenched in blood from what could only be a gunshot wound to the head. There was no way to be sure, but it was the right build for the Russian scientist, Grinkov.
He skirted the body, avoiding the blood spreading across the tiles at his feet. Someone else hadn't been as careful, he noted, spotting bloodstained footprints heading down the hall. Tightening his grip on the dock, he followed the footprints as they turned the corner to another corridor.
And stopped dead.
Fifteen feet away, a man dressed in black from head to foot stood with a gun to Iris's head.
Maddox whipped into tiring stance on instinct.
'Do not do it. Sergeant.' Tahir Mahmoud's clipped British accent was unmistakable. 'I will kill her. You know that.'
Maddox felt his vision blacken at the edges. He fought the gut-churning deja vu and met Iris's terrified gaze.
Not this time, he thought, taking slow breaths to steady himself, I won't let it happen this time.
'I see you find this as familiar as I.' Tahir Mahmoud's breath burned against Iris's ear. He pushed the barrel of his weapon into her temple. 'I would have liked to use a knife to make it truly authentic, but one does what one must.'
'You know who l am.' Maddox said.
'Of course. I know everything about you. When associates told me about Grinkov's experiments here on Mariposa, I knew I had to come here myself.'
'Because I was here.' Maddox murmured.
'I've been thinking about this a long time, you know. You cheated last time. Let a woman spill her blood to save you.'
Maddox's face blanched as his gaze shifted from Tahir's face to lock with Iris's. She felt his fear, his pain, his shame, but she also felt something she'd never really sensed from him before. Pride. Determination. And a growing strength of will pouring into her veins like liquid fire.
'Put down the gun. Heller.'
Maddox hesitated. Tahir knocked the gun barrel against the side of Iris's head. She tried to bite back a cry of pain.
'Do it now ' Tahir ordered,
'You're going to kill her anyway, aren't you?' Maddox asked, not budging. 'This is your game. You kill her in front of me. Then you kill me like you didn't get to do last time.'
Tahir laughed. Pain shot through Iris's side, making her gasp. He was injured, she realized. Maybe a cracked rib.
'I'm not playing your game, Tahir.'
'You have no choice' Tahir dropped the gun to Iris's belly, 'lean shoot her now. Gut shot. It won't kill her right away. She'll just wish she were dead. You can make it hard for her. Or you can make it easy.'
'Don't do it!' Iris said.
But Maddox bent and laid his gun on the floor at his feet.
'There's no honor in killing a woman who has done nothing to you. How does that promote your Jihad?'
'Jihad?' Tahir laughed in Iris's ear. 'Do you believe everything your television tells you? This is not about religion. This is about power. My country is up for grabs. Sergeant. My very oil rich country. Only the daring will rule.'
'And killing an unarmed woman is daring?'
'It will give me a story to tell to those whom I wish to influence.' Tahir said. 'Now kick the gun over here.'
Maddox pushed the gun across the floor with his foot.
Tahir began to lift the gun back to Iris's head, giving her the opening she'd hoped for. She whipped her elbow back into Tahir's injured rib cage, grunting as she heard a snapping sound. She pitched forward, swallowed by agony, slipping from Tahir's loosened grasp. Her vision darkened as something rushed past her. Maddox, she realized, diving for Tahir.
Biting back pain, she scrambled for Maddox's gun a few feet away. Nearby, Maddox and Tahir struggled over Tahir's weapon, the Kaziristani putting up a vicious fight despite his injury. Maddox jerked the ski mask from the man's head and stared at him a moment, as if to assure himself he had the right man. Then he slammed Tahir's hand against the wall, knocking the gun loose. It clattered to the floor and slid down the hall away from them.
A shuddering rumble built underneath Iris's knees as she grabbed for Maddox's gun. The whole building began to shake, huge chunks of ceiling and wall starting to fall around them. Tahir slammed his head against Maddox's, knocking him backward. Maddox lost his grip on the Kaziristani, who turned and started running down the hall.
Maddox started to give chase, but an enormous chunk of the ceiling fell in his path, showering him with debris.