When one of the generators caught alight from a deliberate bullet, the fuel inside exploded. The booming soundwave curved up through the buildings with enough force to throw Euan backwards. He hit a brick wall hard, the breath knocked from his lungs that left him gasping. Around him, windows shattered and blockwork trembled. Knight grabbed him by the protective vest and forced him to take cover as bricks and mortar rained down.
When the screams of those injured by the blast hit his ears, the grin that split his face was genuine. In the commotion, they were able to slip past the gate unnoticed. The guard that had resided there was slumped in his chair, his chest a macabre painting made with his own blood.
Darkness was their friend, the shadows their companions as they avoided detection and followed tyre tracks in the earth until they slipped into the gaping mouth of the enormous main building, the one Kira had told them Parker would be in.
Inside, the noises from the battle lessoned. Euan’s ears rang, he was lightheaded. His Glock was high even as his arms shook. When Knight grabbed his forearm, it was not for comfort or warning, but to keep himself upright.
The eerie silence after all the pandemonium outside was unnerving.
‘Something’s not right,’ he whispered. ‘Where are they?’
Euan couldn’t decipher much more other than they were in the foyer that Kira had mentioned. There was an openness to the air where the ceiling height expanded. The smoke from the explosions outside was faint. The wails of those injured lost to the rush of blood in his ears.
Knight moved forward, the muzzle of his handgun followed the line of his sight. He shook his head as he walked.
The scent of recently spilt blood reached Euan’s senses. Against his better instinct, he moved towards the dais with its makeshift throne. They may have overcome the worst of the battle, but now the true test of their fortitude was to come. Everything about this room made Euan’s heckles rise, even the tiny hairs on his forearms stood upright. His palms were slippery where he held his gun. His gaze darted from corner to corner, but like Knight, he saw nothing except open space and emptiness.
At the dais, Euan moved in a circle and held his breath. When his boot crunched over something on the floor, he looked towards his toes.
The white parchment caught the light from the flames outside. He knew what it was even before he knelt down to pick it up. The picture was torn, crumpled, stained wet with blood. But the pencil markings of a sleeping man and woman could still be seen through the mess.
His voice was gruff as he said, ‘They have him.’
Knight looked over his shoulder and saw what he held. There was something behind his eyes that Euan couldn’t read. ‘I don’t like this,’ he said.
Euan had to agree. The silence was unnatural. There was a thickness that expanded inside his throat, a sense of dread that went beyond the expected. Apprehension laced the air. His eye followed the trail of blood that had dried onto the tiled floor. It disappeared into the darkness to be swallowed by the unknown. He pocketed the picture carefully against his heart, resumed his hold on his gun with two hands.
Their intel was limited. Kira had been scared when she had been here, and the focus she had on her surroundings was not a priority. She may have been angry when he’d left, but she would not have concealed valuable information from him to keep him safe. But Euan didn’t need a map to tell him that there were infinite possibilities of where Nick might be.
Knight took silent steps until he was at Euan’s side. His focus mirrored Euan’s, and three eyes stared into the shadows. ‘Do we risk it?’
‘I won’t fit in the air-conditioning ducts.’
They both chuckled despite their dread.
The moan that reached them then seemed to tear itself from the innards of the building. An echo of despair. It hit Euan in the chest with the force of a beast, full of torment, hurt and fear. It tore, it thrashed, it rolled. All thoughts of humour fled. All thoughts period, evaporated. The dizziness was instant. His physical reaction to the wordless cry was so visceral that the taste in his mouth changed; iron, ash, rot.
He surged forward towards the voice that called for him. A voice laced with anguish and pain.
Nicky.
Knight’s hand reached out to snatch him back. But he twisted out of the man’s hold. When strong arms banded around his chest, forced him to the ground, Euan cursed the man and the mother that bore him.
But Knight would not relent. ‘Calm down,’ he hissed in Euan’s ear. ‘It’s what he wants.’
The growl was involuntary. Where Euan had been able to block out the wails of those that lay dying outside, the sound of Nick’s pain created his own hell. Time slowed, his vision blurred. The tiles were cold under his cheek. Knight’s hold was the only thing that anchored him to reality.
There was a crack, then a scream. Euan used brute strength to pull himself from Knight’s arms. On his feet, he stared down at the man who had saved him from a meat hook in a log cabin, who had found him in the woods, who had coerced him into considering leadership once this was all over.
‘I came to end this. If he wants me, he’ll get me.’
‘Then help me get up, you damn fool.’
When Knight grasped his outstretched hand, Euan allowed a single breath to expand his lungs. Nothing would stop him on this path of destruction,
