Selena crashed down behind a long cream couch positioned just in front of the long window wall and cradled her head in her arms. Outside, she saw the storm ripping across the city. It had gained in strength by several magnitudes since they had entered the building and was ferociously beating on the glass and howling like a demon.
“We haven’t got much longer!” she cried out. “It’s gaining power!”
“I can see that!” Decker called back from behind another chair.
Riley and Charlie were behind them both, having taken up a defensive position behind an enormous central fireplace. Both men now leaned out either side of the chunky steel and brick structure and returned fire, tearing Miguel Mercado to pieces as he screamed and ranted on the mezzanine. His bullet-riddled body tumbled over the steel rail and crashed down on top of a grand piano, snapping the lid prop like a matchstick and smashing the lid and music rack down with a crash.
“Three down,” Riley said, sharing a high five with Charlie.
More shots. They jumped and spun around, raising guns into the aim. Charging out of a large bar area, an enraged Carlos Mercado had seen his brother’s violent death and was hunting for revenge. He was screaming like a madman and gripping an MP5, firing long bursts and sweeping the weapon from side to side as he covered the penthouse in lead.
Riley had taken a defensive position behind a long leather couch. He moved like lightning, raising his pistol and planting a round in the center of Carlos’s face. He followed the attack up with two rounds to his chest and sent him crashing back into a rack of glasses and vodka bottles behind him. Dead before he hit the floor, the big man from Mexico City crashed down like a felled tree, crunching to a stop in a carpet of shattered glass and spilled spirits, the silent MP5 still gripped in his hand.
“Four down,” said the Australian.
“Last stop is the roof,” Decker said. “Those suffering from vertigo need not apply.”
38
Exhausted, cut, bruised and weary, they accessed a utility corridor via a fire door on the apartment’s top floor. Following a bare concrete passageway for a few seconds they soon reached another door fitted with a chunky steel panic bar. Booting it open with one kick, Riley was through in a flash, gun raised and ready to kill.
But his gun remained cool. “All clear,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the howling gale raging outside. “It’s some sort of bulkhead. The roof must be accessed by that other door over there.”
“Then let’s get on it!” Decker kicked open the panic bar on the other door and they were on the roof. “There!” he yelled. The wind whipped his hat off and blew it clear off the skyscraper. “I see them over there!”
He pointed to the far side of the roof where the Snake King, Tarántula and Professor Salvador Diaz were standing around the device. The wind was tearing and tugging at them, but seemed less violent in the immediate vicinity of the capstone.
Diaz saw them and made a break for it. The Snake King ordered Tarántula to fire on him and bring him down. Tarántula obeyed, levelling his gun and aiming it squarely at the back of the physicist as he sprinted toward Decker and Selena.
“Mitch!” Selena cried out. “They’re going to kill him!”
The wind whipped and tugged at Decker as he aimed his gun at Tarántula and fired. The shot hit him in the upper arm and dropped him to the floor, but he was still in action. He crawled away behind an air-conditioning unit and took cover. Behind him, the Snake King saw what was unfolding and dived behind the capstone. Drawing his weapon, both he and Tarántula returned fire on the Avalon crew.
Bullets cross-crossed through the air and shattered a row of windows in the side of one of the bulkheads in the center of the roof. Decker covered his face to shield it from the flying shards of glass. Selena threw herself to the ground and rolled behind one of the air-conditioning units. Up ahead of them, Riley, Charlie and Cade were splitting up and trying to attack the Snake King on three fronts. Diana, Atticus and Acosta were still inside the bulkhead, their heads tucked down into their bodies to avoid the flying glass.
“Go, Charlie!” Riley called out. “Go, go, go!”
The former military cop charged toward the Snake King’s position, using the chopper for cover before sliding to a stop just under its tail boom. Riley had taken up an offensive position on the other side of the roof not far from Cade. They were using large electrical access boxes for cover. Decker had to move forward from another direction and put more pressure on Danvers. Spying a large water tank on the building’s south side, he leaned over to Selena.
“You think you can get to that tank?”
“Anything you can do, Mitch…”
He grinned. “I know, I know… you can do better.”
“You got it.”
He turned to Diana, Atticus and Acosta. “What about you?”
They shook their heads. “I don’t think so, Mitch,” Atticus said. “I think this is all a bit out of our league.”
Decker understood. “Then stay here, and when we go, lock the bulkhead door behind us and make sure the panic bar is firmly back in position. We don’t know how this is going to pan out, but if it ends up with us taking out their chopper and them trying to make a break for it down these stairs, I don’t want you in a vulnerable position.”
“But how will you get back
