“Now,” she yelled, rushing at Danny and bundling them both through the door. A burst of machine gun fire traced their trajectory, peppering the walls with a line of smouldering shots as they ran across the room and dived behind a large walnut-topped dining table.
Acid stood her ground, squeezing off her final shot to hold her back as Danny upended the table and they took cover behind it.
It wasn’t a moment too soon, as a flurry of bullets pounded into the thick wooden tabletop, splintering the edges and sides. Magpie didn’t let up, screaming like an insane banshee as she sprayed the room with bullets.
“Here,” Danny gasped, handing Acid one of the spare mags.
Spurred on by a chaotic but impenetrable resilience, she shoved in the new cartridge and threw her arm around the side of the table, firing off a few more shots in retaliation but not expecting to find her mark. She needed a better view and was considering how she might distract Magpie enough to take a real shot when the onslaught of automatic fire suddenly ceased, leaving only a desperate clicking sound that was all too familiar. But for once the impotent sound of a gun without bullets was not her problem. In fact it was her redeemer.
She sprang to her feet to see her old nemesis frantically shaking the UZI. She let out a terrible scream before snapping her head up to see Acid.
This was it. Acid raised her arm, relishing the moment, ready to shoot the acerbic harpy a new blow-hole. But before she had a chance to pull the trigger Magpie flung the spent UZI at her, forcing her to dodge to one side. As she fired, the shot went high, taking out a glass lampshade which exploded into fine dust. Before she could right herself, a dark flapping object was hurtling towards her. This time the makeshift missile found its mark and the Fabergé egg bounced off her forehead, sending her staggering backwards.
“Hey, I got ya.”
Amidst a spinning spiral of confusion and colour she felt Danny’s strong arms catch her. He pushed her upright as she gasped for air, fighting to stay conscious.
“You all right?”
She blinked. Shook the dizziness away. There was a crushing pain in her head but she didn’t have time to worry about that.
“Let go of me,” she wheezed. “She’s getting away.”
As the room rushed back into focus, she caught a fleeting glimpse of white-streaked hair in the doorway. Magpie turning on her heels. Escaping into the night.
No. Not happening.
She shoved Danny away and leapt over the table.
“Acid, wait.” She turned as she reached the doorway to see Danny holding up the eggs. “We’ve got them. Both of them. Let her go. It’s over.”
She eyed him penetratingly as her focus clicked back online and a squawking chiropteran battle cry reverberated across her nervous system.
“It’s not over yet,” she snarled. “Get the girls out of here and get back to the apartment. I’ll see you there.” She held her hand up as he opened his mouth to speak. “If I’m not back by morning, get on the next plane out of here. Okay?”
With Danny shouting protestations of caution and carefulness in her wake, she grabbed onto the doorframe, swung herself around the corner and ran out of the house.
The three girls were standing in the driveway, glancing nervously about and hugging at themselves with spindly arms. “Wait here,” Acid told them. “Help is coming. You’re safe. Yes? Safe.”
They looked through her with hooded eyes, still pretty far gone. But she didn’t have time to explain further. To the right of the house she saw the outline of Magpie Stiletto as she leapt the wall and disappeared down the side of a grassy ridge.
She was getting away.
With the gun still clutched tight in her fist, Acid sprinted after her, scrambling over the wall and practically falling down the steep embankment in her haste. Righting herself she continued down the narrow winding path leading to the seafront. The way the hillside curved around the bay, she only got brief glimpses of her old rival as they both weaved their way down, and in turn Magpie was sticking to the nearside of the path, knowing Acid couldn’t get a clear shot if she did. That didn’t stop her firing off a few rounds out of anger and frustration, but hoping it might unsettle Magpie too so she could claw back the upper hand. The bullets pounded impotently into the grass hillside, sending tiny eruptions of sand and earth into the night sky.
“Magpie,” she roared. “I’ll fucking destroy you.”
The words burst out from deep inside of her, like an echo of her past – the demon she’d always carried with her rising to the surface and finding its voice once more.
Another shot pinged off the metal railing that ran alongside the steps to road level. Magpie was taking them three at a time, leaning on the railing to steady herself as she went. Raising the pistol as she turned the final corner, Acid fired off a succession of shots, not easy whilst running, but one of the bullets found a home in Magpie’s shoulder. She recoiled clumsily against the stone wall of the steps, almost stumbling to the ground, but managing to right herself at the last moment. A quick look of her shoulder and she disappeared around the hillside.
“Shitting hell,” Acid screamed into the night.
The rage had her squeezing the trigger once more, firing off two more futile rounds before she felt the slide catch lock and the bolt open.
“Mother shitting bitch,” she yelled, flinging the handgun angrily into the long grass as she reached the top of the steps. She scuttled down the first couple before jumping the remaining few, and hit the ground running. Up ahead Magpie had now crossed the wide coastal road and was making her way down
