to grasp the gravity of it all.
Instead of retreating, Evan stepped up to the tall man and scrutinized
the tiny photo on the security badge dangling over his chest. When he
surmised that the two lab techs were imposters, his temper flared. While
trying to urge the short one away from the door, Evan attempted to sidestep the tall man. But the giant blocked his advance so that Evan’s face
collided with his chest. Some verbal sparring ensued, all inaudible on the
other side of the glass.
“We’ll have to let him handle it,” Donovan implored her. “We’ve got to
leave right now.” But Charlotte was frozen. “Let’s go!” Donovan yanked
her up from the chair.
“We can’t just—”
“Get moving!” He pulled her arm even harder.
Overwhelmed, Charlotte couldn’t take her eyes off the scene as the
large man planted a huge hand on Evan’s chest and thrust his arm like a
piston, sending Evan stumbling backward. By the time Evan regained his
footing, the giant had reached beneath his lab coat, produced a gun, and
raised it to Evan’s face. Horrified at the dire turn of events, Evan threw the
two cups at the man and tried to run for the fire exit. The gunman barely
reacted as the scalding coffee hit his chest and splashed up under his chin,
steam swirling into his face.
With unwavering aim, he snapped off a shot that drilled a red circle
through the back of Evan’s head and ripped open bone and skin in a
red spray as it exited his face. Evan’s body catapulted forward onto the
tiles.
It wasn’t the crack of the gunshot that caught the assistant’s attention;
it was Charlotte’s bloodcurdling scream. When through the glass partition
she spotted the two men near the elevator and Evan’s body sprawled in a
pool of blood, she panicked and darted for the metal security door leading
to the labs. She fumbled for the employee ID card clipped to her suit jacket
and slid it through a reader on the lock.
Donovan swung open a second glass door leading into the assistant’s
cubicle, dragging Charlotte behind him.
“Wait!” Charlotte protested. “Evan!” she cried.
“Stay down!”
An instant later, the door leading to the elevator let out a loud
cracks webbed out from a single hole blown through the center of its tempered glass. The round thwacked into the windowpane behind Charlotte’s
head, making her snap into action.
The assistant was just making her way through the metal door, and
Donovan muscled Charlotte through right behind her. He stole a glimpse
of the large gunman, who was throwing his shoulder against the fractured
glass. A third attempt brought the door down in a thousand pieces, the
man stumbling forward into the office.
“Come on! ” Donovan screamed. He ducked into the doorway,
Charlotte at his heels. He yanked the safety door shut just as another round thudded close to the handle. “How do we get out of here?” he
panted.
“Follow her,” Charlotte replied, her tone full of dread. She pointed
to her assistant, who was already halfway down the corridor. Adrenaline was helping her to pretend that she hadn’t just witnessed Evan’s
murder.
