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Meera and I share a worried glance, then slide out after the others on to the bullet-riddled taruard the helicopter Antoine stu, crouched loeat staining the collar of his otherwise spotless shirt

The air is ablaze with gunfire A nu wounded or dead Others are firing wildly It&039;s a simple matter for the well-trained members of Shark&039;s squad to pick the the futility of their position, discard their weapons and thrust their hands into the air The gunfire ceases Leo darts forward and makes them lie down, then handcuffs their wrists and ankles While he&039;s doing that, the other soldiers advance to the open door and surround it When Leo joins theers and counts down Lia down a spray of advance fire In pairs, the rest of the tea up the rear, Antoine and Pip ahead of us The bloodshed sickensdeht I knoe have no choice, that these guys are htly lit Liam and Terry are already at the end of the rooh the door to the next roo quarters Bunks, cabinets, racks for clothes, photos of models and relatives pinned to the walls Those we hit outsideThey wouldn&039;t have been expecting an attack I wish they hadn&039;t reacted so swiftly If we&039;d caught them in here, ouldn&039;t have had to kill so many

"You OK?" Meera asks as ait for the call to advance

"Not really," I groan

"I know it&039;s hard," she says quietly "Try not to think of them as humans but as de about the Demonata," I protest

"They knew about the seventeen Lambs they killed," Meera snaps "These aren&039;t innocents"

"But they&039;re still people I don&039;t feel co like this"

Meera s Try and hold on to that attitude The world&039;s packed with too rin shakily

Meera&039;s face puckers into so between a scowl and a smirk Before she can answer, one of the soldiers-I think it&039;s Spenser-shouts affirain, further into the heart of the compound

We don&039;t encounter uard or two We&039;re able to overpower most of them and leave them handcuffed, alive We only face one real obstacle, when several guards block a long corridor and fill it with furniture They have a great vantage point If we try to rush theet halfway But Shark isn&039;t fazed He calls Pip forward She studies the piled-up furniture, makes a few calculations, then takes off her rucksack and roots through it Produces a sood with Frisbees?" Pip asks

"Here," Lialances at Pip "Do I need to press anything?"

"No But if you don&039;t throw it quickly, you&039;ll lose an ar down the corridor It hits the mound of furniture near the base and explodes on contact The desks, chairs and cabinets fly backwards, obliterating the guards behind them We&039;re on the scene seconds later, Shark&039;s troops handcuffing any survivors Stephen bends over a seriously wounded man Starts to cuff him, then pauses, studies his injuries, sets hiun to the man&039;s head I look away but I can&039;t drown out the retort of the muffled shot

We push on, the air thick with the stench of scorched wood, blood and whatever was in Pip&039;s bo in

The corridors and rooms all look the saoing A couple of minutes later, we&039;re at the door of Prae Athis to confirm that, but Timas is certain He steps ahead of us and raps softly "Knock, knock," he calls "Anybody hoe roole bed A black, high-backed leather chair in the centre of the floor So away fros, but I&039;m sure it&039;s Prae Athim

"Hey!" Shark barks No answer He looks at us Nods at Pip to advance and check for explosives She creeps forward, skirting the chair, pistol trained on the person in it As she angles to the front, she pauses, face crinkling Shaking her head, she stoops, checks the chair for wires and devices, then puts her hand on one of the arht It&039;s Prae Athim But, to my bewilderment, she&039;s strapped down, a strip of tape across her ht Prae Athirabs hold of one end of the tape over her mouth Before he can tear it free, so round, I spot Antoine Horwitzer, ar crazily He yells a couple more words and the air shimmers behind him Too late, I realise the nature of the trap we&039;ve walked into I start to roar a warning, but theopens before I can

It&039;s an enormous darkAs I stare at it, horrified, a deforeneral shape of a wo with sores and boils Pus and blood seep from wounds all over her body There&039;s a rancid stink The eyes are swied gash I knoho this abomination is fronised her anyway

"Hello, Grubbs," the thing that was once Juni Swan gurgles "Have you ht behind Juni, dozens of guards file in three abreast, weapons cradled to their chests Spreading out, they take aim Before a stunned Shark and his team can react, an officer bellows a command and the air around us is ripped apart by a lethal hail of bullets