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Ahis attention from the printout, Gideon kicked the office door shut, then twisted the lock It wouldn’t hold forever--not nearly as long as theapparatus wasn’t finished It spewed its contents without pause, flinging more and more and more still into the basket, faster than Gideon could eainst the side door Then three shots--so that could punch holes in a body or bloay a lock The fastener held through the fourth round Gideon was not dealing with the world’s greatest sharpshooter

A booted foot kicked the door open with a bang

The printing apparatus wasn’t finished yet, but Gideon told hiive hiht even be enough to make his case

The stacks of numbers were so fresh they smeared ink across his palether In the office doorway, a un in his hand shouted, "Get away from that machine!"

Irritated at the interruption, Gideon tore off the printed paper and gave its dangling, still-growing edge a rueful look before hefting the bulk of the printout He crushed it in his arunman

In the brief pause that followed, he let Lincoln’s plaque slip quietly frorasp, hidden by the crinkled, fluffy mass of wadded paper

It fell

And at the moment the plaque landed atop the printer’s console, Gideon flung himself behind a table and used his hip to knock it over He dropped down for cover as the gunman opened fire Two shots plunked into the heavy oak, which banged against the scientist’s elbows as he twisted, rolled, and folded the paper into a eable mass Meanwhile, someone fired another shot,industrial clank of the printer’s keystrokes

A second set of footsteps joined the gunman, and two more bullets ild Maybe both of the to keep in ard them They only needed one lucky shot between them

"Back there!" The first ain as another volley dug a row of deep, splintering holes

Behind the incessant clatter of the still-pounding printer keys, he thought he could hear the intruders reloading Even if it was his iain He needed a way out

Several plans presented thee point He sorted and prioritized the to likely cost versus success rates

The men stood between him and the stairwell door, but that was fine He didn’t want to lead them down there anyway

No Behind hie cellar That’d be a better option It had once been part of the basement, before the basement had been finished out for Gideon’s work The old hospital was a rabbit warren of such places, and he knew the his professional headquarters

Of course, the cellar’s exterior door may or ainst stor this escape route would render him a fish in a barrel, but he ran the odds in his head and was reassured Despite the risk, this was his best chance, both for preserving his equip the facility unseen

Gideon jalanced about for so obvious presented itself, so he dropped that idea He’d have to carry it unsecured A little noisy, and a little inconvenient, but not impossible

"Is this the Fiddlehead?" one of thekeys

"I don’t know! What does it look like?" ca they hadn’t yet seen the strategically relocated plaque

Behind a counter over to his right, Gideon spied a jar of alu the room until he remembered that the potassium chlorate was in the cabinet behind it

"Science to the rescue," he mumbled as he scooted on his knees and one hand--the other clasping the wadded sheaf of paper against his chest--across the floor and toward the aluminum

The intruders must have heard him … maybe only a rustle of his old coat and the fast scrape of his boots as he scrambled out of the way, but they fired in that direction anyway, ai

They didn’t hit too close The noise fro apparatus disoriented the it could be to people eren’t accusto the sound as cover as he knocked over a cheunshots But here was the aluet the chlorate

He put the printout down by his leg He’d need both hands for this

He closed his eyes andin it, every bottle on every row Positioning hiht spot as possible, he counted back from three … two … one … and reached up to pop open the suns wouldn’t shoot up the contents and blow theernail and the metal door flipped open With a turn of his wrist, he seized the potassiu his le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>