Page 52 (1/2)

“I didn’t ask for randos I wanted a plan”

There were three h, one to the side, and one in the dirt behind them Sam peered over the rim of the hole toward the distant rocks “There’s a car—looks like a Range Rover—up by the rock shelf There are three or four of the at us”

Re the sa first at the high ground and then holding us doith fire from a distance?”

“If only they were shooting arrows,” said Sam “Here Take this” He put another Roman helmet on her head, picked up a Roman scuta, rapped it with his knuckles, then set it aside and chose another “This one’s better It’s got a layer of metal on the outside” He picked up a third scuta

“This won’t stop a bullet,” she said

“No, but they’ll make us harder to kill”

“If you say so”

“I do Hold it over your back like this”

“You look like a turtle”

“Success That’s the idea It’s hard enough to hit so in the dark at this distance If you have this between you and them, it will be hard for theo before it occurs to them that they can advance” He picked up his bundle of javelins, the round shield with the e, and the scuta he had selected

Sah he had ato the side just as the shooters fired again Re fire, cliht for the parked truck

Sa Reain

Re for the truck, her body low and the four-foot scuta on her right shoulder to keep it toward the snipers She ran past the nearest of the test holes, the one filled with artillery shells As she had feared, the snipers fired round after round at the hole, trying to set off an explosion But, as she had hoped, fro but hit the dirt piled up around it Even after she was past the danger zone, she could hear the Sam’s approach was a second chance to hit the old shells

After that, each of the shooters seemed to share his shots evenly between Sam and Re The sniper’s stock-in-trade was to select a target and ignore everything else in the world until that target was dead The American sniper’s standard, “One shot, one kill,” was far out of reach of most other services, but all of them were much better than this

As she dashed past the next test hole that had uncovered the French cannon, a rifle shot hit the right edge of her Roman shield It punched the scuta hard to the side, and she felt splinters bouncing off her hel The shield’s curvature had served its purpose and divertedeven harder, shetruck She crouched on the street side, away froer seat, slid to the driver’s side, and started the engine The shooters fired at the cab, blowing one of the side ard They hit the cargo box, then the frame of the truck Remi kept her body curled in a low-profile crouch