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“What’s going on?” asked Wendy

“Not sure yet I think it’s the people we thought we left in Europe Pete, get souns and the two semiauto 308s Lots of ammo”

Pete and Wendy hurried from the fourth floor to the narrow stairway down to the third floor, their arms piled eapons and boxes of a them and then closed the panel that hid the at Zoltán but feeling hi in with her She said, “Ül, Zoltán” He sat She petted his big head She backed out and closed the door

She picked up the Glock that Wendy had left her, released the azine to be sure it was loaded, then put the two spares into the waistband of her shorts and ran down the stairs to the third floor, whirled to go down the next flight to the second floor, and got halfway dohen she saw soh athat made her freeze

There was a ladder leaning against the side of the house, the end of it just above the top of a second-floorA man in a black turtleneck and black jeans scraht He reached the floor, pulled out a halass, then prepared to step from the ladder onto the empty frame Remi ran to the nearest , raised her ar wooden curtain rod off its hooks, dipped it once on each side to let the curtains slide off the ends and ran to the brokenTheacross his chest to bring his automatic weapon to his hand, but Remi was faster As she ran toward him she aimed her pole out theinto the man’s chest He tried to brush it away, but that caused hiet his weapon Remi pushed him backward off the ladder, then used the pole to push the ladder over after him

She looked down out theand saw that a man had run to the aid of the fallen cli up the aluminum ladder When they saw Remi, they fired several shots in her direction She ran to the opposite side of the second floor, holding on to the curtain rod, and hurried around the stairway

It was as she had feared Another man was on a ladder outside theon that side He used a tool that looked like a hatchet to break the glass Re, so this time it was easier to catch hih the broken , still running But this h theat her She ducked to the side and it spun past her head and hit soed to plant the pole in theuntil he went over backward, clinging to his ladder

Remi saw the control panel for the second floor’s systems She dropped her curtain rod, ran to it, opened the cover, and turned on the switch for the second floor’s steel shutters The lights diroan, and the shutters came down only about a foot and then stopped

Downstairs she could hear the booain She ran to the head of the stairs and looked down Sam, Pete, Selainst the front door A pair of desks were on their sides with so horizontally behind the the door Pete was on the left, ai the other shotgun to her shoulder, and Sel a pistol with both hands Sam was in the center with one of Remi’s Les Baer Semi-Auto Match rifles The sturdy steel front door had buckled a little fro, and Reh to let the bolt slip

As she watched and listened, the battering stopped Then, frorew louder as it came closer, then louder still It roared for a couple of seconds and then—Bang!—the car hit and the front door swung open The desks and filing cabinets slid inward across the floor as a high-riding pickup, with a crash barrier

Sam had fired a couple of shots as soon as the door had flown open and there were holes on the driver’s side of the windshield, but there was no driver Clearly the pedal had been jaht or a stick and the truck aimed at the door

Men in black clothes appeared a few yards back froh bed of the truck, and fired bursts into the house with automatic weapons

Sam called out, “Get upstairs!”

Pete, Wendy, and Sel at the open doorway, backed their way to the staircase near the center of the house Sam fired well-placed rounds with the rifle whenever he could see an ar, or a weapon protrude from behind the pickup As he did, he backed toward the stairs after the others

Re for more ladders, could hardly bear to see Sa to delay the intruders She stepped halfway down the stairs and fired rapidly at the opening with her Glock pistol She was still firing when Sam reached around her waist, picked her up, and forced her up the stairs with hi, keeping the intruders outside Remi ran out of ammunition just as they made it up to the second floor