Second floor, Seth answered.
“There’s a second floor?” she asked. The stairwell from which she and Zach had just emerged had only gone from this floor to the basement.
Yes. There’s a hidden stairwell at the end of the hallway on the right.
An explosion outside pierced her ears.
At the end of the hallway, they did indeed find what used to be a hidden stairwell. Seth had blown the secret. Literally.
“Can you understand any of that gibberish?” Zach asked, nodding at the walkie she had clipped to her belt.
“Yes. Chris isn’t happy about how long it’s taking to clear the grounds. And Richart and Jenna are having a hell of a time keeping the mercenaries out of the choppers.”
She frowned. Who was backing them up?
Tracy? she called.
Yeah?
Where are you?
With Sheldon, backing up Richart and Jenna. Why? Do you need me?
No, just making sure you’re okay.
Shit! . . . Yeah, I’m fine. These guys are really determined! Are you okay?
I’m good. Zach’s with me.
I’m really starting to love that man. Shit!
Go fight. I won’t distract you anymore. Just let me know if you need me.
Ditto.
The stairwell took them to a hallway much like the others. Seth stood in it, bodies all around him.
“There’s something up here,” he told them, looking around. “They seemed very determined to keep us from getting past this hallway.”
“Us?” Zach asked.
David stepped out of a narrower hallway that branched off of this one. His face and form were splattered with blood, his clothing peppered with holes. Wiping his bloody katanas on his pants, he nodded to them.
“Shit!” Dmitry, Yuri’s Second, shouted over the walkie. “Yuri’s down! Yuri’s down!” The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire sounded. “I’m pinned down! I can’t—”
“Noooooo!” Stanislav shouted in the background.
Seth staggered suddenly, as if the strength had left his legs. His face lost all color.
David dropped his weapons and lunged forward to grip Seth’s arms and steady him. “Seth? What is it?”
Lisette’s heart began to pound.
Seth looked . . . panicked. Stricken. Something.
“Seth?” David prodded.
Seth met David’s eyes, his own wide. “He’s dead. They killed him.”
“Dmitry?”
Seth shook his head and swallowed hard. “Yuri. They took his head.”
Stunned silence gripped them.
“Yuri!” They heard Stanislav bellow outside.
The building shook with a huge explosion. Sheetrock and dust fell from the ceiling.
More explosions followed, one after another.
Lisette threw her arms out to keep her balance.
“The armory’s going! The armory’s going!” someone shouted over the walkie amid static.
A final explosion that sounded like a damned A-bomb detonating, then . . .
Eerie quiet settled upon the compound.
Étienne! Lisette called frantically. Richart!
I’m fine, Richart said. Jenna, Sheldon, and Tracy are, too.
I’m okay, Étienne said at nearly the same moment. But Yuri’s gone. They decapitated him, Lisette, right before the armory lit up.
Blinking back tears, she looked at Seth.
“Let go,” he ordered David.
“You can’t do anything for him now other than get the bastard who started all of this,” David told him.
Lisette realized David was intentionally maintaining his hold on Seth to keep him from teleporting away and doing something rash.
The ground began to shake. Then the walls. The entire building.
She inched closer to Zach, who wrapped a protective arm around her.
“Seth,” David said, demanding eye contact. “Seth, look at me. You can’t lose control. Not now. Not when we’re so close to ending this.”
Cracks opened in the Sheetrock, crawling up the walls, splitting the ceiling.
A throat cleared.
Lisette’s head snapped around.
Marcus stood at the opposite end of the hallway, face pale as he stared at Seth. “I think I’ve found what you’re looking for,” he said, and pointed to his right.
Lisette hadn’t realized until then that the hallway was L-shaped.
The shaking stopped.
Features tight with fury, Seth shook off David’s hold and strode toward Marcus.
Zach met David’s gaze.
Both breathed a sigh of relief. That had been close.
David headed after Marcus and Seth.
Zach and Lisette brought up the rear.
Marcus stopped before a wall and motioned to two creases in it. “Another hidden door. I hear heartbeats behind it. A panic room, perhaps.”
Seth waved a hand. A loud thunk, like large steel poles retreating, sounded. The door swung inward.
Zach stepped in front of Lisette.
A barrage of bullets emerged.
David waved a hand and telekinetically yanked the weapons from the hands of the eight men inside.