Corben and Mia stood there together in silence, watching the killers close in on the hotel. Corben’s muscles tightened. The moment of truth was seconds away.
Down below, the three men reached the hotel’s entrance.
They didn’t walk into it. They didn’t even look at it.
They just kept going, past a couple of parked cars, past Corben’s Grand Cherokee, and crossed the street.
His alternate scenario was right on the mark.
They were heading straight at them.
Chapter 20
M ia watched the killers cross the street, and with a reeling horror she realized they were coming to Evelyn’s building. Her whole body seized up as she watched them disappear from view, hidden by the projecting balcony. She wasn’t about to step outside to monitor their progress. She turned to Corben.
“How did they know we were here?” she asked.
“I don’t think they’re here for you. It’s too soon for that. They’re here to search this apartment.” He pulled the phone back to his ear. “You need to get someone here quick. We’re in the apartment building right across the street from the hotel. Third floor. It’s Evelyn Bishop’s place. Hurry up, they’re just coming into it now,” he barked into it, before clicking it shut. He tucked Evelyn’s file firmly under his jacket and belt, in the small of his back, and grabbed Mia by the arm. “Come on,” he urged as he led her to the front door.
They hurried out onto the landing, only to come face-to-face with a woman who was stepping out from the neighboring apartment. The woman froze at the sight of two strangers rushing out of Evelyn’s apartment. She hesitated, then started to say something in Arabic, but Corben snapped at her abruptly, cutting her off. “Get back inside, lock the door, and stay clear from it. Do you understand?”
The woman’s eyes darted from him to Mia and back in alarmed confusion. “Do it now,” Corben ordered again, stepping forward and herding her back into her apartment. The woman nodded furtively and disappeared behind her front door, snapping its dead bolt into place as directed.
The elevator’s “in use” light went amber, followed by a loud click and the hum of the motor cranking up. The cabin was making its way down from the top floor to the lobby. The killers would soon be here.
Corben moved to the edge of the staircase, which was adjacent to the lift shaft, and listened for a quick beat. He stepped back, looked up the stairs, and grimaced. He didn’t like that option. Access to the roof could be locked. Neighbors could come into play. Too many unknowns.
“What?” Mia asked. “What do we do?”
“Inside.” He hurried her back into Evelyn’s flat.
Corben carefully closed the door and spun its dead bolt shut. He saw that Evelyn also had a chain lock and raised his hand to pop it in place, then thought better of it and left it alone. He knew it would give away that someone was in the apartment, which was the last thing he wanted.
He also knew he only had seconds to come up with a plan.
He shot a focused glance at the big sliding glass doors opening onto the balcony, and at the window, made his decision, and turned to Mia. “Shut those curtains. As tight as you can. I don’t want any light coming in. And shut the bedroom doors too.”
She did as ordered, plunging the living room into a suffocating darkness. As she did this, Corben had grabbed an armrest cover off the sofa and was going around the lamps and the chandelier in the living room, crushing the bulbs in his fingers with cold efficiency. He did the same to the lamp in the entrance hall.
Mia shut the bedroom doors and hurried back out to find Corben in the kitchen, rummaging through the drawers. He pulled out a couple of kitchen knives and checked their blades. He chose the one that seemed most solid among the lot and stowed it under his belt, to one side.
Mia watched him, stunned. “Please tell me you have a gun tucked away in an ankle holster or something,” she half-joked.
“They’re in the car,” he replied grimly. Being an American was viewed with a sharply increased degree of suspicion in the tense city, and “economic counselor” was getting to be right up there with “cultural attaché” as shorthand for CIA. A telltale bulge from a handgun—which people in this town were more likely to spot than the citizens of, say, Corleone—was definitely taunting fate. Which is why the Glock and the Ruger stayed in a locked compartment in the Jeep unless it looked as if the situation really called for one, or both. This hadn’t looked like that kind of situation.
Notch up another one for hindsight.
Corben scanned the kitchen. It was tucked off to one side, away from the living room, and had a glass door that led out to a small balcony. A tall, freestanding fridge, an older, heavier model, was next to the door, with Formica counters and cabinets along one wall. He crossed over to the edge of the room and looked out. He noted that the kitchen’s balcony door had no curtains or blinds. Which didn’t really matter. He’d already decided it would be their fallback position. He pulled out Evelyn’s file and handed it to Mia. She glanced at it curiously and looked him a question.
“Stay here and hang on to this for me,” he told her. “Close the door behind me and keep it shut until I get back.” He headed out, stabbing a finger at the balcony door. “And keep that door open.”
Mia tried to object, but the words dried up in her mouth.
Corben saw how shaken she was and paused. “We’ll get through this,” he added firmly, his eyes hard with conviction. She managed a reluctant, scarcely perceptible nod before he rushed out of the room.
Mia closed the door, her heartbeat pounding loudly in her ears. She turned and looked down the kitchen, at the balcony beyond, then her eyes dropped to the file in her hands.
She stared at it for a moment with nervous curiosity, then opened it.
Outside, Corben moved fleetly through the darkness and reached the front door. He looked through the peephole just as the elevator outside gave off a barely audible snap as its door-locking mechanism released. He knew there wasn’t any risk of them spotting any movement behind the lens or coming from under the door, as the room behind him wasn’t lit.
He heard the metal grille inside the elevator creak open, and two of the men he’d watched in the street stepped out. He realized the third man was still downstairs, keeping watch. These men were pros. They knew what they were doing. He tensed up even more with the thought.
He observed them as the pockmarked man Mia had described from the bar hit the light switch and glanced around the landing.
Satisfied that they weren’t about to be interrupted, they turned to face the door to Evelyn’s apartment. Corben flexed his fingers and felt his muscles tighten as each killer pulled out a 9mm automatic, rolled a silencer into place, and chambered a round. The pockmarked man nodded to his underling to go ahead.
Corben breathed in deeply and slid back to one side of the door. He’d be hidden behind it as it opened. He leaned right back, pressed against the wall. He closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, getting them more accustomed to the darkness around him.
The door squealed lightly with an exploratory tug. There was no sound of keys slipping into the lock. The killers evidently didn’t have them. Corben gritted his teeth and waited for it. A second later, a half dozen successive coughs from one of the silenced automatics were echoed by the loud bursts of bullets chewing through the wood of the door and obliterating the door lock. Corben raised a hand to shield his face as splinters and shards of steel ricocheted around the small hallway. A faint smell of charred wood and gunpowder drifted up to his nose.
He stiffened as the door creaked open and swung slowly towards him, and watched with rapt attention as a silencer appeared, hovering in midair. It glided deeper into the entrance hall, followed by the rest of the gun and the jacketed arm of the first of the killers.
Corben went for it, and everything suddenly raced into fast-forward.
Chapter 21
W ith rapierlike agility, Corben lunged at the man and grabbed
him by the wrist, yanking him into the room while using his back to slam the door shut behind him.
He twisted on himself and used the man’s own momentum to spin him around and slam him into the back of the door, thereby blocking it. A wild round went off from the silenced gun, the spark from its muzzle lighting up the intruder’s twisted face, which was bloodied from his encounter with the door. Corben knew he didn’t have more than a second or two before the pockmarked man outside reacted and tried to barge through. He kept one hand gripped on the killer’s wrist, pinning the gun against the door, and used the other to drive a crushing punch to his lower back, striking him in the kidney.
The man gasped out heavily under the blow. His hand lost its hold of the gun, which clattered across the floor. Corben felt the man’s muscles slacken and grabbed his chance, sidestepping away from the door in the opposite direction while pulling the killer fully across the door just as several bursts of gunfire bit through the wood and raked through the intruder. He held on to the man’s arm and felt his body shudder and writhe from the bullets cutting through him, then let go. The man’s body collapsed onto the floor in a heavy thud and just lay there, motionless, emitting a wheezing gurgle, blocking the door.
Corben caught his breath and skulked by the door, listening intently in the deathly silence. The man outside called out, “Fawwaz?”
“He’s dead, asshole,” Corben shouted back, “and you’re next. I’ve got his gun.”
Which wasn’t exactly true. Not yet, anyway.
Corben scowled and waited tensely for an answer, but nothing came back. Thin shafts of light from the landing were streaming in through the bullet holes in the door, casting a soft, ethereal glow on the entrance hall and the dead body. Corben looked around, searching for the gun, his mind running through his options. None of them was particularly promising. Abruptly, the little light there was vanished. The timer in the landing had just kicked in, and the killer outside made no effort to switch it back on. Instead, Corben heard him yell out another name, “Wasseem,” followed by a barked order that echoed eerily down the stairwell. The pockmarked shooter outside was probably telling the third man to come up and join in.
The more, the merrier.
Not.
Corben urgently scoured the darkness for the dead man’s weapon. He couldn’t find it at first, then spotted it on the far side of the hallway from him, facing the door and anyone coming in. Getting it would be risky. Corben would be completely exposed if he attempted it.
As he mulled whether to go for it, he heard rapid footfalls echoing up the stairwell and knew it would be seconds before he’d again be facing the killers’ two-to-one advantage—with the two sporting automatics, as opposed to his meager kitchen knife. He realized he had to make a move. He bolted from the wall and dived for the gun just as the killer outside kicked the door in. The dead man’s body was blocking the door. The killer outside shoved the door inwards, pushing his friend’s corpse farther back into the room while reaching in and unleashing a barrage of gunfire that exploded all around Corben. Corben’s fingers reached the fallen gun just as several bullets bounced off the floor beside him. He managed to grab it and leapt out of the room, more shots splattering the jambs of the doorway inches from him.
He rushed through the darkened living room and ducked for cover behind Evelyn’s desk as several bullets crunched into its oak carcass. He peered out and unleashed a brief volley of his own, forcing the killer to duck behind the doorway. They were no more than fifteen feet apart. The living room was bathed in darkness, making it hard for either of them to get a clear shot at the other. Corben, at least, had the advantage of knowing the layout of the apartment. It would buy him a few extra seconds, which he needed if he was going to make it back to Mia.
Corben stole a glance at the gun he’d picked up. Even in the bare glimmer of light that was coming through from the edges of the curtains, he could tell that it was a SIG-Sauer, and more specifically a P226. Hardly the sleekest of designs, but a supremely accurate and reliable handgun. Corben processed the choice of weapon: These weren’t standard-issue Makarovs, which were a dime a dozen in the area. These guys—and whoever sent them—had access to, and funding for, some serious steel. He made a quick mental calculation of the shots he had left. Given that its double-column magazine held fifteen rounds, plus one in the chamber if one was really hell-bent on getting the maximum bang for one’s buck, and assuming the magazine was full before the corpse had shot up the door, which was a reasonably safe assumption, Corben guessed he could have maybe a half dozen rounds left.
At best.
He heard some clicks—the killer was trying the light switches, to no avail. The door scraped open and more footsteps entered the apartment. The third killer was here. Corben heard a brief, heated exchange between the two men—getting up to speed and planning their next move, no doubt—and decided to use that momentary distraction. Careful not to waste precious bullets, he loosed a couple of shots and rushed out from behind the desk, scurrying across the darkened room, and landing behind the large sofa that backed up to the balcony. Several muffled shots shattered the side table to his right and obliterated two picture frames that were on it. He didn’t return fire. He waited instead, straining his ears to hear if either of the intruders would step into his killing zone. They were too experienced for that and stayed tucked away behind the wall of the doorway. He could hear one of them reloading. Undeterred, he inched his way farther until he was facing the small hallway that led to the kitchen. He took a couple of deep breaths and sprinted across the open ground to it. Several shots cut through the air around him, but he kept going and ducked behind the wall as more shots bit into it. He returned fire and charged down the hallway to the kitchen, flinging the door open and slamming it shut behind him.
Mia had her back against the counter, riven with fear. Corben saw that she was clasping the file tightly across her chest. Her face lit up at the sight of him still in one piece and seemingly uninjured. She looked as if she had a mountain of questions for him, but now wasn’t the time for them and she knew it.
Corben stuffed the gun under his belt and grabbed hold of the large fridge. His face contorted and he grunted as he rattled it across the tiled floor, using it to block the kitchen door. He had it halfway across when bullets from the hallway tore through the door, either finding the back of the fridge or exploding against the back wall of the kitchen. Mia screamed as one of them hit the balcony door and punched a spiderweb of cracks through it. Corben yelled out to her, “Stay clear of the door,” and with a final grunt, he shoved the fridge into place. More shots came at them and pinged against it, but it held, shielded him and Mia from their onslaught.
The shooting paused, and heavy thuds came pounding the door from the hallway. The killers were trying to push it open, and the heavy fridge, though tough to budge, was giving way, inch by inch. Corben grabbed a chair and levered it between the edge of the fridge and a fat radiator, buying them some extra seconds, and without pausing for breath, he took the file from Mia and tucked it into the small of his back while shouting, “Come on.”
They dashed out onto the balcony. It was a small, narrow rectangle with clothes wires hanging across it lengthways. Corben knew from scoping it out that it backed up onto a mirror-image service balcony of the neighboring apartment. The two balconies were separated by a wall of thick glass blocks that went right up to the stuccoed parapet, which had a metal railing mounted on it.
He led Mia to the edge of the balcony. “Climb over,” he urged her, “I’ll give you a hand.”
She didn’t seem particularly thrilled by the prospect.
He darted a look back inside the kitchen. The fridge was teetering inwards with every loud shove of the door, the chair straining against the radiator. “Come on,” he insisted, “just climb over to the other side and don’t look down.” Advice that people in those situations always seemed to give, but that, of course, no one ever followed.
Not one to mess w
ith tradition, Mia peered over the edge and glanced straight down. The courtyard at the rear of the building, a wasteland of crates and discarded building materials three floors below, seemed to drop even deeper.
Another jarring thud from inside convinced her.
She gritted her teeth and swung one leg over the parapet.
Chapter 22
H ugging the partition wall, Mia lifted herself and shifted her weight so that she was now sitting on the railing, with neither leg touching the floor.
Corben held her hand as she inched her way across the smooth metal railing, actually managing not to look down.
“That’s it, keep going,” Corben egged her on, moving with her as she slid farther across, slowly and carefully, her knuckles white as they gripped the railing underneath her.
A sudden, loud crash from the kitchen unsettled her—the chair snapping out of its tight hold. Mia lost her grip and slid backwards. She screamed as she let go of the railing and tried to grab the wall she was straddling, but the glass blocks were too smooth to hang on to.
Corben lunged outwards and caught her. He pulled her upright and gave her a final push, sending her onto the neighboring balcony, where she landed with a thud and out of breath.
He stole one last glance into the kitchen before climbing over the railing and clambering across. The balcony door facing him was mercifully open. As he joined Mia, they heard the fridge scraping its way furiously across the kitchen floor under the bull-like shoves of the two killers. Corben hurried Mia inside, and they raced through the small apartment. There was no sign of the woman they’d met, which was just as well. She must have been cowering in a bathroom or under a bed, which is where Corben hoped she’d stay until they were all well out of the building.
He released the dead bolt on the front door and flung it open. The landing was quiet—the killers were still deep inside Evelyn’s apartment. He motioned to Mia and they rushed down the stairs. They had almost reached the first floor when they heard shouts and loud footfalls chasing down after them. Punctuating the renewed threat, several muffled rounds rocketed down the stairwell, sparking against the railing and hammering the limestone steps under their feet.
The Sanctuary Page 13