Blowback

THIRTY-FOUR

When the window exploded in a hail of razor-sharp glass, Harvath was already in motion. Leaping across the large table covered with artifacts, he knocked Jillian to the ground and drew the .40-caliber H&K USP Compact he was carrying at the small of his back. Raising himself up onto one knee, Harvath prepared to fire, but was forced to hit the deck when Khalid Alomari raked the room with another fusillade. A screeching, high-pitched siren soon joined the sound of gunfire. The shattered window had triggered the alarm system. Harvath could almost hear the heavy boots of Sotheby’s well-armed guards pounding their way up the stairs at that very moment. That was all he needed. He had no desire to dance with those guys again. They had to get out of there — now.

Rolling to his right, Harvath pounded the area around the window frame with six rounds from his H&K. Turning back to where Jillian lay, he said, “When I count to three, I want you to take off running for the hole in the wall. Stay low and don’t stop for anything.”

“I don’t think I can move,” she wheezed as her breath came in short gasps. Her hands were trembling and her eyes were wide with fear. Seeing Molly Davidson’s body and now this, it was all too much and had resulted in classic adrenaline dump. Her fight-or-flight mechanisms were overloaded and she was completely paralyzed. Harvath needed to get her focused on moving.

Handing her the keys to the van, he said, “I’m going to hold him off while you run. I want you to take the van and go back to the hotel and wait for me. Got it?”

Alcott nodded her head.

“Good. I’m going to count to three. Are you ready?”

“Wait,” she said, scared and trying to stall. “What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll meet you there. Here we go. One. Two. Three!”

Harvath let loose with another volley of six shots while Jillian ran for the far end of the office. When Harvath had fired his final shot, he ejected the spent magazine and inserted a fresh one. He put seven additional rounds through the eaves above, hoping to get lucky and nail Alomari outside on the sloped roof, but there was no way to be sure. All he knew was that he was no longer returning fire. Either Harvath had gotten lucky or Alomari was on the run. Like it or not, Harvath knew he had to go after him.

Grabbing a stool from one of the workbenches, he knocked the remaining pieces of glass from the windowpane as the sound of Sotheby’s security guards racing down the hallway could be heard. Reaching for the best handhold he could, Harvath pulled himself up and out of the window.

The fierce rain was being driven horizontally by the wind, and it tore at him like sheets of nails. It was all Harvath could do to hang on. The sloped roof was slick with rain and an accumulation of Paris grime. Realizing he was going to need both hands, Harvath reluctantly tucked the H&K back into the holster at the small of his back, sucked up the pain from his ribs, and scrambled upward.

As he reached the top of the roof, the parapet exploded in a hail of gunfire and Harvath lost his grip. He came sliding downward on the slimy tiles, grabbing frantically for any sort of handhold he could find. Clawing at the sloped surface, he was finally able to stop his precipitous slide.

Harvath struggled his way back up the roof. When he arrived beneath the parapet, he steadied himself and drew his pistol. He grabbed hold of the ledge and swung himself up and over the top. Rolling along the flat surface, he took cover behind a large stone chimney. He listened for any sign of Alomari, but all he could hear was the raging of the storm. Taking a deep breath, he tightened his grip around the pistol and sprang from his hiding place.

All of the roofs of the block’s buildings were connected, and through the driving rain, Harvath could make out the silhouette of Alomari no more than fifty yards away. With no civilians this time blocking his line of fire, Harvath didn’t hesitate. He pulled the trigger five times in quick succession and on the last round saw Alomari spin, as if he’d been hit in the back, and go down.

Harvath began to advance, ready to finish the job, when he heard voices behind him. The Sotheby’s security guards were scaling the roof, and there were the sounds of police Klaxons closing in on the street below. He had no choice. Though he didn’t like it, he had to get out of there. Spotting what looked like an access door two rooftops over, he took off at a sprint.