The Atlantis Stone

CHAPTER 10

Selena had come back for some notes she'd forgotten. The first sign something was wrong was the elevator in the garage. The light behind the button for her floor was lit, waiting for someone to push it.

It should have been off.

She eased her pistol from its holster as the elevator rose. She carried a SIG-Sauer 229 chambered for .40 Smith & Wesson. She liked the shorter barrel and lower weight of the 229, plus it came out of the holster a little bit faster. At the distance where personal shootouts happened, the extra barrel length of the 226 favored by many in the specialized services didn't make any difference. She could empty a magazine into the center mass of a target with either one.

The gun was fully loaded, a round in the chamber. Selena eased the hammer back and laid her finger alongside the trigger guard.

The elevator opened onto the empty foyer. The door to the loft was ajar. She thought about calling Nick but discarded the idea as quickly as it came. The noise would give her away if someone was inside. If no one was there, so much the better. If they were, they weren't going to violate her personal space without paying for it.

Whoever it was, they were good. Getting through the locks was the least of it. Somehow they'd managed to turn off the alarm.

With a gentle push, she eased the door partway open. She heard voices.

Russian. They're speaking Russian.

Her heart began pounding as adrenaline flooded her. She took a deep breath and listened to what they were saying.

They found the safe.

She pushed her shoes off in the foyer and slipped through the door. Her feet made no sound as she padded across the floor. She moved to the wall and worked her way along it until she was outside the entrance to her study.

"I have three numbers," someone said. "One more and I'll have it open."

"We've been here a long time," someone else said. "Can't you hurry it up, Major?"

At least two, she thought.

"Don't bother him, Vasily. You wouldn't have gotten through those locks on the door."

Three.

"What if they come back?"

"They went to work. They're not coming back. If they do, we take care of it."

"Will you two shut up? How can I hear what I'm doing with your yammering?"

Selena heard the click as the last tumbler fell into place, then the metallic ratcheting of the handle that pulled back the locking bars inside the safe door.

"It's open," the first voice said.

"Is the map in there?" The second voice said.

"I don't see it."

Time to introduce myself, Selena thought.

She was angry. These thugs had come into her home, into her private space. She stepped into the room with her pistol held in front of her in both hands. One man knelt over the open safe. The other two stood nearby.

"Don't fucking move," she said in Russian.

Yeltsin looked up from the floor and saw an angry woman with intense violet eyes, holding an automatic pistol pointed at him. Without thinking he reached for his Makarov.

Selena's first shot sounded like a cannon in the confines of the room. It hit Yeltsin and bowled him over. She shifted to the right and shot Vasily, two rounds into his chest. He staggered and fell onto his back, knocking over a floor lamp as he went down. She swiveled toward the third man. He was trying to free his gun from his pocket. He grabbed a book from her desk and hurled it at her. The book struck her hand as she fired. The round missed. The slide locked halfway back and stopped.

Jammed!

She didn't have time to think about it. Viktor charged her. He was a big man, fast for his size. She threw her gun at him. It bounced off his shoulder. He barreled into her and knocked her down. As she fell she swept her leg around and took his foot out from under him. He went to the floor, cursing. She arched and flipped backward onto her feet. Viktor reached out and grabbed her ankle and pulled. She twisted and felt a jolt of pain as she went down. She fell on top of him and drove her thumb into his eye.

He screamed and grasped at her. She brought her elbow down hard on his face and heard bone break under the blow. She slammed his throat with her elbow, once, twice, and rolled away. He thrashed on the floor trying to breathe.

The first man she'd shot lifted his pistol. She rolled to the side as he fired. Hot, electric pain shot up her leg from the injured ankle. The barrel of the Makarov was aimed straight at her.

No.

The pistol wavered. Yeltsin coughed. Bright red blood vomited from his mouth. He collapsed and lay still. His bowels let go and a sewer stench filled the room. Selena gagged.

Shaken, she crawled to the desk and pulled herself up on her good leg. She tried to put weight on the injured foot and felt the warning pain. She looked at the bodies of the men she'd killed. The clock on her desk showed a few minutes after ten in the morning.

Hell of a way to start the day, she thought.

She picked up the phone and called Elizabeth.

A cleanup team arrived at the loft less than half an hour after she'd called. Nick showed up ten minutes later.

"You're all right?"

"Yes. I hurt my ankle when that asshole grabbed it." She gestured at Viktor's body. "I can't put any weight on it."

"Stinks in here. Come on, let's get out while the cleaners finish up. Lean on my arm," Nick said.

"It's a good thing there's no one on the floor below us," Selena said. "No one heard the shots."

She hobbled with him over to the elevator. They descended to the parking garage.

"Wait here."

Nick got the car and brought it over. He opened the door and Selena dropped into the passenger seat.

It wasn't until they'd crossed over into Virginia that she began shaking.

Nick pulled over to the side of the highway. He took off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.

"You're okay," he said.

"I know." She wrapped her arms around herself. "One of them was pointing his pistol at me. I couldn't get out of the way. I couldn't do anything. I thought I was going to die."

"But you didn't."

"Not this time."

"Not next time, either."

"I don't know if I believe that anymore," Selena said.

"You have to believe it. So do I. If we don't believe it, we can't do what we do."

They spent the rest of the ride in silence.