The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 53

Bobby and Eva rose from the floor. They’d dropped to their stomachs as soon as they’d heard the gunshot, seen the bodyguard firing at Luo from behind.

The bodyguard’s third bullet pierced Luo’s chest. Luo collapsed to the floor, his body limp. The bodyguard dropped his gun and fell down the stairs. He remained limp on the floor, a hole in his head just above the eyes.

Bobby jumped to his feet to help Luo. He was Eva’s father. He was Bobby’s friend. Bobby wanted to save him, whatever the cost. Without Luo, Bobby would have been dead twice already. But a calmer voice prevailed. It was the voice of his father, instructing him to stop indulging in sentiment and focus on his own survival.

Eva was already rising to her feet. Bobby reached out with his hand. As she took it, Bobby saw Nadia and Simeonovich getting up, too. The latter held a gun in his right hand.

“More guards upstairs,” Bobby said. “Down is better.”

Eva passed Bobby. He didn’t wait for a reaction from Nadia. He raced to catch up with her. It dawned on Bobby that he hadn’t seen Victor or Milanovich. They were probably still on the ground, he thought. Still hiding.

The bodyguard’s corpse lay beside Luo’s body on the upward staircase. Eva rounded the corner to the downward stairwell. Bobby was two steps behind her.

Another guard rounded the flight of stairs from below. He was nine steps away from Eva. The guard looked up.

His eyes met Eva’s.

The guard raised his rifle.

Bobby leaped down the staircase. He pushed off his right knee and propelled himself with all his might. His gut resisted the leap. It was too long a distance to cover. His instincts told him he’d land at the man’s feet just as he was ready to fire.

His gut was wrong. His instincts were wrong.

The thrust from his thigh catapulted him onto the man in a flash. The guard’s rifle got caught between their bodies.

Bobby plunged the knife through the guard’s left eye. Rolled off his body and looked up at Eva.

“Come on,” he said.

The sound of the blade sliding through wet and soft flesh echoed in his ears. Bile rose up his throat. What had he done? Killed a man. Why had he done it? To protect Eva. Bobby willed the bile back down to his stomach. Resisted the urge to glance at his wreckage.

Eva sidestepped the body without taking her eyes off Bobby. She appraised him with a mixture of awe and fear. Awe was good, Bobby thought. He wasn’t sure about the other part.

They raced down the stairs. The second floor opened up into a corridor. Bobby spied the entrance to an enormous kitchen on one side, a dining room on the other. Voices shouted from the opposite sides of the walls. Transmitters squawked.

Bobby made a downward motion with his head. Eva followed him another flight down the stairs. They emerged on the first floor from a side entrance. A second staircase — a grand one fit for a king — wound its way up to the second floor. In front of it was a foyer with marble floor. The door outside was thirty feet away but Bobby could spy guards through the windows.

An explosion rocked the castle.