The Edge of Armageddon

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Hayden gasped as the walls continued to shake. Ramses tried to stand but the room swayed all around him. The terrorist fell to his knees. Price watched in awe as the very angle of the room shifted, joints relocated and rejigged, inclines and slopes distorted by the second. Hayden escaped a falling chunk of mortar as part of the ceiling collapsed. Wires and ducting swung down from the roof, swaying like multi-colored pendulums.

Hayden went for the cell door, but Ramses had retained enough gumption to block her way. It was a moment before she realized she still held the Glock, and by then more of the ceiling was collapsing and the very bars themselves were bending inward, close to shattering.

“I think… you’ve overdone it,” Price panted.

“The whole goddamn place is coming down,” Hayden shouted into Ramses’ face.

“Not yet.”

The terrorist rose and lunged toward the far wall, clouds of mortar and chunks of concrete and plaster drifting and dropping down all around him. The outer door buckled and then burst open. Hayden grabbed a bar and hauled herself up and after the madman, Price shambling along behind. They had people up top. Ramses could only get so far.

With that thought Hayden searched for her phone but barely had time to keep up with Ramses. The man was fast, tough and ruthless. He stomped up the stairs, brushing aside the challenge of one cop and hurling him head-first at Hayden. She caught the guy, steadied him, and by then Ramses was pushing through the upper door.

Hayden pounded up in hot pursuit. The upper door stood wide open, its glass cracked, its jambs splintered. Of the monitor-room she could only see Moore at first, picking himself up off the floor and reaching out to correct some of the skewed-up screens. Others had been jarred from their moorings, coming off the wall and breaking as they landed. Kinimaka now rose with a screen falling from his shoulders, glass and plastic stuck in his hair. Two other agents in the room were pulling themselves together.

“What were we hit with?” Moore raced out of the room, spying Hayden.

“Where the hell is Ramses?” she yelled. “Didn’t you see him?”

Moore gaped. “He’s supposed to be in the cell block.”

Kinimaka brushed glass and other rubble from his shoulders. “I was watching… then all hell broke loose.”

Hayden cursed out loud, spying the stairs to her left and then the balcony ahead that overlooked the precinct’s main office area. There was no way out of the building other than to cross it. She ran toward the rail, grabbed hold, and studied the room below. The staff had been thinned out, as the terrorists had planned, but some workstations were occupied along the ground floor. Both men and women were picking their belongings up, but most were headed toward the main entrance with guns drawn as if expecting an assault. No way was Ramses among them.

Where then?

Waiting. Watching. This wasn’t…

“It’s not over!” she yelled. “Come away from the windows!”

Too late. The blitz began with a colossal explosion; the front windows imploded and part of the wall collapsed. Hayden’s entire viewpoint shifted, the roofline falling down. Rubble blasted across the station as the cops fell. Some climbed to their knees or crawled away. Others were hurt or discovered they were trapped. An RPG sizzled through the broken façade and impacted with the station desk, sending gouts of flame, smoke and wreckage fragments through the nearby area. Next, Hayden saw running legs as many masked men appeared, all with guns strapped to their shoulders. Ranging around they took aim at anything that moved and then, after careful contemplation, opened fire. Hayden, Kinimaka and Moore instantly fired back.

Bullets crisscrossed the demolished station. Hayden counted eleven men below before the wooden balcony that protected her began to get ripped to shreds. Rounds were passing through. Splinters and shards were fragmenting off, becoming dangerous slivers. Hayden fell back onto her behind and then rolled. Her vest caught two minor impacts, not bullets, and an intense pain in her lower calf told her that a wooden spike had struck unprotected flesh. Kinimaka also gasped and Moore rose to shrug off his jacket and remove shavings from his shoulder.

Hayden crawled back to the balcony. Through gaps she watched the assault team advance and heard guttural grunts as they called out for their leader. Ramses ran like a hunting lion, passing beyond Hayden’s field of vision in less than a second. She squeezed a shot off but already knew the bullet wouldn’t come close.

“Fuck!”

Hayden rose, glared at Kinimaka and started the sprint for the staircase. They couldn’t let the terrorist prince escape. On his word, the bomb would be detonated. Hayden had a feeling he wouldn’t wait long.

“Go, go!” she howled at Mano. “We have to get Ramses back now!”