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“I leave you here, cap,” Travis said.
“Got it. Good luck.”
“Be careful. I’ll be watching.”
I nodded, turned, and left. I heard Travis’s footsteps softly pad away from me, heading in the opposite direction.
I knew I was getting close. I could feel it in my fucking bones. Omar was nearby, so fucking close that I could practically taste him.
Up ahead was another door, this one unlocked and left slightly ajar. I guessed that Tara’s dad was opening doors from the inside with his clearance, which was likely his main purpose.
I moved in through the door and stopped. Ahead, I heard something, footsteps. I ducked down a side corridor as two men turned the corner up ahead of me.
I kept myself flat against the wall, hidden in the shadows. They paused briefly, looking down the hallway, and I saw the glint of metal in their hands.
They weren’t employees of the power plant, unless employees carried guns.
I took aim with my pistol and fired four shots in quick succession. My first two took the first man in the head, and my next took the second man in the head and the chest. Both men toppled to the ground.
I moved forward and paused by them. Neither was Omar Hooth. I moved down the hallway, inching closer to the control room.
I felt calm, like I was floating through the ocean. This was my natural habitat, living on the edge between life and death. I was a warrior in my element, and as soon as those first shots were fired, nothing else mattered.
I came to the end of the hall. There were plenty of side doors I could have gone down, but I stuck to the map in my head. I knew that Omar and his men would be moving toward the control room, and that was something we wanted.
I pressed myself against the door and peeked through the window. On the other side was a long hallway, and ahead I could see a small group of people moving forward.
My heart leapt in my chest. That was Omar’s group, without a doubt, heading toward the control room. We were right behind them, barely a step back. If we had waited just a few more minutes, we might never have caught them.
No time to worry about that. I unhooked a grenade from my belt, opened the door a crack, and rolled it down the hall.
The grenade moved slowly toward them, making a clinking noise. One of the men turned and spotted it.
“Fuck! Grenade!”
I ducked down as there was a loud boom, deafening in its roar, and an incredibly bright white light spilled out from the window.
It disappeared as soon as it had appeared. I waited a couple seconds and then pushed the door open.
Bullets riddled the door around me, forcing me back. The men were firing serious rifles, and the bullets bit through the metal and the wood all around me. I peeked again and saw the group moving farther down the hall, and I didn’t bother trying to return fire yet. The two men in the back were spraying my end of the hallway with bullets, not even aiming.
As the group got to the end of the hall, I made my move. I took aim and fired a few shots, catching the one man in the chest. He stumbled back and I fired again, hitting his skull. Blood sprayed back as he collapsed onto the floor.
The group retreated through the door at the end of the hall, slamming the door shut behind them.
I moved into the hall, sticking close to the wall, my gun up and ready. I made it to the door and pressed myself against the wall. I took the radio from my belt.
“Travis,” I said. “In position. Over.”
“Roger that, cap,” he said. “I can see the buggers. Over.”
“What do you see? Over.”
“It’s Omar all right. The parents are there, looking scared but fine. Six other men, serious firepower. Over.”
“Fire when ready. Over.”
I could hear the joy in his voice. “Roger that, cap. Over and out.”
I took deep breaths, waiting. This was the plan, what we’d wanted the whole time.
I was never meant to stop them from getting to the control room, but I was supposed to slow them down if I could and eventually herd them in there. Unfortunately, I was too late to slow them much, but I was able to thin the crowd a bit while Travis got into position.
The control room was built in one far wall overlooking the core. Around the core was scaffolding for maintenance crews to do routine fixes on the core itself. There wasn’t any radioactivity in that room, only deeper down beneath the shielded concrete layers.
That scaffolding was perfect for a sniper. The control room’s front was all glass and totally exposed. We’d never have known this if it weren’t for those blueprints, and I mentally thanked that strange little man.
I heard the first shot. Well, not the shot, but the accompanying panic. There were shouts as Omar’s men tried to find cover from Travis’s bullets, but there was nowhere to go.
