Page 112 of Silent Target

Cobra sighs. “You never let me have any fun.”

A burst of automatic fire cuts across the hallway.

The Inner Guard isn’t rushing.

One team fires while another advances.

Disciplined.

Measured.

Former operators.

Fathom raises his voice over the gunfire.

“Three minutes, forty seconds.”

“You need a terminal,” I say.

“I see one twenty yards ahead.”

Twenty yards of open corridor.

The Inner Guard controls both ends.

Evie studies the firing pattern.

“They pause every six seconds.”

I look at her.

“What?”

“The left team fires for three seconds. The right begins before the left stops. But every third rotation, there’s a pause when both teams reload.”

I listen.

Left.

Right.

Left.

Silence.

She’s right.

“You read battlefields,” I say.

A faint smile touches her mouth. “I’m learning.”

“Rook, give us smoke on the next rotation.”

He relays the order.

Cobra pulls two canisters from his vest.

“Finally.”