Page 147 of Silent Target

31

CALEB

Walter Graves raises his pistol.

Not at me.

At Evie.

I move before he fires.

My shoulder strikes her chest, knocking us both behind the wooden desk.

The shot cracks above us.

A leather ledger bursts apart on the shelf behind Evie. Yellowed pages spiral through the smoke.

She hits the floor beneath me.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

I search her face.

Her throat.

The front of her vest.

No blood.

“Caleb, I’m fine.”

Walter fires again.

The bullet punches through the desk inches from my hand.

I roll away from Evie and return fire.

Walter vanishes behind a row of shelves.

“Graves, east aisle!” I shout.

Rook moves to intercept him.

The Inner Guard surges into the archive behind Walter.

Not charging.

Advancing.

One squad fires while another moves between the towering shelves. A third team circles toward Fathom and the evidence case.

They know the room.

Every aisle.

Every exit.