Page 157 of Silent Target

The Chairman’s recording continues.

“Survival, however, has never been the true test.”

The twelve guards lift their rifles.

“Loyalty is.”

Walter steps backward.

The floor behind him opens, revealing a narrow stairway.

His escape route.

“Stop him,” Rook orders.

Walter runs.

The First Circle unit raises its weapons.

And the vault explodes into gunfire.

34

EVIE

Caleb knocks me behind the edge of the vault as bullets tear across the archive.

The black steel shudders beneath the impacts.

Rook and Shark return fire.

Cobra throws two smoke canisters into the circular chamber.

White clouds pour across the floor.

The guards don’t panic.

They divide into two groups and advance through the smoke.

“They have thermal optics!” Fathom shouts.

“So do we,” Rook answers.

Caleb fires from the threshold.

A guard’s rifle jerks from his hands.

Another round strikes the armor covering the shoulder of the man beside him.

Both retreat behind the circular pillars.

“They’re not trying to hold the vault,” Caleb says.

“They’re protecting Walter’s escape.”

The timer reaches twenty-five minutes.

Fathom points toward a control panel on the opposite side of the chamber.