Page 205 of Silent Target

“You cannot.”

“I just did.”

Victor’s face becomes empty.

Whatever remained between them disappears.

He raises his pistol toward Mac.

Rook shoves Mac aside.

The shot strikes Rook’s wounded shoulder.

He hits the ground.

“Rook!”

Mac drops beside him.

Caleb and Shark force Victor back with controlled fire.

I kneel beside Rook and press both hands over the wound.

Blood pushes between my fingers.

“Through-and-through,” I say. “No arterial spray.”

Rook’s jaw clenches. “Then stop fussing.”

I almost laugh.

“I understand why you and Caleb get along.”

The mountain convulses.

The timer reaches zero.

Nothing explodes.

For one heartbeat, the bunker becomes perfectly still.

Then the far side of the control-room floor drops six inches.

Mac’s face goes white.

“The charges weren’t designed to blow the mountain apart.”

“What were they designed to do?” I ask.

“To remove the bunker’s structural supports.”

A low roar rises beneath us.

The entire complex is folding into the hollow spaces below it.

The Chairman didn’t build a self-destruct.

He built a tomb.