Page 58 of Mountain Trial

The curtain of smoke was thicker than before.

Where were her teammates and the special forces soldiers?

“Hey, Dogfish,” a voice said behind them. “Let her go.”

As the mercenary turned away from the smoke, Kat felt her own body shifting as well. Her scalp was on fire. It felt like, any second, her hair might tear off. Eventually, she found herself staring right into Luc’s eyes. He was on the ground, his back against his wheelchair. His gaze was calm, even as his hands shook around Dogfish’s AK-47.

“Or what? You’re going to challenge me to a staring contest?” the mercenary taunted, tightening his grip on her hair. Kat cried out. “Do you even know how to use that?”

“He won’t need to,” Damien’s voice said behind them. In the confusion, he’d made his way across the room. He followed his words with a blow. Kat didn’t see where he struck, but the mercenary released her. She went down on her knees, hard.

Damien’s heavy fists struck Dogfish again and again. Blood spurted from the mercenary’s ruined nose. The man howled and brought both hands up to his face―exposing his kidneys and soft areas, just the opening Damien needed. A couple well-placed blows later he fell, unconscious.

Damien knelt beside her.

Kat’s eyes watered from a combination of pain and exposure to the smoke. She blinked the tears away.

“Are you okay, Kat?” he asked.

She nodded. The urge to throw up had passed.

“How can we help?” she asked.

“Stay here. I’m going to go find Drake. I left him with the mayor and Mrs. Larsen.”

“I’ll come with you, Commandant.”

“No,” her boss said roughly. “Stay here with this group of hostages. Try to keep them calm.”

As if to mark the importance of his words, a man screamed next to them. The sound of bullets resonated in the huge ballroom.

Kat nodded and crawled to Luc.

Luc

Luc lowered the large rifle. His hands shook―he’d never held a weapon before, didn’t even know what the one in his hands was called. But he’d watched films, and he’d been more than ready to fire it.

Luc looked at the unconscious man on the ground before him. He felt nothing.

I would have killed him.

“Drop the AK-47 on the ground, Luc,” Kat said, crawling towards him. “We don’t want the good guys to mistake you for one of them.”

Luc dropped the weapon, which clattered to the ground.

“Thank you,” Kat whispered.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded bravely.

“Let me help you get back on your chair.”

“I can do it,” he said quickly. “Go take care of the others.”

Kat nodded and turned back towards the men and women who huddled together in their torn, ragged evening clothes.

“Stay down, everyone. Keep your hands visible at all times,” Kat instructed. She raised her voice to be heard over the fighting sounds around them. “It’ll all be over soon.”