Oath of Loyalty (Mitch Rapp #21)(28)

“I’ve unlocked all the doors in the hallway if you need them. The position of the man in the kitchen is unchanged. The two men going around the house just reached its edges. Both are stopping to see if it’s clear to come around. The front door’s still locked and undamaged. There’s no easy way for them to get inside.”

Rapp signaled to the hallway camera that he’d understood, then swung the shotgun around the doorjamb and fired over the granite countertop. The move generated a lot of noise and showered plaster down on the man’s position. Rapp then emptied the weapon into the Le Creuset side of the cabinet before switching to the Glock 30 in his fanny pack.

The next few rounds were aimed at the floor near the front edge of the island. It stood about five inches above the tile on stainless steel legs.

“It’s working!” Claudia said over his earpiece. “He’s moving to the other side!”

In fact, the man went one step further, stretching an arm beneath the island to shoot in the general direction of the door. The onslaught posed no real threat to Rapp, but it did give him a better idea of his opponent’s position. Now clear of Claudia’s iron pots, he presented a viable target. Rapp fired a pattern of five rounds into the back of the cabinet. The sound of shattering glass, wood, and ceramics was accompanied by an agonized shout.

“At least one hit,” Claudia said. “But I can’t tell how bad—”

Rapp was already sprinting across the kitchen floor, replacing his magazine as he went. He leapt onto the island, sliding partway across it before using his free hand to grab the edge and arrest his momentum. That position allowed him to hang a hand over the back and fire five rounds in what he calculated was the general direction of his target.

“He’s dropped his weapon!” Claudia shouted over his earpiece.

Rapp pushed himself forward far enough to see that the man had been hit in the shoulder and stomach. A round to the top of his head finished the job.

“What’s going on out front?” he said after stripping off the respirator and sliding back onto the floor.

“Both men are in the vehicle that was by the door and are on their way to the gate.”

“Understood,” he said, jogging into the entry and grabbing Claudia’s car keys off a hook. She buzzed him out the front door and he used the fob to remote-start her SUV as he ran across the empty courtyard.

“Grab Anna and come to the front,” he said, sliding behind the wheel and backing the vehicle to the front patio. He threw open the driver’s-side door and climbed between the seats into the back just as Claudia appeared.

She was carrying Anna, using one hand to keep her face buried in her shoulder. Not particularly efficient—the girl was getting too heavy for her mother—but effective at keeping her from seeing the damage and bodies he’d left behind.

Claudia dropped her into the driver’s seat and then shoved her onto the passenger-side floorboard.

“Don’t move!” she said, climbing in and accelerating toward the gate. Anna did as she was told, huddling on the floorboard, sobbing.

Rapp had considered just staying put and calling the cops, but without knowing exactly what they were up against, he’d discarded the idea. Even if the Cooks had decided the truce wasn’t working for them, they’d shy away from ordering a running fight through South Africa’s wine country.

He leaned into the SUV’s cargo area, using a hidden button to open a hatch in the floor. It originally contained a little extra storage and tools for tire changes, but the armoring company had made some modifications. The tools were now under the chassis and the shallow space was filled with foam cut to hold an HK416 assault rifle, two Glock 19s, and numerous spare magazines.

“Hold on!” Claudia shouted. She swerved, clipping something with the left edge of the vehicle’s brush guard. Anna squealed in terror and Rapp was thrown backward hard enough to wedge him between the front passenger seats. When he glanced over, Claudia’s face was a mask of calm concentration. She’d taken a number of evasive driving courses over the years and was frankly pretty good at it.

They skidded dangerously close to an irrigation ditch, but she managed to finesse their way to safety while he freed himself from the seats. The vehicle they’d collided with was the one that had disappeared through their gate a few minutes earlier. Apparently the two men inside had found their courage and pulled into the vines to ambush them. Like their earlier plan, though, it hadn’t gone particularly well. Their right quarter panel was trashed and looked like it was rubbing the tire as they pursued.

The chance of them catching Claudia in the supercharged tank she was piloting was pretty much zero, but still he reached for the HK.

“Slow down.”

“We can outrun them, Mitch.”

“I want to ask a few questions.”

She hesitated—undoubtedly because Anna was in the car—but in the end did as he asked. The gap between them began to close as the man in the passenger seat wrestled an assault rifle through his open window. At the same time, Claudia pushed the button that opened the SUV’s rear window.

Rapp fired a couple of controlled bursts in the direction of the driver. The upgraded suspension he’d paid through the nose for turned out to be worth the money, and he managed a twelve-inch grouping despite the rough road surface. It was hard to see through the glare coming off what was left of the windshield, but the driver seemed to have taken a number of rounds to the neck and face. The vehicle drifted right as the man now leaning through the passenger window tried to grab the wheel. He couldn’t commit to dropping his weapon, though, and the delay cost him. The tire that was rubbing the fender hit the edge of the ditch and blew. That was enough to eject the passenger through the window and roll the vehicle.