The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(97)

He smiled, gave her a short bow. “You as well, I hope.”

Mike pulled on gloves and cleaned her glasses as Nicholas and Honeycut worked out a few final details. She went through her weapons, realized she was missing something vital.

“Rope?” she asked Bernard’s nephew. He yanked open a locker and tossed her a perfectly bundled tactical rappelling rope. “Excellent, exactly what I needed. Thanks.”

She tied the rope around her waist and yanked her hands on her belt to make sure it was on good and tight, then turned her M4 around and strapped it in place. She had double holsters on her legs, checked her Glocks and her M4. She dug into Mills’s bag, found a Ka-Bar knife, strapped it inside her leg, stuffed one Glock into her belt. Satisfied, she crossed her hands on top of her M4, grinned at Nicholas. “Shall we?”

“One moment,” Honeycut said, and handed Nicholas a night-vision monocular. Nicholas pulled the strap onto his head then topped it with a backward baseball cap to hold it in place. Honeycut nodded, then turned his attention to Mike.

“Your hair’s going to shine in the lights, take this,” and he tossed her a black watch cap. She stuffed her hair under it, reset her comms, nodded her thanks. Her heart was beating hard in her chest. As for Nicholas, he was as loaded down with weapons as she was, he looked ready to wrestle a bear, and maybe he’d take him down.

She said, “Everyone ready?” Nods all around. “Good, let’s roll,” and one by one, the CIA operatives slipped into the night. After a count of five, she and Nicholas followed, heading in the opposite direction.

The air was eerie, still, incredibly humid, wet and thick. She felt like she was walking with a wet washcloth draped over her mouth and nose. Nicholas was in front of her, all she could hear was his breath, coming a little harder than normal. Adrenaline, she thought. He’s as ramped up as I am.

“Hey, Lia. We’re on the move.”

“I see you. Head to your west forty feet, then stop. There’s a guard behind the tree but he’s looking in the other direction. Move quiet.”

They made their way from tree to tree on cats’ feet, thankful the heavy rains had made the ground soft, but still they had to take care, the mud sucked at their boots. Finally, they hit the cement paths that curved around the facility.

There was a burst of gunfire from Honeycut and the other CIA agents. Mike started to move, but Lia said, “Wait, wait, guards are responding to the gunfire, they’ll be passing in front of you in three, two, one—” and a squad of six men ran past them, all dressed in black. Lia said, “Go. Now!” and they took off, sprinting the opposite direction, toward the observatory.

It was almost half a mile from the gates to the building. They ran quickly, crouched low, trying to blend into the night around them.

They were almost there when Lia shouted, “Stop! Guard.”

A man stepped into their path, weapon in his hand, his mouth open in surprise. He was starting to raise his weapon when Nicholas leaped on him, took him down. The man hadn’t had time to make a sound. He fell hard on the cement, head first. He didn’t move.

Lia said, “You’re clear. Keep moving.”

Nicholas took the man’s guns, stuffed them into his belt, and they jogged the rest of the way to the observatory building. It was only two stories high, a relief. Mike attached a hook to the rope and tossed it to the roof in a beautiful parabola. It hooked on the edge of the roof, and she yanked hard on it, setting it in place.

Nicholas said, “Nice one. Look up.”

She did, and the sight took her breath away. The moon was disappearing in a red haze, the earth’s shadow pushing across the face like the moon was being eaten by darkness, one sliver at a time.

He squeezed her shoulder. “You go first.”

Mike slung the M4 to her back and started to climb.





CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN


T-MINUS 20 MINUTES

Mike planted her feet against the building and hauled herself up the rope, one hand over the other, blessing all those days in the gym. Nicholas was right behind her. She tried to regulate her breathing, but by the time they hit the roof, she was panting. It was hot, the gear was heavy, she’d just scaled two stories. And there was more to come. She was grateful the rain had let up for a while, though without the winds to wash the air clean, the forest smelled of must and rot.

The roofline led to a gravel top that worked as a moat surrounding the observatory dome itself, which rose one hundred feet above them. Nicholas scrambled over the edge, blew out a deep breath.

Mike pointed at the dome. “It’s still open at the top, about a fifty-foot gap across. You ready to climb some more?”

Nicholas had his night-vision monocular on, swept his head around the roofline. “Look over there.”

She followed his finger. On the far edge of the dome, she could just make out a black metal staircase. It blended with the roof of the observatory so perfectly she could barely see it in the dark.

“Oh joy, now it’s time for the StairMaster. Bring the rope, we can rappel in from the top.”

He smothered a laugh and they crept across the gravel-topped roof to the stairs.

The metal staircase clanked and rang out as they started up, but the gunfight happening on the other side of the campus covered any noise they made. Nicholas looked up once, saw the moon was taking on an almost orangish hue as the eclipse moved closer and closer to totality.