A Chip and a Chair (Seven of Spades, #5)(88)

Leila and Natasha raced in that direction, each tossing another of Natasha’s party favors. The two balls hit the ground and exploded into billowing plumes of thick, colorful smoke, one blue and one red, blending into purple where they met in the middle of the hall.

As the incoming guards let out startled cries, Levi left them to the women’s not-so-tender mercies and headed for the stunned men. Sprinting at top speed, he launched himself into a scissor kick; his foot connected with the underside of his target’s chin, snapped the guy’s head back, and sent him to the floor. Levi dropped onto the man’s chest and whipped an elbow across his face to finish the job.

Next to them, the second guard took Martine’s bean-bag round to the thigh and collapsed with a pained shriek. He wouldn’t be using that leg again for a while.

Dominic was on the third guy, and he didn’t bother using his gun. He just swung his massive fist in the kind of wild haymaker that only worked on a person too dazed to see it coming. Blood and teeth sprayed across the hallway as the guy went down.

A spate of furious barking sounded behind them. Levi jumped to his feet and whirled around to see a guard struggle through the smoke, only to take Leila’s baton to his face and Natasha’s stun gun to his neck. Rebel darted into the smoke, forcibly dragged another man out of it, and wrestled him to the ground. Natasha stomped on his face.

The smoke was beginning to clear-those balls were special effects, not genuine smoke bombs. As Levi ran down the hallway, he could make out the shape of a gun-toting guard through the remaining haze.

“Get down!” Dominic called out.

Levi flattened himself along one wall, and both Leila and Natasha ducked without hesitation. Dominic fired a couple of shots into center mass.

“Last two guards approaching along the north hallway,” Carmen said. “They’re sticking to the near wall.”

Leila pressed her back to the adjoining wall right at the corner, one baton held vertically in front of her. Understanding what she intended, Levi stood at the ready on her other side.

“Now,” said Carmen.

Leila snapped her baton out to the side, clotheslining the first guard. His feet went out from underneath him, and he crashed onto his back, choking and clutching at his throat.

The second guy had to veer to the side, away from the protection of the wall, to avoid tripping over his friend. Levi swung around Leila to confront him and ended up face-to-face with a raised gun and a pair of furious eyes.

In a single movement, Levi redirected the gun with one hand and punched the guy in the face with the other; when the gun went off, the bullet cracked harmlessly into the wall. Levi grabbed the gun and twisted it, breaking the guy’s grip, and then gave the guy an almighty shove so that he stumbled out into the open. Martine took him down with the shotgun.

That accounted for all the guards on the floor, but more were hammering on the other side of the door to Hatfield’s unit, shouting to each other about being unable to unlock it. Levi and the others moved as swiftly as possible to secure the fallen guards before regrouping by the condo.

“There’s no cameras inside, so you’ll be going in blind from here on out,” Carmen said. “At least you’re familiar with the floor plan.”

Dominic considered the door, which the Utopia guards were battering with so much force that it was shaking on its hinges. “I don’t think the flashbang trick is gonna work a second time. If they’re all right on the other side, we wouldn’t be able to shut the door again.”

“So what do we do?” Martine asked. “We can’t just charge in.”

As Levi scanned the hallway, he noticed the same kind of fire extinguisher box he’d raided downstairs. There were two on each residential floor of this building.

“The trick with the flashbang might not work twice.” He jogged over to the box, opened it up, and pulled out the fire extinguisher. “This will.”

The others clustered on either side of the door, with only Levi standing in front of it. He prepped the extinguisher and chambered one leg for a kick.

“Ready, Carmen?”

“Just say when.”

Levi listened carefully to the men on the other side, waiting for the right moment. “Go!”

Carmen unlocked the door right as the men were yanking on it. They cried out as it gave way unexpectedly and swung into them, helped along by the robust front push kick Levi delivered.

While the men were still off-balance, Levi sprang forward and unleashed the fire extinguisher, sweeping it back and forth to douse them liberally with foam. The guards recoiled, coughing and spluttering; the few panicked shots they let loose didn’t come anywhere near him.

The rest of Levi’s team poured through the door behind him, falling on the guards in a whirlwind of snarls, gunshots, blunt force trauma, and electric zaps. In short order, four unconscious men lay in a heap at their feet.

One of the condo’s features that worked in their favor was that it didn’t have a foyer: the entryway inside the door had just enough room to provide access to a bedroom on the left and a narrow hallway around a corner to the right. Dominic jerked his head toward the bedroom, indicating for Martine to clear it while he took point at the corner.

Natasha eased the front door shut and murmured to Carmen to lock it again. That would keep out any Utopia reinforcements-or cops-who arrived while they were busy in here.