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Toro, Bergia
Sunday, 31 January, 1:59 a.m.
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The gun barrel pressed against the back of my head. He kept taking it away and slamming it against my skull. My nostrils flared, my thigh burned, and my rifle hung over my captor's shoulder. I walked in the direction he pushed me. His palm connected with my back. I didn't stumble. I waited. The darkness flapped her majestic wings. I won't be at anyone's mercy again.
"Sitrep," Aidan's voice filled my ears and heart. Better me than him.
Two fast taps to the receiver mounted to my chest got me another blow to the head. Aidan, Liam, and Rowan now knew I wasn't free to explore the castle. They won't let anything happen to me, neither will I put them in danger.
Instinct kicked in. It took full control of my body.
My right hand reached behind my head; my fingers wrapped around the rifle's barrel. My left hand closed over the Ka-Bar hidden underneath my Kevlar. I spun around. The blade sliced through the air and my enemy's throat. He fell backwards, gripping his bleeding neck. His rifle skidded over the stone floor as I kicked it out of reach. A single bullet ended this young man's life. It was either him or me. Neither of us should've been there.
"Finley!" Aidan's voice caught.
"Everything's under control, my love. One hostile remains. And the evil prince hides somewhere inside this vile place." The putrid stench of depravity hung heavy in the air. This place unlike any other castle, or palace I had ever set foot in. It suffocated me, as if the souls of those who were destroyed here still lingered. Mikolaj's death hadn't set them free.
A sound to my left. I grabbed a grenade from my belt, pulled the pin and tossed it. "Flash out!" I warned the members of the team. My family.
My feet pounded over the original stone floor. Number twenty didn't have time to reach for his gun. A bullet entered his left temple as he lay crumpled on the floor. To be on the receiving end of a flash grenade isn't fun.
"Ragnar! Come out, come out, wherever you are!" I lowered the night vision goggles over my eyes and scanned the surroundings. The mozzie drone thingies had made this much easier. But I wasn't naïve enough to believe taking down a royal serial killer would be this easy. I pressed my hand to my thigh and cursed, then smiled. Not tonight, Reaper. "I'm not in the mood to play hide-and-go-seek with you!"
"Finley, stay in position. That's an order. You're not going down there without us."
I did as Commander Walker ordered, watching their positions on the screen mounted to my arm. Three dots closed in on my location. I stood as Aidan stepped through the antique wooden doors. A fitting place to end a tyrant – the throne room. "We drag him back here. This is where he dies."
"A little dramatic, don't you think?" Aidan placed his left hand against my cheek, the tactical glove kept his skin from mine.
"Maybe."
My husband grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me against him. I pursed my lips and breathed through the pain. Aidan did the same. I grabbed the flashlight from my belt and inspected him despite his protests. Blood stained the spot between his Kevlar and belt on his right side. With trembling hands, I ripped his shirt. My heart lodged in my throat. It stopped beating.
"Through and through, I'll live to fight another day and make love to you soon." He shut his eyes but smiled when I lifted the flashlight to his face. "Here, put one on the exit wound. I can manage the front."
Aidan handed me QuickClot Combat Gauze. "It will stop the bleeding and help for the pain. Not that it's hurting." Aidan winced as I pressed the gauze to his back.
"Oh, you're so strong. You're staying up here. I'm not taking any chances with you being wounded and all."
Aidan pressed his lips to my ear. "I've survived far worse and I'm married to you. Being your commanding officer is much more life threatening than a through and through."
"I can't lose you, Aidan. I love you. You're my life, the light to my darkness."
"Fin, I'm not dying. Stop talking as if someone is going to die. Besides, I killed more people than you did tonight, so calling me the light is reaching."
Rowan and Liam joined us. "Are you two done with whatever this is? Foreplay, fighting? Who knows with you?" Rowan placed his hand on the back of my neck. "You okay?"
I nodded. "I'll be better once Ragnar's blood soaks the throne's velvet covered seat." It stood where it had for centuries. The butts of too many vile human predators had warmed it. Warmongers, tyrants, a paedophile and a serial killer. What a family.
The door to the dungeon stood ajar. I stepped closer, my rifle extended in front of me. "Oh, Prince Ragnar! Play time is over. You have two options. One, take your life before I get down there. Two, make this hard for me. I've been waiting a long time to see you bleed." I shouted into the shadows.
"Did you think it would be this easy?" His voice bellowed out of the dark. Footsteps became louder. Not two feet, but twenty-four.
I stepped behind the throne, dropped to my knees, and positioned the barrel of the HK416 A5 on the armrest. Movement behind me as Aidan, Liam and Rowan took cover.
What followed? Carnage.
The instant a head became visible, four bullets tore through it. I didn't count the heads. I kept squeezing the trigger and reloading. Setting a new personal best in the process.
"Fin, enemy on your six!" Rowan shouted.
I grabbed the SIG holstered at my left thigh. The rifle kept firing into the darkness as I ended the life of two young men with the SIG in my left hand. Their lives didn't matter to their future king. He sent them into battle to be slaughtered, just as his forefathers had done.
How long before Ragnar realised he couldn't hide, retreat, or escape? The exit route he counted on no longer there. It had caved in at the same time we took out the eastern and western gates.
"That's all of them," Aidan said. "Ragnar, I'm going to count to three. If you do not show your face, your next breath will fill your lungs with mustard gas."
"You're such a dad." Liam bumped his shoulder against Aidan's as he walked around the room, ensuring the bodies laying on the floor weren't playing possum.
"One!" Aidan reloaded.
I found the light switch and wanted to plunge the room back into darkness. The dead didn't bother me as much as the over-the-top royal kitsch did. The BSS dragon carved into the wooden ceiling, stared down at us and the dead. A stuffed bear stood in the corner, its teeth and claws out. I've never understood the need to kill an innocent animal, stuff it or whatever taxidermists do, and then put the poor thing on display. Perhaps a case of small penis syndrome or something. As if killing an innocent creature shows your manliness. I doubted any of those hunters can do what we just did.
"Two!" Commander Walker removed a grenade from his belt. It didn't hold mustard gas or any biological weapon. "Don't make me say it, Ragnar."
Out of the shadows, the blue-blooded serial killer's face appeared. He made his way over the bodies of the men who sacrificed their lives for him.
Not once did he look at them. Instead he stepped on their bodies as he made his way to the middle of the room.
Ragnar raised his arms at his sides and smiled. "What a mess."