Takedown by Heather Atkinson (latest books to read txt) 📕

Eddie pushed at it too but still it didn’t move. In their panic they started throwing themselves against it, to no avail.

“Stand back,” said Amanda, aiming her gun at the door, glad she was getting a chance to use it.

She shot the lock and the door popped open but, before they could run outside, smoke canisters were hurled into the room. Rick spied a towering figure standing in the doorway before the door was pushed closed again and when he threw himself against it, it didn’t budge.

“You betrayed us you little bastard,” Amanda bellowed up at Mickey when he turned and vanished through a doorway at the top of the stairs, limping as quickly as the pain in his crotch would allow.

“Fire exit,” coughed Ben, indicating the glowing green sign at the other side of the room.

They all lunged towards it, barely able to see through the smoke. Eddie, who was last, received a whack to the back of the head and he toppled forward, landing facedown, unconscious. His friends failed to notice because of the smoke and ran for the fire exit, which also wouldn’t open.

“This isn’t down to Mickey,” hissed Amanda. “It’s the fucking Chambers family. He must have dobbed us in to them.”

“You’re right,” coughed Ben, clutching his gun.

“We could go through the café,” said Rick, indicating the doorway.

“They will have barricaded any exit there too,” said Amanda, eyes reddened by the smoke, making her look even more diabolical than usual.

“They’re trying to drive us upstairs with the smoke canisters,” said Ben.

“Into a trap.”

“Yes but we’ve no choice. We have to go up to escape the smoke.”

“We can fight our way out of it.”

“What?” said a startled Rick.

“Better to go out in a blaze of glory than die cowering like a worm,” she retorted.

“I don’t know about that.”

Ben and Amanda nodded at each other and ran for the bottom of the staircase, bellowing a war cry.

“Mad bastards,” said Rick, watching them go.

He decided to head back into the café to try there, crawling along the floor to reach the cleaner air. He made it safely into the café, able to see more clearly as the smoke wasn’t as thick in this part of the building. Rick scrabbled forwards faster on his hands and knees when he saw a door behind the counter. To his delight, it opened and he found himself in a small kitchen. As there was no smoke in this room he scrambled to his feet and ran for the exit.

“No,” he cried when it refused to open.

Hearing footsteps behind him, he snatched a knife out of the block and ducked down behind the countertop, gripping the weapon tightly. The footsteps were slow and casual, as whoever it was stalked their quarry.

“Take this you bastard,” yelled Rick when the figure loomed over him.

He lashed out with the knife, the blade meeting nothing but air as the figure leapt back out of harm’s way. Finally finding his courage, Rick jumped to his feet and charged at them, keeping Amanda’s training in mind.

“Jesus, you’re a psycho,” yelled Caleb as he worked to avoid being slashed.

“Leave me alone,” cried Rick, eyes wild, sweat rolling down his face.

“Sorry mate, no can do.”

Caleb smashed the baseball bat into the side of Rick’s face with such speed he didn’t have time to react.

Rick hit the floor and lay there, unmoving.

“Tosser,” commented Caleb before pulling a roll of gaffer tape out of his jeans pocket.

Faith crouched in a corner of one of the darkened rooms upstairs, holding her gun, waiting for the inevitable storm to arrive. Jason had informed her through her earpiece that two of the firefighters had already been dealt with by Kevin and Caleb. Only Ben and Amanda remained, who would be the toughest of the four and they were armed.

The room she was in was large and square. Rather than a floor it had four metal gantries running into the centre of the room from each corner and it looked down on a small arcade. Below the gantry was a large net to catch anyone who might fall off one of the platforms. The room was lit only by red and blue panels high up in the walls, keeping the majority of it in shadow but giving Faith just enough light to see by.

Mickey had already been dragged back upstairs, subdued and tied up, waiting for his friends to join him.

“They’re in the next room to the one you’re in Faith,” Jason’s voice said in her ear. “They’re not splitting up.”

She held her breath, straining to hear, able to make out soft footsteps moving slowly, cautiously.

“Then we need to make them,” replied Vance’s voice through the earpiece.

“Don’t do anything rash,” Faith whispered back.

Whatever he did made the firefighters panic because there was an alarmed cry followed by the sound of gunshots.

“Jason, what’s going on?” she said when it all went silent again.

“Vance has drawn them into the room he’s in but it’s the one with lots of pillars, so there’s plenty of places for him to hide.”

“Is there another door out of there?”

“No.”

“Shit,” she hissed, getting to her feet.

She stamped her boots on the metal gantry, which sounded incredibly loud in the stillness.

“In there,” she heard a female voice yell.

The room Faith was in likewise had a couple of pillars for people to hide behind and she placed herself behind one, produced one of Raven’s flash devices from her pocket and threw it to the floor as Amanda raced in. Unfortunately she saw the object and closed her eyes before it could do its job.

Once the light had faded away, both women glared at each other, Faith being careful to keep her body