Page 65 of Croatia Collateral

The Japanese female crumpled to the floor and lay still. Giva bent to feel for a pulse.

None.

The Japanese woman was dead.

Even so, Giva kicked the handgun away from the woman and toward Chase and Gavin as they entered the room.

Dax’s gaze swept through what he could see of the suite. Folding tables had been erected against one wall with several computer monitors lined up in a row, with no computers or laptops attached. And no technical genius to run them. His heartbeat ratcheted up. “Where’s Maas?”

Kagalovsky pointed toward a closed door leading into another room.

Dax hurried toward the door and stood to one side. He reached for the doorknob and twisted.

It was locked.

Giva crossed the room, aimed her pistol at the doorknob and pulled the trigger, splintering the door and the doorframe and destroying the knob.

Atkins called out from behind her. “I’ve got this.” He ran toward the door, leaped into the air and kicked with both feet before dropping to the ground.

The door flew open. Bullets blasted through one at a time as if from a handgun, not a submachine gun.

Atkins rolled out of range.

Dax dove through the opening and rolled across the floor.

Maas stood behind a table, holding a handgun pointed at Dax. “You’re too late. The program has begun.”

Dax fired, aiming high, afraid that, at his angle, he’d hit the laptop on the table in front of Maas. One of the bullets clipped Maas’s shoulder. Maas grimaced but leveled his handgun at Dax again. “You’re nothing like me.”

Giva entered the room, aimed and fired, hitting Maas in the face.

He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Giva snorted and lifted her chin. “He’s better than you’ll ever be.” She hurried toward the laptop, fired another round into Maas’s inert body and faced the computer.

Dax hurried to join her.

The screen displayed what appeared to be a clock counting down with thirty seconds remaining.

“How do we stop it?” Giva tapped the keyboard. An entry box appeared, asking for a password or a fingerprint.

Dax grabbed the laptop and dropped to his haunches beside Maas’s body

Giva lifted Maas’s right hand and touched the index finger to the biometric reader on the keyboard. Nothing happened. Fifteen seconds sped by.

She tried another finger and then it came to her. “He’s left-handed.” Giva grabbed his left hand and pressed the index finger to the reader.

The screen blinked and displayed the same countdown with five seconds to spare. Beside the countdown was a red button labeled cancel. Giva pressed her finger against the red button on the screen.

The countdown froze with one second remaining. A message popped up.

Are you sure?

“Hell, yes!” She touched the YES button.

A message scrolled across the screen.

Program discontinued.

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