Page 78 of The Last Kingdom

They needed to take a stand. No way was he going to cower down to these traitors. But it was always best to choose your ground wisely.

“Any ideas?” he asked Malone.

They came to an intersection of hallways.

“Bryie set us up,” Malone said.

“I got that. And I’ll be dealing with him. Right now, we have a more immediate problem.”

“I’ll draw him my way,” Malone said. “You shoot him.”

“Done.”

* * *

RIFE STOPPED HIS ADVANCE.

He’d come to kill not only Randy Miller, but Koger and Malone. Miller had been part of the internal review board that recommended not only his own termination, but also thoseof all the other forty-five people too. He and Miller went way back, their relationship anything but cordial. No surprise the bastard refused to help him when approached a while back. He assumed Miller had garnered a great measure of satisfaction from recommending his termination. Hopefully as much as he’d just found by gunning the big man down. Now he had to end Koger and Malone. Too much was at stake for these two to stay around. They were not like Miller. No. They were competent field officers, and he could ill afford to have to deal with them, considering what lay ahead. One or both of them were surely armed. And they weren’t the type to flee a fight.

Just the opposite.

So he had to assume they were waiting for him.

Good.

He’d not gone hunting for a while.

Chapter 42

COTTON SWUNG AROUND THE CORNER AND KEPT MOVING.

Somewhere ahead Rife was waiting with an automatic rifle. Considering he was unarmed the odds were not good if they came face-to-face. Koger had headed in the opposite direction, the idea being for them to force their attacker to choose his poison.

He turned a corner.

Rife appeared.

Fifty feet ahead.

He dove back into the corridor he’d just exited as a burst of rounds obliterated the drywall. His escape ahead was a long corridor. Lots of open space. No way he could make it to the end of the hall before Rife arrived and took a shot. He spotted a nook with a restroom door on either side, a water cooler in between. Men’s room to the left, ladies’ to the right. He sprang to his feet and slipped into the men’s room, peering out through the cracked-open door. Ten seconds later Rife appeared, leading with the gun, flashing his eyes around the corner, surely wondering where his prey might be and if he was armed. More importantly, where was Koger? Hopefully the gunfire had alerted him. Or at least he had to assume that was the case.

Cotton needed to draw attention to himself.

The next time Rife snuck a peek, he pushed the door out, then allowed it to ease shut. Another quick millimeter of opening and he confirmed that Rife was coming straight down the hall toward the men’s room.

He surveyed what was behind him.

Fluorescent light illuminated a black marble counter with a double sink and pewter fixtures, a wall mirror throwing light out into what was apparently an employee washroom. The floor was black marble,the four toilets separated by stone partitions. Surely Rife was proceeding with caution, which should give Koger time to move. Now he knew what the fox felt like.

Not good.

He decided the best defense was an unexpected offense. So he stood near the exit door, watching the crack of light at the bottom darken. Rife would have to grab the handle and yank the door open, his way.

He readied himself.

The shadow at the bottom reached its apex of darkness.

Rife was just on the other side.

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