Page 59 of Once a Hero

Oswald cursed.

“You’re surrounded. Put down your weapons!”

Oswald and his people held on to their weapons. Jake noticed movement around him. He was surrounded by two of Oswald’s men.

Beatrice turned to him. “Stay down, Jake!”

Her mouth opened as if to say more, but she seemed to hesitate.

Jake hugged the ground and covered his head with his free arm. He heard someone.

“How now brown cow!” Kenichi yelled in a strained—and pained—voice.

Then Jake heard an explosion. When it was over, he looked up to find Oswald splattered on the driveway, his torso and head gone. Two or three other people were also down on the driveway with him.

Blood and body matter were everywhere.

The remainder of Oswald’s militia slowly placed their weapons on the ground and put their hands in the air in front of the drones.

Jake dragged his body on his hip and good leg toward Beatrice, still crouched down on the concrete driveway. He called her name softly.

She looked up. Her hands were still tied up.

Before Jake could reach her, a much louder explosion rocked the property. Part of the roof flew over Jake and Beatrice and landed on the driveway and the grass front yard.

The heat nearly seared Jake’s entire back. He turned to see what had happened, and found the entire cabin engulfed in flames.

He glanced over at Beatrice to see her reaction.

Her face looked stunned.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Word would get back to Molyneux that Oswald was dead. She would regroup and retaliate fast. She had a reputation to keep.

That and many other things percolated through Beatrice’s mind as she walked down the hallway of the Eureka hospital to find Raynelle and Kenichi. They both were treated as outpatients because their injuries were not life threatening.

Yeah, how to get a step ahead of Molyneux?

Her team had been decimated.

Kenichi had a broken leg.

Raynelle’s arm was still broken.

Earl was still hospitalized for his internal injuries.

Their other new temporary addition to the team, Jake, required extensive stitches on his thigh, busted lips, and a gash on his forehead.

None of them was in any position to fly out there to Europe, track down Molyneux, and knock on her door.

Beatrice herself had bruises from the van wreck. Beyond that, everyone else had taken hits for her. She had somehow managed to talk her way out of serious injuries.

That scared her.

She had heard it told that many things in a person’s life were ingrained by the age of five. That had been the age when her parents broke up and Dad had to flee England with his kids. Could it be possible that Molyneux—as Imogen Wright—had imprinted into Beatrice some of her undesirable ways?

The cabin was gone and along with it, all potential clues to the whereabouts of the Amber Room. Then again, if Dad had the clues all along, he would have found the Amber Room by now, right?

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