Page 373 of Niccolo

Sofia

Fausto and I stared at the monitors.

Eight foot soldiers were hidden behind stone walls, their POVs filled with close-ups of sandstone.

Suddenly they leapt up, giving us a clear view.

About 20 feet away, Lars had just run past them into the ruins.

He realized too late that he had fallen into a trap.

He pointed his gun at one of our foot soldiers –

But all eight men fired simultaneously.

Lars’s torso exploded with red.

He jerked several times, then toppled over backwards onto the ground.

Fausto roared his approval.

“You were right!” he crowed, slapping me on the shoulder in delight. “You were right, and now he’s dead!”

I removed another piece from the board.

“Pawn takes queen.”

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Niccolo

We saw Lars get hit.

We heard the shots first, which drew our attention.

We could barely see him through the trees surrounding a circle of ancient pillars –

But we saw enough.

His body jerked as muzzle flashes erupted from the nearby ruins.

“NO!” Dario screamed as he watched his best friend fall to the ground.

Adriano was the only one of us not stunned into inaction.

“THIS WAY, THIS WAY!” he screamed as he hauled Dario to the right, away from the pillars.

All around us, tourists were screaming and running away.

We stumbled through another grove of trees –

And into an open field with stone slabs all around us.

I was far behind the others.

Roberto turned around to look for me. “Niccolo – ”

There was a single gunshot –

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