Into Focus (Focus Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

whispered. I wondered
why we bothered being so quiet; there was still gunfire aplenty to
cover the sounds of our voices.
    The guard shook his head. “I don’t know,” he
whispered. “A few guys showed up, laughed at us when we asked for
ID, and then a fucking bomb went off. They must’ve planted charges
or something. We shot at them, but…” He shook his head again. “I
don’t know. Nothing seemed to get through. They didn’t get
hit.”
    That wasn’t normal. If they had been fired at
by a bunch of panicky civilians with weapons they weren’t trained
with, well, that would be one thing. But these guys all had
military backgrounds, and they knew what they were doing. They were
paid to fight, and there were over a dozen of them. They should
have made short work of a few men, bomb or not.
    “A bunch of guys went down. I didn’t see
how,” he continued. He was almost babbling, the stress of a sudden
combat situation on comfortable, safe ground obviously getting to
him. “It didn’t look like they had any guns or nothin’. Maybe
snipers or something outside the compound.”
    The gunfire abruptly ceased outside.
    That was either very good or very bad.
    “Ssh!” the guard said, which was totally
unnecessary. I hadn’t made a sound.
    We both listened closely, and we heard a
calm, mocking voice from the courtyard. It was impossible to make
out, but the tone was unmistakable. Someone was having a very good
day, and I doubted that it was Blackstone.
    “What are we going to do?” I asked the guard.
It seemed in character for Josh to defer to whoever had the most
experience in life-and-death situations.
    The guard shook his head. “I don’t know, man.
I don’t know what their objective is. They just started fighting.
They’re probably going to search the buildings next.”
    Well, that wouldn’t do.
    I nodded. “Well, we’ll have to get out of
here. We can’t stay where we’ll be found.”
    “Nowhere to hide, man. This place isn’t
exactly built for something like this.”
    I shook my head slowly, then crept around to
the computer. Lucky for me, the transfer was complete. I unplugged
the portable hard drive, stashed the cables in my suit pockets, and
rose to my feet. I shut down the computer completely, and pushed
the chair back in, so it looked like nobody had been here at
all.
    “What are you doing?” the guy asked.
    “Escaping,” I said blithely. “Want to
come?”
    The guard’s mouth fell open, and he shut it
firmly a few seconds later. Then I saw him visibly calm himself
down, taking a deep breath with his eyes closed for a moment. When
he opened them, there was steel in his spine, and he rose
cautiously from the floor, and nodded to me.
    “They’re at the front of the complex, right?”
I asked, my voice low.
    “Yeah, last I saw. Three or four guys,
max.”
    I nodded. “Okay. We’re only on the second
story. We can get out through the window, pop over the fence, and
call for help.”
    He shook his head. “Barbed wire, man. Do you
think that—“
    “It’s either get a few cuts or get killed.
Which do you prefer?”
    He shook his head once again, but didn’t say
a word. I took that as acceptance, and stepped over to the window.
I opened it up slowly, a little surprised that they were the kind
that slid up all the way rather than the weird narrow ones office
buildings usually had. I poked my head out cautiously and looked
around. I didn’t see anyone, but the voices were a bit louder
outside.
    I placed both hands on the windowsill, swung
my feet over, and hung down. The drop was only about twelve feet,
and if I landed right, it wouldn’t even hurt.
    I let go, and kept my knees loose on the way
down. I collapsed to the ground, which wasn’t exactly comfortable,
but Josh was a lightweight, and I didn’t even have a scratch.
    The guard followed a moment or two later, his
impact significantly louder with all of his extra weight. I pressed
a finger to my lips, and he nodded. Together, we