BOOM and Darby felt the round hammer against the centre of her chest.
Her breath exploded from her chest, and she stumbled backwards. She hit the back wall and tumbled, her legs giving out. Her hands gripped the air, seeking purchase – BOOM and a second shotgun blast took out a chunk of plaster from the wall where her head had been just a moment ago.
Splayed against the floor, and making harsh and painful gasping sounds behind the gas mask, Darby turned on to her side. The armour plating had saved her life, but her ribs were broken, maybe even fractured. Blinking, she saw the two SWAT officers disappear through the smoke. It was drifting into the dark hall, and over the ringing in her ears she heard more footsteps pounding their way up the stairs.
Then she caught the figures of two, maybe three SWAT officers (not Trent's men – they have to be someone else but who are they?) turning left at the top of the stairs. They disappeared behind the smoke, their footfalls fading as they ran towards the bedroom.
Four, possibly five men were inside the house. More could be waiting downstairs or outside. They would head back this way and someone would see her squirming on the floor and keep pumping rounds into her until she was dead.
Sucking in hot air and trying to get her lungs to work, she reached for her sidearm and felt the empty holster. Charlie had ditched her weapon. She had heard it land somewhere out here, and she began frantically to search the floor -
BOOM and the shotgun's muzzle flash jumped in the white smoke from the bedroom.
BOOM and two SWAT officers emerged from the smoke hauling someone by the hands and feet – Charlie Rizzo, she thought. They rushed down the steps -