Takedown (An Alexandra Poe Thriller) Read Online Free

others, so watch your back.”
    The crowd had nearly stopped moving now, slowed by a bottleneck at the end of the hall.
    “Roger that,” Deuce said. “We’ve got a pathology lab to our right, and if the BPs are more reliable than our intel, there should be a small freight elevator at the rear of the lab. Cooper, can you be ready to party in two?”
    “I’ll be there,” Cooper told him.
    “Okay, Alex, I’ve got your flank. Make your move and make it smooth.”
    “Roger,” she said, then weaved past another gurney and a tight group of patients and positioned herself directly behind the nurse pushing the wheelchair, almost close enough to spoon. After a quick look around, she reached forward, slipped her hand under the nurse’s scrub top, and lo and behold, discovered the woman wasn’t hiding a tail.  
    Alex grabbed the grip of the weapon. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be carrying this in here.”
    As the nurse started to react, Alex ripped the weapon free and jammed her heel into the back of the woman’s left knee. The joint buckled and the nurse went down with a grunt. Alex sidestepped the fall and yanked the wig off Solak’s head, shoving the nose of the pistol—a SIG Pro SP—into his upper back. “Get up.”
    Someone nearby screamed and heads swiveled in their direction. Grabbing hold of Solak’s hospital gown, Alex yanked him to his feet, knowing that if the other bodyguards hadn’t already been closing in, they would be now. She shoved him toward a door about three meters to her right, marked PATHOLOGY AND LABORATORY MEDICINE .
    She felt a sudden rush of movement behind her as a hand grabbed for her shoulder. But before it could fully connect, its owner grunted and hit the floor.
    “Go! Go!” Deuce said, taking his place beside her.
    They slammed through the door, pushing Solak in front of them, and worked their way through a maze of tables and microscopes and machines and racks of test tubes filled with blood. Alex scanned the lab and spotted a set of elevator doors down a short hallway at the rear of the room.
    “At least something’s going right,” she murmured, nudging Solak in that direction.
    Behind them, two more bodyguards burst into the lab—Alex’s friends from the hall outside Solak’s room. She heard the sharp cough of a suppressor and glass shattered nearby. Deuce whipped around and raised his own weapon, returning fire.
    One of the bodyguards went down as the other—the grinner—dove for safety behind a lab table, and then came up firing on the other side.
    Bullets whizzed past Alex’s head as she shoved Solak to the floor, then crouched and spun, squeezing off two quick rounds. The SIG wasn’t silenced and the shots echoed loudly. One went stray, but the other hit its mark, the slug ripping through the grinner’s shoulder in a burst of blood. He grunted in pain and slammed backward into a rack of test tubes, and they toppled over and shattered around him, splattering a dozen or more blood specimens across the linoleum.
    Alex grabbed a handful of Solak’s gown and yanked him to his feet. “Hurry it up.”
    As they shoved him toward the elevator again, Solak spoke for the first time. In English, no less. “You realize this will all come to nothing. You risk your life for what?”
    “A chance to put you on a plane to nowhere,” Alex said.
    “You’re American, yes? Private contractors?”
    Neither Alex nor Deuce responded. Reaching the elevator, Alex pressed the down button, hoping this one was faster than the beast she rode in earlier.
    “Why else would you be here?” Solak went on. “It is obvious you haven’t yet received word.”
    Deuce frowned. “About what?”
    “I have negotiated terms with your government just this morning. I am no longer a wanted man. Not by the United States, at least.”
    Deuce snorted. “Nice try, dipshit. At least you get points for creativity.”
    “You doubt me,” he said. “And that is understandable. But be warned that