ith a MAC-11 autopistol aimed at him.
Cade quickly backed deep into the doorway. Grinning as he rushed forward,
Nassir thought that Cade had panicked and ducked inside the ballroom. He was
wrong.
As soon as Cade was out of Nassir's line of sight, he knelt as low as
possible next to the wall and aimed upward at the space where Nassir seemed most
likely to appear.
The instant Nassir's rushing form blocked the light from the lobby, Cade
fired twice so quickly the separate sounds of the shots were almost
indistinguishable, then he dropped his Glock and heaved himself at the MAC-11,
shoving it upward as he rose to his feet.
The ugly little machine pistol sprayed the ceiling of the alcove, firing
itself empty as Nassir pitched forward. Cade heard crunching sounds and felt
bones collapse in his grip as his fingers met his palm around Nassir's thick
wrist.
From somewhere in his mind came the thought, 'Well, damn. She was right.'
Cade continued his motion with Nassir's arm, glancing to see that the MAC's
breech was open and showed no brass as he grabbed and opened a ballroom door to
shove Nassir's gun hand through.
Closing the door on Nassir's wrist, Cade threw his weight against the door
hard enough to nearly close it completely, then yanked it open again to grab
Nassir's gun hand and haul his arm and the MAC back into the alcove.
A few screeches and a "Holy shit!" greeted him from people seated just
beyond the door, but he ignored them as he re-closed the door and kicked the
door stops down. Picking up his Glock, he checked Nassir for signs of life.
There were none.
Both rounds from the Glock had entered below Nassir's sternum only a few
inches apart. Only one had exited his back; the other must have hit enough bone
to stop it.
"Cade here," he said into his lapel mike. "Nassir's dead."
"Copy that," said Carter, stepping out of a maintenance room behind the
escalators. "All clear. Help is on the way."
With their sirens and lights off, two ambulances pulled up outside the lower
lobby street doors. Two pairs of medics rushed into the lobby and were directed
by Carter.
An injection quieted Hassan almost instantly as two of the medics checked
out Bartow. Cade got out of Carter's way as she marched toward him with a
camera.
She took a rapid-fire series of pictures of Nassir, zooming in on the
MAC-11, his wrist, his face, and then circling his body onc