Read #2 Shades of Gray: From Moscow, With Love Page 52
Chapter Forty-three
The Subway Train
6:39 P.M...
Silence... For ten minutes, no noise sounded across the tunnel passage to the second platform. The gun blasts and shouts had long since died down and everyone feared the worse. The eerie stillness numbed the senses and filled Kat, Kim, and Melissa's thoughts with nightmarish scenarios of the bodyguards' fates. The subway train they were in consisted of ten cars, and each one was connected to the next by two doors that opened into each compartment. The length of each car was thirty feet, and each car had two sets of sliding doors on the side that opened to the platform. Large windows covered both sides of the car, an aisle ran down the middle, and padded seats facing the aisle covered both sides. Poles stood on each side of the sliding doors so passengers could stand and wait for their stop. Melissa, the two children, Kat, and Kim hid in the fifth car from the front. They had opened all the connecting doors running through the first through the tenth car, and the doors that exited the subway train were all shut. Kat glanced at Melissa who held Bonnie as Chad sat close to them, and the silence continued.
Kim sat, staring at her PPK as she ejected the gun's magazine three times; it was full.
"How's your ammo?" Kat asked, noticing her fidgeting. She was usually so calm and cool, but Kat guessed even assassins could fear death.
"I have plenty," Kim answered. "There's more magazines in my knapsack." She glanced at that woman, seeing the look of concern. "Don't worry. I'm fine."
Kimberly's view...
It's agonizing, waiting for someone to kill me. I don't know how that woman existed in this fear inducing state for a year. I don't think I could have, and if it had been me, I probably would have offed myself a long time ago.
End Kimberly's view...
"It will be fine," Melissa added, trying to encourage the others. "Johnson and his men know what they're doing." She tried to convince herself. "It will all be fine. They'll take care of the Closers and then come for us, so everything will be fine. None of us will die."
Footsteps echoed across the tunnel passage as someone ran toward the second platform from the first, and Kat along with Kim hurried to the front car and looked out the window. They watched the curve, waiting for the person to appear. Johnson rushed around, glancing over his shoulder, and he slowed as he saw the second platform and the subway train then he searched for the group. Kat and Kim pried open the first car's set of sliding doors to the platform. They glanced around the area and checked for the Closers, and they saw no one else.
"In here," Kat yelled as she waved him over.
Johnson glanced once more over his shoulder and entered the first car as he panted from running. He was getting too old for this. Johnson swallowed hard and informed the two women, "The Closers got Andrews and Daniels." He paused, catching his breath. "They aren't far behind, so we only have minutes."
Kat couldn't believe it as her emotions welled up in her. Sadness, hurt, and confusion pressed on her, but she pushed them aside because she didn't have time to deal with them. Kat could grieve when everyone was safe, so she motioned behind her, telling Johnson, "Melissa and the children are in the fifth car. Go back and stay with them and give yourself a little time to rest."
He started to go and paused. "Watch out for the Closers. They like to play dirty." He headed back.
Kat waited till he left and turned to Kim. "Are you ready? We have to stop them here. "
"I'm ready? But are you, Ms. High And Mighty?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not the one who won't kill. The only way we're going to stop the Raven and the Wolf is if we stop them cold, and I do mean make corpses out of them." She pointed her finger at Kat. "You'll have to take someone's life. You won't stop them by merely wounding them. I know their kind, and I have dealt with their kind. The Raven and the Wolf are too dedicated to their work, or more like, they enjoy it too much to be stopped by a flesh wound." That woman didn't respond to her statements so Kim questioned, "Are you listening to me? You can't hesitate. You have to kill them, if not for my sake then at least for Melissa and the children's."
"I'll do what has to be done," Kat responded. "I'll protect everyone."
"Isn't that statement a little late?" Kim's anger rose in her voice. "Daniels and Andrews are dead. You didn't protect them." She turned her attention back to the tunnel passage. "They might still be alive if you had taken the shot outside of the safe house and killed the Life Closer on the roof."
"Don't you think I know that?" Kat snapped. "I keep replaying the event in my mind. I know I could have easily aimed for her head."
Kimberly's view...
"For Ares' sake!" I throw up my hands. "Then stop your whining about killing and take out the Raven and the Wolf. How else are you going to protect us?"
I'm taken aback by my own words. I'm relying on that woman to save me. The Raven and the Wolf have rattled me, but even if that's the case, I still wouldn't normally believe anyone would save me. I have to get my head on straight.
Katharine's view...
"I'll find a way to protect everyone," I answer.
I'll find a way for everyone's sake, and I'll do it without taking a life. There's a reason I shouldn't take a life, and I know it deep inside. I can't complete the Gamma Phase, and if I do, it'll change everything. I stare at my gun. I won't take a life even if it cost me my own.
"You'll find a way?" Kimberly utters. "For our sake, I hope you do, otherwise, we'll end up like Andrews and Daniels."