Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

mechanism with a tiny red blinking light in Pierce‟s
    lifeless hand.
    Ticking. Zane could hear ticking.
    He dropped to one knee, yanked at the coat to uncover the hand
    holding the timer, then hurriedly patted down the trench until his
    fingers hit something hard, a bulge at the waistband. He jerked the
    thick sweatshirt up. For once, Zane didn‟t stop to consider his options
    or think through scenarios or figure the percentages.
    He grabbed the ticking bomb, yanking it from its duct tape, and
    ran.
    People and tombstones alike created an obstacle course as Zane
    tried to get away from the gravesite, weaving through the gathered,
    shoving some aside, almost ramming into a monument taller and wider
    than he was as he dodged a small child. There, maybe thirty yards
    away, stood an ancient mausoleum, its stone walls heavy and thick,
    hopefully enough to contain the blast from the welded and duct tape-
    wrapped box he clutched against his chest. Finally he broke free of the
    crowd and, distantly aware of people calling after him, charged the
    mausoleum doors, ramming into one with his shoulder. He practically
    slid inside on the pavers smoothed by almost two centuries of foot
    traffic.
    Zane didn‟t know how much time he had. But as he ran through
    the deeply shadowed building, past marble crypts and statues, he spared
    a prayer of thanks that he had at least gotten away from the families
    and children.
    He skidded to a stop and turned into a small room at the back of
    the mausoleum. Without any traction, he thudded painfully into a wall,
    Divide & Conquer | 273

    but he shoved the box behind the last stone coffin and turned on his
    heel, his heart thundering in his ears as he slung himself through the
    doorway and ran.
    The dim gray light seeping in from the front doors beckoned to
    him, and he was a few rooms away—a bare thirty yards—when a
    shadow rammed into him from the side, sending him sprawling
    painfully hard into a marble sarcophagus and down to the floor.
    Ty grunted his name and held up the flashing red device, then
    began dragging Zane by his collar across the smooth stone floor until
    they huddled behind a substantial stone vault. Ty shook against him,
    adrenaline obviously fueling him, and he held the flashing thing up
    again.
    0:01.
    0:00.
    Zane covered his head and Ty‟s as the explosion echoed through
    the mausoleum. It wasn‟t a loud, crashing cacophony. It was more a
    thud deep in their chests and a rush of fetid air from the depths of the
    mausoleum. The air reverberated with the blast; then all was silent.
    Ty raised his head and looked around. “That wasn‟t so bad,” he
    gasped out.
    A deep rumbling answered his words. From the back of the
    mausoleum came another rush of air, and all around them, the structure
    trembled and groaned. A stone lintel crashed to the floor, followed by
    another. Then another.
    Zane grabbed Ty‟s arm and pulled him down again, covering
    their heads as the collapse sent broken stone flying and blew out the
    archways, showering them with a hard rain of driving sand and jagged
    chunks of marble. The light was snuffed out as the ancient building
    foundered and collapsed around them.

    274 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    TY KEPT his eyes closed for a long time after the deafening roar of
    collapsing stone had ended. It was stiflingly silent, the only sounds
    being Zane‟s harsh breaths and the occasional shift and trickle of rocks.
    Ty opened his eyes and lifted his head. He‟d expected pitch black,
    or at least a pretty angel with a harp telling him he was in the wrong
    place. But there was light coming from somewhere, and the stone vault
    they‟d hidden behind had provided some reprieve from the fallen stone
    walls that hemmed them in. He looked down at his partner.
    “You okay?”
    Zane groaned and pushed himself up, but there wasn‟t much room
    for him to move. Part of a stone wall had fallen right next to him,
    shifted to the side by the vault that sheltered them. Otherwise Zane
    might have been under that wall. “Yeah, I think so.”
    Ty jabbed him hard in the stomach, unable to put any more force
    behind it due to the confined space. “Stupid jackass!”
    Zane yelped, hissed in pain, and swatted at his hand. “What the
    hell?”
    “Exactly, what the hell! You see a ticking bomb, so your first
    instinct is grab it and fucking run?” A miniature avalanche of pebbles
    and rocky debris slid down the shelf of stone above them.
    “It was me run