State of Siege - Tom Clancy [98]
The first person August saw was a slender, teenage girl. She was on her knees less than five yards away. She was whimpering and shaking. August wasn't sure who the girl was. The terrorist was standing very close behind her. Using peripheral vision, August noted the location of the other two terrorists. One of them was standing in the front of the Security Countil chamber, behind the semicircular desk. The other terrorist was standing right beside the door that led to the adjoining Trusteeship Council. The terrorists were all dressed in black and wearing ski masks. The one nearest him was holding the girl's long blonde hair by the roots, close to her forehead, so that her face was staring straight up. He had a gun pointed directly ahead, at the top of her skull. August had the middle of the man's mask in his gun sight, but he didn't want to fire first. If he hit the terrorist, the man's finger might tighten around the trigger and take the top of the girl's head off. August knew that was wrong; if he had the shot, he should take it. The thought that this could be Paul Hood's daughter stopped him.
The terrorist hesitated and then he did something that surprised August. He dropped directly behind the kneeling girl and then threw himself to his right, into the row of seats. Still holding the girl's hair, he pulled her with him. Obviously, he did not want to trade gunfire. And now he had a shield. You should have taken the damn shot, August reprimanded himself. Instead of having one less terrorist to deal with, everyone was at risk.
The terrorist and the girl were four rows down the sloping gallery. August pocketed the Beretta that was in his right hand, turned to his left, and jogged a few feet along the back of the gallery. Silent in his bare feet, he put his free hand on the railing that ran along the seat backs of the last row. He leaped the green velvet seats and immediately jumped the next row. He was now two rows from the terrorist and the girl.
"Downer, he's coming for you!" one of the terrorists shouted. He had a French accent. "Behind you" "Get out or I'll kill her!" shouted Downer, the pinned terrorist. "I'll blow her goddam brains out!"
August was still two rows away. The man with the French accent started running toward him. He would be on the stairs in two or three seconds. The third man was covering the hostages. "Barone, the gas!" the Frenchman said.
The third terrorist, Barone, ran toward a duffel bag that sat open in the front of the chamber, near the north-side window. August finished hopping over the third row. He could now see Downer and the girl. They were on the floor of the next row. The terrorist was on his back with the girl faceup on top of him. But August had a problem.
The bottleneck had required preventing the girl's death, disabling the nearest of the three terrorists, and establishing a beachhead in the back of the chamber before General Rodgers got here. That hadn't happened. Unfortunately, not only was the bottleneck dead, but the colonel had to reorder his priorities. He had to deal with the gas.
Barone was on the opposite side of the semicircular table, protected by the table and by the hostages. He had already removed his ski mask and had pulled three gas masks from the duffel bag. The terrorist slipped one of the masks on as he handed the others out. The other men didn't put them on yet because the goggles impaired their peripheral vision. Then Barone returned to the bag and removed a black canister.
August turned and ran toward the north side of the chamber. The French terrorist had reached the stairs on the south side of the Security Council and was running up. August didn't want to stop and shoot it out with him. Even if the Frenchman tagged him, August would be in a better position to kill Barone if he were on the same side of the chamber.
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