Chapter 15 - Symphony of Broken Glass
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Delaney pulled Noel behind the heavy concert grand piano in the corner of the recital hall and pressed a finger to her lips.
"Stay under the soundboard until I clear the coal chute in the basement," Delaney whispered fiercely. "Whatever happens, do not come out."
Before Noel could protest, Delaney slipped across the polished oak stage just as two of Viktor Voronin’s mercenaries kicked open the double doors of the recital hall. The beams of their weapon-mounted flashlights sliced through the gloom.
Delaney didn't wait for them to fan out. From the shadows above the orchestra pit, she cut the counterweight rope holding the heavy iron stage-lighting rig. Six hundred pounds of steel framing and glass spotlights plummeted from the ceiling with a deafening crash, crushing the lead mercenary beneath a shower of exploding bulbs and sparks.
The second gunman spun upward, firing a burst of suppressed rounds that splintered the wooden podium inches from Delaney’s boots. Delaney vaulted off the edge of the stage, landed squarely on his shoulders, and drove his helmeted head into the brass railing of the orchestra pit before stripping the rifle from his vest.
In the corridor outside, Viktor Voronin heard the crash and fired blindly through the stained-glass transom above the doors. Colored glass rained down across the rows of velvet seats. A razor-sharp shard of red glass sliced deep across Delaney’s left shoulder, soaking her sleeve in warm blood, alongside a grazing bullet that burned like a branding iron.
Gritting her teeth without making a sound, Delaney fired three precise two-round bursts through the lower oak panels of the doors. A heavy thud and a curse echoed from the hallway as a third mercenary went down.
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"Retreat to the vans!" Viktor snarled from the stairwell as police sirens began wailing in the distance.
Delaney didn't chase him. Bleeding heavily from her shoulder, she sprinted back to the grand piano, hauled a terrified Noel to her feet, and rushed her down the narrow service stairs into the boiler room tunnels before a second wave could arrive.
