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He pointed at her. “She’s not a friend.”

The man lifted his right knee and planted his foot as if to stand.

Cooper leveled the pistol at Chavo’s face.

“Don’t you f.u.c.king move.”

Sofia’s fingers dug into his left bicep, so hard they felt like dull metal needles that couldn’t quite penetrate the skin.

“Shoot this f.u.c.k,” she said. “Waste him before he calls for help!”

Her hands let go of his bicep; Cooper felt them grabbing for the gun.

He used his free arm to keep her away. “Sofia, stop!”

Chavo stood and ran for the door. His hands reached for the horizontal bar, hit it, knocked the door open.

He made it one step out before the gun fired twice, bam-bam, the second shot surprising Cooper even more than the first.

The man lurched forward, landed hard on his face and chest.

Cooper felt stunned … he’d just shot a man in the back. He hadn’t thought, he’d just done it.

Chavo wasn’t dead. His arms came up, hands pressed against the floor — he started to crawl. Two spots of red spread across the back of his white uniform.

Cooper saw Chavo’s chest fill with a big breath, saw the man’s head tilt back …

“Killlll them! They’re in here!”

He shouldn’t be able to scream, I shot him in the back, he should be dead …

Sofia yanked the gun from his hand.

She limped toward the door, one hand pressed to her side, the other holding the pistol.

Chavo crawled a little farther. His belly left smears of blood on the carpet.

Sofia reached him. She put the gun to the back of his head and fired. Chavo’s face flopped onto the carpet. He stopped moving.

Cooper ran to Sofia, stood next to her. Blood soaked into the carpet beneath Chavo’s face — or what was left of his face — a thick stain that slowly spread outward.

Sofia sagged against Cooper, weakly held the gun up for him to take. “You’ve got five bullets left,” she said. “Try not to be … be such a p.u.s.s.y … okay?”

She started to fall; he slid an arm around her waist, held her up. He could feel her heat even through her clothes. He had to get her to a hospital, find a doctor or something.

Cooper took the gun from her hand. He stared down at the dead man.

Then, he heard the roar.

It was a sound both human and not, a sound that carried through the hall. It came from somewhere off to the right. Then, from the left, a man answering with a guttural shout.

Cooper again looked at Chavo’s body. The blood streaks pointed back to the door, like an arrow that said the people you want to kill are in here.

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