Pine sprang forward, but Mercy had already risen and she drove a fist right into Pine’s gut. She staggered back and dropped to her butt. Mercy was on her, and the two women struggled, each trying to arm-bar the other. Pine finally kicked free and rose with blood streaming down her face.
It was with both pride and envy that Pine had to admit that though their strength levels were about equal, her sister was bigger, more limber, and a better MMA fighter than she was.
The third round went just like the second did. Mercy and Pine pounded away, but Pine could tell Mercy was holding back on her blows and Pine did her best to both do the same, and physically react as if she was getting the shit kicked out of her, which wasn’t all that far from the truth. Both their faces were bloody, their limbs and torsos lumpy with bruises, their breathing ragged, and their bodies, despite the chilly air, dropping copious amounts of sweat.
Standing by the fence, Buckley took all of this in and seemed to be enjoying himself. He even did a bit of shadow boxing, to the amusement of his men, who were hooting and clapping and stamping their feet the whole time.
Before the fourth and final round started, Spector again administered hydration and toweling. As she did so she relayed to each of them the same message.
“Listen for my signal at a minute to go. At the thirty-second mark fight like hell. I’ll need the distraction.”
Then she had stealthily pressed something rubbery into their ears while drying off their heads with the towel.
Both women readied themselves for the final round. Spector glanced subtly at the knapsack she had hung on the chain-link fence, then stepped back with her hands hanging loosely at her hips. She looked behind her once, first at Buckley, at whom she smiled triumphantly, and then at Blum, who sat there, her arm bloody and a horrified expression on her face at what she was watching.
The air horn sounded and the two women went at it with gusto. They had five minutes, maybe, left to live. They landed blow after blow, arm bar after arm bar. Each of them went down twice, but for both it looked far worse than it felt. To their audience, they looked near death. In reality, they had a lot of gas left.
Pine tried hard not to look, but her attention would flick to Spector every now and then. The woman looked inscrutable every time Pine glanced her way.
“You’re both still standing,” called out Buckley. “That will not do, ladies.”
“A minute to go,” cried out Spector.
When Pine glanced at Spector, she had positioned herself so that her back was to the crowd. The woman formed a one and a zero with her fingers and then closed her eyes for one second.
Pine instantly got what she was communicating. In a clinch with Mercy she whispered instructions to her.
“Thirty seconds to go,” Spector called out a bit later.
On cue, Mercy kicked Pine so hard that she flew across the ring and slammed into the fence opposite Spector. Pine was dazed and slow to get up. Mercy pounced on her sister and started pounding away, as the men cheered and raced over there to get closer to witness the kill.
As all eyes were on the sisters, Spector reached inside the knapsack.
“Ten seconds to go,” cried Spector.
Pine and Mercy closed their eyes, so they couldn’t see the gun in Spector’s right hand and the other objects in her left.
She fired twice between the chain links. Both shots hit their targets, and the man holding the blade next to Blum fell down dead.
With her other hand Spector had already launched twin flash bangs. They sailed over the fence and hit within a foot of where Buckley and his men were clustered together.
The devices detonated and the space was engulfed with smoke and a brilliantly lit, decibel-shattering explosion. Buckley and his men instantly collapsed to the ground.
Pine and Mercy, with the earplugs in and their eyes closed and averted, were able to rise quickly, and sprinted after Spector to the door. She kicked it open and shot through the smoke toward where Blum had slumped to the floor.
One of the men on the ground groaned and reached feebly out. Spector flattened him with a kick and Pine made sure he stayed down with another blow to the back of the head.
Spector struggled to lift Blum. Mercy pushed past her, bent down, and lifted Blum over her shoulder.
“Let’s go,” she barked.
CHAPTER
72
SPECTOR SPRINTED TO THE DOOR with Mercy right behind. The women had removed their ear plugs. Pine brought up the rear. When a figure loomed up in front of her, she kicked him in the head. As he started to topple, she slammed her fist into his back, causing him to scream and pitch forward.
They met an armed guard as they rounded a corner.
“What the hell is going on?” he shouted.
In answer, Spector shot him in the head.
Pine stopped and grabbed the man’s AK and pistol, and she thrust the latter into her shorts.
“The SUV’s right over here, come on,” urged Spector.
They could hear cries from inside the building from where they had just fled, as well as feet running their way from other parts of the compound.
They reached the black Escalade, and Mercy and Pine loaded Blum in. Spector jumped into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine. Mercy climbed in next to Blum. Pine was about to get into the front passenger seat when a man came out and fired at them. The slug shattered the side window and passed right behind Spector’s head.
“Get in,” she cried out.
Pine did, after placing AK rounds into the man’s torso, dropping him where he stood.
Spector slammed down the gas right as Pine managed to shut her door. They accelerated, and quickly reached the gates leading out of the compound. A man in the guard tower called out to them to stop. Before he could aim and fire, Pine, leaning out the shattered passenger window, hit him with two rounds from the pistol. The man toppled over the tower’s edge and hit the dirt next to them as the SUV rammed into the gates, popping them open.
Spector aimed the SUV straight ahead, but then started to veer as gunfire came at them from the rear flank. Pine looked back to see men running after them and firing.
Some bullets slammed into the SUV’s body, but fortunately, none of the rounds hit its tires.
Pine turned back around as Spector hung a left and they passed out of their pursuers’ sightlines. “Where the hell are we?”
“The middle of nowhere in Idaho.”
“Okay, next question: Why’d you help us?”
Spector didn’t look at her, choosing to keep her gaze ahead. “You have a wonderful assistant in Carol Blum, Agent Pine. She talks a good, honest game. She made me rethink some things that I thought I was long past rethinking.”
Mercy checked out the still not fully conscious Blum and said, “We need to bandage her up. She’s still bleeding.”
“Shit,” barked Pine. She climbed into the back seat.
“In the duffel in the cargo area I’ve got a first aid kit,” said Spector. “And some clothes, food, water, guns, and ammo.”