As soon as Cedric Harrington finished speaking, the armed soldiers of CORE offered no redundant warnings. Red light from their laser sights swept across the retinas.
Fire!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The deafening roar of gunfire tore through the tranquil space. In the millisecond the first bullet left the barrel, Julian Sterling's brain had not even managed to issue a command to process the information, yet his body reacted automatically.
It was a reflex completely outside the realm of consciousness. Julian Sterling's entire body folded, his long, slender legs borrowing momentum from the marble floor to execute a flawless mid-air somersault before sliding decisively behind the solid cast steel alloy desk.
Crash! The bullets lodged directly into the glass wall behind, creating stark white spiderwebs of cracks right at the exact position where he had been standing less than half a second ago.
