"Hey. You still alive?"
Hunter noticed the reinforced penthouse was covered in surveillance cameras, so both of them had disguised themselves before the operation. That was why he did not call her by name over the earpiece.
After a short breather, Perkins's hearing had finally started to come back.
She was hurt. That close-range hit from the grenade and flashbang had not spared her body, and even though she had a vest on and had protected her head, the important parts had avoided the worst of it.
Still, she was in rough shape.
"Not dead yet."
Her voice came back weak and ragged, followed by a violent coughing fit.
"I'm wounded. Things are not great."
"Finish the target as fast as you can."
Hunter could tell from her voice that she felt awful.
"Got it. Leave the rest to me."
He slid a hand behind his waist, using his body to hide the motion, and pulled a grenade from his private storage.
He yanked the pin and counted under his breath. With only three or four seconds left before detonation, he tossed it into the room beside him.
Cursing erupted, then the blast followed.
Hunter did not rush in. He did it again.
Another grenade came out, and this time he threw it into the room ahead.
Only after the second blast did he move into the first room.
A quick sweep of his eyes caught several twitching bodies on the floor.
Hunter knew they were no longer a threat, but he still raised the M249 and calmly finished them with a few short bursts.
Then he kept going.
He did not care about wasting grenades.
He still had more than a dozen crates of explosives in his private storage.
He moved through the penthouse with brutal speed, clearing room after room. Grenade first, then breach, then finish the survivors.
Before long, the entire seventeenth floor had been swept clean.
Soon he reached a room with all the windows shut tight.
From the layout and structure, this had to be the master bedroom.
Hunter understood at once and slowed his pace. He glanced at the sealed ventilation window in the wall and did not rush to touch it.
When he reached the door, he pressed a hand lightly against the heavy alloy surface.
He felt resistance from the other side.
That confirmed it.
"This is it."
He raised the M249 again. Earlier, from a blind spot in the cameras, he had already swapped in a fresh ammo box.
He aimed at the two vent windows and sprayed them apart in a savage burst.
Once the glass was gone, he pulled more grenades and hurled them straight into the room without bothering to time the throws too carefully.
One, two, three, four.
He adjusted the force of each throw so the explosives would land in different spots and detonate separately.
A chain of explosions rolled through the bedroom.
When the blasts finally faded, Hunter strode to the locked alloy door and slapped a C4 charge onto it.
Then he backed away.
A few seconds later, the charge detonated with a thunderous crack, ripping the door open.
Hunter shook his head once, then returned to the bedroom entrance.
The alloy door was shattered into several twisted pieces.
Even though he was fairly sure no one inside could still fight, he still pulled out a flashbang and tossed it into the room.
He waited another ten seconds before stepping in.
What had once been a luxurious, almost palatial bedroom was now a wreck.
Hunter did not care.
He raised the light machine gun and cut down the groaning bodies on the floor with cold, methodical bursts.
At last, every last person in the room was down.
In one corner, he saw a mangled, blood-soaked body blown apart by the explosions.
"Wrong place, wrong time."
Zelvisky's target had already been killed by one of Hunter's earlier grenades.
Hunter did not even bother with a photo.
He was just about to leave when something else caught his eye.
Not far away on the floor sat a safe that had been blasted slightly out of shape.
It was not the Worthington 1000 he had stolen from Steve before, but it was still a high-end private safe, the kind rarely seen on the market.
Conservatively, it had to be worth at least two or three hundred thousand dollars.
"Consider it a lottery ticket."
Hunter checked the room one more time to make sure there were no cameras left.
Then he quickly stored the safe in his private space, planning to check its contents later.
He also packed away the M249.
After swapping to two lighter handguns and holstering them, he turned back and headed out.
He had made too much noise. If he did not leave now, trouble would be on its way.
"Okay, the target is down."
"We made too much noise. We need to get out fast."
Perkins was too drained to complain. The explosions had rattled her to the bone.
"Good."
Hunter reached the room where she was hiding and immediately saw her slumped in a corner, holding a pistol with one hand.
A quick look told him she had at least a dozen wounds.
None were fatal. Most looked like shrapnel cuts from the grenades, with only a few actual gunshot wounds.
She was still one of his women, though.
Hunter knew he at least had to show some concern.
"You okay?"
Perkins rolled her eyes at him, but she did not have enough strength left to stand.
Seeing that, Hunter strode over and lifted her into his arms.
"Hey!"
She winced as he bumped one of her wounds.
When she saw he was carrying her out, she could not help asking, "You sure this is smart?"
Hunter did not answer.
He carried her straight into the stairwell.
"The elevators are locked, and the police should be here any minute."
"We take the stairs."
That was all he said.
Then he took off.
He tightened his arms around her and sprinted downward.
Perkins finally understood the danger. She bit back the pain and stopped making a sound, even reaching up to brace herself against his shoulder.
Held in those powerful arms, she felt something she was not used to feeling.
Safety.
This was the same woman who had always treated money as the only real thing in the world. Even after all the times she and this handsome Asian killer had gone far beyond business, she still thought of him as just another transaction.
And yet, right then, she felt a strange and unexpected surge of emotion.
Before she realized it, her head had come to rest against Hunter's chest.
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