Read Red Cell Seven for Free Online Page B

detail of what was unfolding.
    The father coming out of the store to Jennie’s right lunged for his daughter. But a bullet tore through him just as he reached his little girl, killing him instantly as the storefront glass shattered behind him when another bullet blew through it. The little girl screamed as her father tumbled to the tiles in front of her.
    Jennie had been about to turn and run. But she couldn’t leave the little girl out there alone, helpless. So she raced the few steps to her and grabbed the girl’s tiny wrist.
    As she did, she locked eyes with the assassin on the right. She’d heard the term “killer instinct” so many times, but she’d never actually seen it. Until now. The man had cold, dark shark eyes. And yet, as lifeless as they seemed, she could still see passion burning in them. “Come on!” she urged the little girl as the man pointed his gun at her. “Run with me!  Run! ”
    As Jennie turned to flee, a bullet tore through her shoulder from behind. It sent her tumbling to the floor and the new phone spinning from her hand. She came to rest on the glass-strewn tiles exactly as the security guard had, on her stomach with her arms outstretched. And the little girl came down right beside her.
    Jennie had never been to Alaska. In fact, she’d never been anywhere near it. But she’d read an article on the Internet about a man who’d survived a grizzly bear attack on Kodiak Island by playing dead even as the huge animal toyed with him. The awful pain in her shoulder spread quickly through her body, but somehow she managed to stay still and not moan.
    “Close your eyes,” she whispered to the little girl as they stared at each other. She tried not to show any fear. The little girl was obviously terrified, and if Jennie showed fear, the little girl might start screaming. Then she wouldn’t have a chance. “Don’t move. Don’t even breathe. You must listen to me.”
    “Okay,” she whispered back, closing her eyes as she’d been told.
    She was terrified, all right, Jennie could see, but she was listening. Jennie shut her eyes and went perfectly still, too.
    “Shoot her,” someone yelled from the distance.
    “She’s already dead” was the response of the deep voice, from very close.
    Even as the cold barrel of a gun brushed her cheek, Jennie didn’t flinch. Even as she smelled the leather of his shoes and the awful pain coming from the wound knifed through her body, she kept still. She just hoped the little girl could, too.
    “Shoot her anyway. Make sure she’s dead. Come on!”
    The cold metal withdrew from her face as the screaming in the mall faded and the awful sounds of the dying and the wounded rose. For a moment Jennie believed she was safe, that whoever was standing over her wasn’t going to obey the command.
    But then the barrel of a gun pressed firmly against her back, slightly off-center to her spine. Somehow she fought the urge to scream.

CHAPTER 5

    “A FRIEND of mine told me it looked like a war zone outside with all the military personnel,” Bill said quietly to Troy as they entered the Oval Office. They’d been escorted by two Secret Service agents every step of the way since arriving on White House grounds. “And like Walter Reed Hospital in here.”
    The level of security around President Dorn had been ratcheted up dramatically since the assassination attempt a few weeks ago in Los Angeles. Before the shooting Dorn was constantly complaining to the Secret Service that they were getting in his way and not letting him be himself by wading into crowds to shake hands and kiss babies. But those days were gone for good now, by the president’s own admission. The assassination attempt had affected him profoundly. For the first time in his life Dorn had met his mortality face-to-face, and he’d never again allow himself to be so vulnerable.
    “Your friend was right,” Troy muttered back as the two agents who’d been tailing them finally turned around and left