Read Renewal 8 - War Council for Free Online Page A

back of his gun. The tip of the blade scored a line across his ribs, and his body flashed backwards in instinctive response.
    Terry had been standing just inside the room, holding his gun limply. He had no idea whether he should shoot the woman or club her in the head. Not that it mattered. The whole exchange had occurred in a scant few seconds. No time to react. John was lightning fast, but maybe Jessica was even faster. He had made the entire trip through the house trying to remember everything Kirk had taught him, but it was a jumble in his head now that he was under pressure.
    When Terry saw John take a hit from the knife, the whole picture changed. John’s body slowed down drastically, and Terry thought his boss was seriously wounded. Then he saw that Jessica had slowed down just as much, and Terry slowly realized he was in Kirk mode. All the time in the world to react. The woman’s arm was out to the side, blade pointed at John’s armpit and it was swinging gracefully like a dancer. John was still recovering from his recoil and had not yet brought his knife into a good blocking position. The outcome was clear. In the long subjective seconds of Terry’s time, he stepped into the fray, removed the knife from the woman’s hand and knocked her in the head with the butt of the handle. He felt clumsy when he passed behind her and the world shifted back into normal speed.
    John watched in amazement as Jessica crumpled to the floor, revealing Terry standing behind her falling form holding her own knife. He looked at Terry, glanced back to her fallen form, and back to Terry. Then, the stinging pain from his ribs pulled his attention away, and he checked to make sure the wound was superficial. It was.
    John shrugged off the pain and the desire to think about what he had just seen, and moved down the hall with his newly scratched gun in his hand. Door two exposed an empty room. Door three was another matter. The two men in the room were entirely too occupied with the naked women to notice when John and Terry walked right up to the bed and knocked them senseless.
    The two women fell out of character and scrambled backwards, huddling against the headboard.
    “Who are you?” John asked. Terry was still wrapping his head around the scene.
    “We’re... We’re...” the defenseless young blonde tried to answer.
    “Professionals?”
    She nodded, bursting into tears. Her partner, a very young girl with brown hair, reacted to the tears and began sobbing as well.
    “Be quiet. Who are these guys?”
    “That’s... Gary...” She stumbled over the words.
    “Jenkins?”
    Her head bobbed up and down at high speed. She had her lower lip sucked into her mouth.
    “The other guy?” John asked quietly.
    “I don’t know. He’s from the other group,” the blonde said, recovering from the shock.
    “Excellent. Listen, girls. Get dressed. You’ll want to come with us.”
    “Wh... Why?”
    “Because... In five minutes this place is going to explode,” John said. “Terry, keep an eye on those two while I tie these guys up.”
    Terry didn’t think that would be a problem.
    Three minutes later, Terry and John were staggering across the grass under the weight of their two prisoners. The two girls followed them. They wasn’t much choice. They barely knew where they were, and getting back to town would be a problem in their ridiculous high heels. When they were spotted by the other teams, Terry caught sight of one of Nick’s men rolling out wire from a big spool. Seth’s team pulled back to the trees and waited. As soon as Terry dumped his passenger in the bushes, he turned to watch. He quickly wished he hadn’t.
    The bomb was on the near side of the bunkhouse. When it blew, the shockwave punched Terry in the gut. He watched the rest of the blast in surprising detail. He saw the brief curvature of the wall as it was pushed away from the bomb. The solid wall dissolved into shredded wood confetti. In milliseconds, the jagged shards