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over to the edge of it, keeping an eye on the door, moving her gaze to the windows every few moments. Her whole body was on a knife’s edge.
    Russi would have called for backup already, would have notified the recon team that monitoring cabin’s position had been compromised. No matter who was waiting for them outside, they’d have people coming to help them. The thought of ARC backup coming didn’t help the shiver of nerves running down her spine. More red dots of light traced through the windows, she counted five in all, and hoped that was the lot of them. The two agents in the cabin could maybe take on five enemy operatives, especially if those enemy ops were reluctant to shoot in close quarters due to the possibility of friendly fire. Anymore and their bodies would be lining caskets by morning.
    She could hear the creek of floorboards outside the door, whoever was out there was casing the porch, obviously thinking that the cabin inhabitants were dead asleep. Their attackers were about to have a very rude welcome if that was the case.
    At the first crack of a body against the door, time slowed down and all Daria could hear was her breathing and the pounding of her blood in her ears. Russi’s words were muffled, distant as he crossed the room to the front door.
    It bent open, and a body came tumbling through it. Russi yelled, bringing his arm up and smashing his elbow into the intruder’s face. Daria’s vision narrowed to the door only as the first man went down, and a second surged in to tangle with Russi. He had it handled, the cool part of her brain noted, but a third man was coming up behind him, his steps lumbering and slow to her in her adrenaline-fueled haze.
    Before she could blink she’d pulled the trigger, blood blossoming on the third man’s shoulder, and then his chest as she pulled it again. He went down with a choked noise, slithering to the floor.
    Three , her brain ticked them off, three down, at least two more . Russi pressed himself up against the wall next to the door when no more intruders stumbled in, his gun up by his face. She could see his chest heaving in the dark of the cabin, and then the wall around him exploded with noise as whoever was outside shot directly at the building’s side.
    What their attackers didn’t know was that the cabin was reinforced, as bullet proof as they could make it. At least the walls were. The windows, not so much. They shattered in a haze of glass shards and Daria fought against the urge to drop her gun so she could cover her ears and cower. Russi snarled and reached around, risking exposure to shoot outside the cabin. There was a cry, he’d hit his target, and he was back behind the shelter of the wall.
    Silence descending on them, the only thing that broke it was the odd groan from the three men on the ground, and the steady tattoo of her heart. She could feel it pulsing all over her body. Minutes stretched out, but still she remained vigilant, gun and gaze trained hard on the openings that could expose them to more bullets or worse.
    There was a low cracking outside and Russi stiffened before he reached around the wall and yanked someone in, a man in black that matched the other three grunts on the floor.
    The man garbled, Russi’s hand wrapped around his throat, and Daria looked away as she heard the sick-inducing crack as Russi twisted the man’s neck. There was a tumble of what sounded like books on carpet, and she finally looked back. Russi was standing over what was hopefully their last attacker, breathing hard. He tapped his comm unit on the side of his head.
    “Russi. Five assailants. Both agents accounted for. I am about to do a perimeter sweep while Griffin stays here. We’ll need medical for the ops we put down, not all of them are dead.” He tapped out and then looked over to where she was, half-hanging out of the loft. He made the hand signal for her to stay exactly where she was, his eyes glinting with rage. She knew it wasn’t directed