Fatal Conceit by Robert K. Tanenbaum Page A

we’ll have to leave.” Zakayev nodded and left the compound, after which Lucy went to bed.
    The best part about being in the compound was that she and Ned got to share a room, and a bed. They’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms, as was their habit, but only slept a few hours before he suddenly sat up in bed, waking her.
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” she asked sleepily. But he didn’t get a chance to answer before what sounded like a fierce gun battle erupted outside.
    Ned jumped from the bed, pulled on his pants, and strapped a sidearm to his waist. He then flung open the carrying case for his rifle and quickly assembled the parts, not bothering with the scope. “Stay here,” he ordered, and started to run from the room. He stopped and turned to look at her. “I love you, Lucy. No matter what, I’ll be back for you.” Then he was gone.
    Soon she heard the regular, paced booming of Ned’s gun—louder and deeper than the other rifles. He seemed to be on the roof of the building but moving from position to position. Meanwhile, bursts of automatic fire and explosions filled in the blanks around his shooting.
    The battle raged for nearly two hours. Then there was a knock on the door of her room and Jason, a former Navy SEAL on her team, hurried in. He was wounded in the side of his chest, she could see the blood soaking into his shirt, but he seemed not to take any notice as he yelled to her. “Come on, Lucy, I’m getting you out of here!”
    Jason turned and led the way through the building and across the courtyard to the main house at the back of the compound where she knew Huff was staying. Shots fired from the wall behind her indicated that the attackers had not yet breached the perimeter. She could also hear Ned and another defender shooting from the roof of the building she’d just left, and at least two more were on the roof of the building she now entered. Her escort walked her quickly down to a room at the end of the hallway and knocked on the heavy wooden door, which was opened by one of Huff’s security men.
    â€œStay here,” Jason said before turning to the security man who let them in. “We need you outside.” The two men then left and Lucy bolted the door.
    Turning around, she saw Huff standing behind a radio operator who was sitting at a desk with his communications equipment laid out in front of him. The radio operator kept typing messages into a keypad, but after a moment would shake his head as apparently there were no responses. Meanwhile, Huff kept urging him to try again and grew more agitated every time the shooting intensified. “Call the goddamn Russians,” he yelled at the man at one point.
    The firefight outside waxed and waned. At times the shooting and explosions that rocked the house and caused debris to fall from the ceiling and walls seemed so intense that Lucy wonderedhow the defenders could hold out. But then she’d be reassured by the low, powerful report of Ned’s gun and continued firing from the roof above her. Occasionally, the shooting stopped, and she dared hope that the attackers had been beaten off and the door would soon open and Ned would be there with his lovely, homely face and “shucks, ma’am, weren’t nothing” grin. But then the shooting would resume.
    Finally, there was no more shooting from the roof above them, only the sound of Ned’s gun and whoever was with him on the other building. Then there was a deafening explosion that rattled the walls and was followed by a silence so complete that her heart faltered and tears welled up in her eyes. Oh, Ned , she thought, though she had no other words for the fear that gripped her. The radio operator got up and grabbed his rifle. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can,” he said, and stepped out of the room.
    Huff collapsed into a corner and covered his face with his hands and began moaning.