In the stairwell between the second and third floors, the corpses of the first wave of High Table enforcers lay sprawled across the steps, a grim reminder of what awaited the rest.
Seven remaining squads pressed upward, every step weighed down with tension, eyes sweeping for hidden dangers.
At the corner of the stairwell, the lead enforcer failed to notice the trap beneath his boots.
A click.
Two grenades rolled down from his feet.
BOOM! BOOM!
The twin blasts tore through the stairwell, claiming four or five lives and shearing away half the staircase itself.
The consequences were catastrophic.
Of the forty-two enforcers, most were still crammed on the lower stairs between the first and second floors. The collapsing steps, mangled bodies of the first wave, and grenades hidden beneath those corpses all crashed downward together.
The carnage was immediate.
Five or six men were crushed on impact.
A chain of secondary explosions followed—
BOOM! BOOM!
Seven or eight more were blown apart, with several left writhing, mortally wounded.
The stairwell erupted into chaos. Screams and groans filled the air.
Meanwhile, on the second floor—
Anna had already slaughtered most of the enforcers there. Calmly, she ditched her empty Kohary CA-415 assault rifle, pushed open a nearby guest room door, and slipped inside.
In the bathroom, she retrieved a stashed Kel-Tec KSG shotgun, racked it, and leveled it toward the entrance.
Three seconds later—
The door crashed open.
Three or four enforcers surged into the corridor. One twisted the bathroom handle—
BOOM!
Anna's shotgun roared, blowing a massive hole through the wooden door and pinning the would-be intruder to the wall in a spray of blood.
She darted to the side of the frame.
A second later—
RATATATAT!
A storm of bullets tore through the bathroom, shredding porcelain, glass, and tile.
She breathed deep, steadying her heartbeat.
Then—
She leaned her barrel into the splintered hole.
BOOM!
Another enforcer fell.
She kicked the bathroom door open.
BOOM!
The tight corridor amplified the shot, nailing an enforcer against the wall, the door slamming shut behind him.
Two survivors, trapped outside.
Anna didn't hesitate.
BOOM!
A slug ripped through the door, shredding both men at the threshold.
Stepping over their bodies, she emerged into the hall, chambered another round, and executed them where they writhed on the floor.
The second floor was silent. Cleared.
But the stairwell's echoing blasts and screams told her there was no time to linger.
She advanced to the landing between the second and third floors, shotgun raised.
Up ahead, High Table enforcers were filing cautiously down the half-destroyed staircase.
Anna fired.
BOOM!
Several men tumbled screaming, their bodies crashing to the floor below.
She charged.
Slamming into two enforcers not yet on the stairs, she sent one plummeting into the void while smashing the other into the wall. Dazed, he dropped his sidearm.
Anna snatched it.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three more fell mid-step, their return fire aborted.
She shoved the pistol into the mouth of the dazed man beside her.
BANG!
Brains sprayed the wall. She let the corpse drop and yanked it into her arms as cover.
Reloading smoothly, she fired again.
BOOM!
Another fell from the stairs.
BOOM!
One more was shredded, his armor cracking under the buckshot.
Return fire raked the walls, forcing her down.
Below, fresh enforcers were already storming upward.
Anna gritted her teeth, chambered a round, and hurled the corpse-shield down at them.
She leapt after it.
Mid-fall, she tore free the jammed pistol from the corpse's mouth.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Bullets tore into the shocked enforcers who hadn't expected their enemy to fall from above.
Anna hit the ground hard, rolled, and came up firing.
Her pistol emptied in seconds. She ditched it, lunged forward, and tackled an enforcer mid-aim. They tumbled down the stairs together, crashing to the first-floor landing.
With a vicious kick, she knocked him unconscious, stole his weapon, and unleashed hell.
RATATATAT!
Bullets raked the stairwell, mowing down the High Table killers still charging from below.
The massacre continued.
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