Bending over one, she searched him for the key card to the quarters.
Just as she found it, a voice came from behind her.
“Stop. Drop your weapons.”
She paused. Raising her head slowly, she saw the three men standing with guns drawn and pointed at her. They were too far. She couldn’t fight them. She couldn’t shoot. She dropped her guns and raised her hand.
So, this is how this is going to end.
She knew that the moment they saw her face, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.
“Who are you?” one of them asked. She didn’t answer.
“Clearly, you do not know us. We will kill you without a second thought. We’re just giving you the opportunity to say your last prayers,” a man said.
She raised her head, ready to die.
“Actually, I know you,” she said.
The men gasped.
A bullet whizzed through the air and hit the Russian at the left.
The other two turned to see who it was that had shot at them. Suzanne used the opportunity to move. She slid across the ground and raked another man down before he could shoot at the new intruder. The last one was too confused to do anything. She kicked him between his legs from where she lay on the ground, and he buckled his knees in pain. The new intruder finished him off with a bullet.
Suzanne used her elbow to hit the man beneath her in the throat, destroying that area.
She stood up, too stunned to speak. She looked at her savior- Xander.
“How is the upload?” she asked.
“It’s begun, but I don’t know when it will end. It’s taking forever,” Xander said.
“Then, why are you here? You should be in the computer room!” she said.
Xander raised a brow at her. Pointing to the dead people on the floor, he said, “Really?”
She smiled.
“Thank you,” she said, and Xander nodded.
“This is the second time I’ve saved your life. You owe me big time,” he said. “I just can’t believe I used a gun again.”
“Return to the computer room. Once you’re done, get out of this place. I don’t want you to get hurt,” she said.
Xander nodded and turned away.
Suzanne went back to the place she had kept her tray and picked it.
One more step, Suzanne. You’re almost there.
???
3rd December 2021
10:45 am.
Ray of Hope HQ, Staten Island, Richmond County, New York.