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“I never thought inviting a enerate such an abundance of work for uided Dirk out of the tent

Up the hill, they both spotted Sophie walking along the perients

“Co discoveries to be made,” Dirk replied with a wink, then strolled toward his tent for the night

14

THE RATTLE OF AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE SENT DIRK BOLT upright in his cot

The shots sounded dangerously close Dirk heard soun He quickly slipped into a pair of shorts and sandals, then staggered out of his tent as a cascade of gunfire from multiple weapons erupted above the cahts were of Sophie, but he had little ti down the trail, brandishing assault rifles

Dirk immediately ducked behind the side of his tent, then scurried to a low retaining wall a short distance to the rear He silently slipped over the wall and followed its cover away from the tents To the rear of the cas that had once served the ancient port city He threaded his way through the ht rise to a small corner partition The darkened stone barrier provided a tight point of concealment by which he could observe the entire camp

While his quick reaction had allowed for his escape, his fellow camp mates were not so fortunate Sophie had been the next to react, bursting out of her tent near the trail with gun in hand But one of the gunmen stood just a few feet away and quickly trained his assault rifle on her before she could shake the cobwebs froun barrel, she had no choice but to reluctantly drop her weapon to the ground The gun the rifle into her shoulder, knocking her hard to her knees

“What’s going on here?” Professor Haasis shouted, e from his tent half dressed

“Shut up,” the other gun his rifle stock into the professor’s ribs Haasis sprawled forward, eround Sophie crawled over and helped hihts Another thug appeared on the trail and took over guarding Sophie and Haasis, while the other gunazed toward Dirk’s tent, reacting with unmen found it empty

Up the trail, there was a noisy coures caht ar to support Saash across his forehead and shuffled his feet in a dazed state Twothe wounded men into camp

“Sa cautiously toward the two agents She grabbed hold of Saround beside the other seated captives One of the fe a torn shirt around his wounded ar forehead

“Where’s Holder?” she whispered to Raban

The agent gave her a grim look and shook his head

Recovering from his blow, Haasis stood and shouted at his captors