"He sent it to me to use me as a decoy. " She looked at Gary. Really looked at him. He wasn't looking at the workshop with concern for her. He was looking at Holloway with terror.
"Gary," Sarah shouted through the steel door. "Why did you tell them I was here? " Gary sobbed. "I had to. They caught me at the border.
I told them I mailed the drive to you so they wouldn't kill me. I traded you, "Sarah. " I'm sorry. Just give them the drive so "I can leave. The truth hung in the smoky air.
Gary hadn't been a hero. He hadn't been a victim. He had been a coward who threw his wife to the wolves to buy himself another day of life. He knew the collectors would come for her. He counted on it.
Sarah felt the last remnant of her old life, the fear, the obligation, the pity, evaporate. She turned to Frank. "Do you have a clean shot? " Frank looked at her surprised. "He's your husband.
" "No," Sarah said, picking up a spare pistol from the workbench. She checked the chamber just like Big Mike had taught her. He's just another liability. " I can't shoot without hitting "Gary," Mike said, peering through the scope. He's using him as a shield.
"Then I'll make him move," Sarah said. Before Frank could stop her, Sarah unbolted the small side door of the workshop. Sarah, no. Frank lunged, but she was already out. She stepped into the floodlight, her hands raised, but she held the flash drive in her left hand high above her head.
"Hold fire. " Holloway screamed to his men. "Don't shoot the evidence. " Sarah walked forward, stopping 10 yards from them. The wind whipped her hair across her face.
She looked at Gary. He looked relieved. "That's a good girl," Holloway sneered. Bring it here. "You want it?
" Sarah asked. "Yes. " Fetch. " Sarah wound up and threw the flash drive as hard as she could, not toward Holloway, but into the darkness, toward the perimeter fence where the tall desert grass was thickest. Holloway's eyes snapped away from her to follow the arc of the drive.
He shoved Gary aside, instinctively, reaching out as if he could catch it from 50 ft away. "Now. " Sarah dropped to the dirt. Crack. Big Mike didn't miss.
The single shot from the workshop echoed across the desert. Holloway's head snapped back. He crumpled to the ground before he even realized he was dead. The mercenaries panicked with their paymaster dead and the element of surprise gone. Their discipline shattered.