Free Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy by Anton Swanepoel Page B

right arm as he lies on the ground. The concentrated fire severs the arm at the shoulder. Steven cries in pain as his arm is torn off, but he does not pass out. He drags himself with his left arm to the gun in his severed right arm’s hand, now lying useless on the ground in a bloody mess.
    As soon as Steven manages to pry his pistol from his dead right hand, a new burst of bullets tears into him, severing his left arm.
    Steven lies helpless on the floor, going into shock as blood pumps out of him from the open wounds. There is a second’s delay then a short burst takes Steven in the head, three bullets finding their mark.
    Peterson looks at the scene in horror just as he crawls into the bathroom, his entire team lies dead on the floor. There is another few seconds delay before more bullets rip into each body, concentrated and well targeted, making sure all are dead. Peterson immediately knows that whoever is behind the door must be able to see them somehow. With effort he crawls into the bathtub, while scanning the door.
    After reloading for the second time, the assassin outside the door takes some small explosives from his backpack and places them on the door at the hinges, lock and centre. Moving to the wall to take cover, he prepares to press the button to activate the charges.
    Inside the room, Laura starts to wake up, and although still a bit dazed, she immediately knows something is wrong. The room is littered with door splinters, pieces of furniture and blood. Four men lie dead on the floor, ripped to pieces. Her immediate reaction is to get out of the room, and she jumps up from the couch just as Peterson takes a peak into the room.
    On seeing Laura trying to escape, Peterson takes aim at her, intending to kill her - leave no witness alive is his belief. Just as Peterson pulls the trigger, the door explodes and fragments of it blast all over the room. The shockwave knocks Laura backwards and to the ground, causing Peterson to miss.
    Peterson is not one to give up and empties his pistol in Laura’s direction.
    From outside the cabin, the assassin notices bullets ripping into the floor and couch all around Laura and immediately jumps into the room, emptying both guns in the direction of Peterson. Landing on top of Laura, he reloads as he shields her, then again empties both guns into the bathroom, this time with more precision.
    90 armor piercing bullets rip through the thin bathroom wall, twenty finding their target.
    Laura is lying on her back and looks up at the man lying over her who is using her chest as a stable platform to aim and reload.
    Again the man reloads, but this time does not fire, he just stares intently in the direction of the bathroom, listening. Laura is so afraid she almost cannot breathe, fearing the man will feel her chest rise and fall as she takes a breath, so she breathes as shallow as she can.
    The smoke from the explosion that blasted the door to pieces slowly rises up into the air and suddenly the fire alarm activates. Laura’s body jerks as the alarm activates, causing the assassin to look down at her. There is some hair in her face and he gently reaches over with his left hand to move the hair with his little finger while still holding the gun.
    Laura is taken aback by the gentleness of his touch. Suddenly the assassin gets up, knowing that within seconds the trained ship’s fire crew will be at the door.
    While he gets up, he empties another clip into the bathroom, shooting through the walls, making sure the person in the bathroom is dead.
    As he walks out of the room he nods to Laura, and she notices that he is limping, blood coming from a wound on his left upper thigh. Laura does not know what to do or say, and lies on the floor in shock.
    The ship’s fire crew arrives only minutes later, and then there is a commotion the moment they see the bodies and spent cartridges.
    Laura is helped to the sickbay where a nurse attends to her minor cuts on her right arm and shoulder due to