Getting back to her feet, Olivia stepped over the Cretan corpse and hurried on down the hallway. She could hear shouts and gunfire coming from the lobby and hoped that Blue and Beige had the situation under control.
Static sputtered through her earpiece before a distorted voice made it through, the signal being interfered with by the thick villa walls.
Olivia couldn't make out whose voice it was, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that Pedro and his men had been informed about the attack on his mansion and were returning to defend it.
Jogging down the route she had memorized from the schematics, Olivia turned a corner and came face to face with a surprised guard. Too close for her to aim her pistol, Olivia instead drew her knife from it sheath, jabbing it into the man's abdomen. With a yelp, he staggered back, clutching at the deep cut in his guts. Olivia took a step back, raised her gun and put a round cleanly into his heart. The Cretan collapsed without another sound.
Behind him, however, stood two more.
"Oh," Olivia said. Ducking back around the corner she had turned, she fired off several more shots, forcing the two guards to duck to the floor. With the last discharge, her pistol gave off a faint click, indicating that its magazine was empty.
"Shit."
Reaching into her armored vest, Olivia produced a spare magazine, ejecting the spent one and fumbling to insert the fresh mag. Before she could slide it into the pistol's grip, one of the guards rounded the corner on her, short-barreled scattergun in hand. Down the hallway the men had come from, there was the sound of glass shattering to the floor and the man's head whipped to the side as if struck by an invisible fist. Blood gushing across the walls from a hole in his temple, he fell to the floor. A second later, Olivia could make out the sound of the second guard crumpling to the marble as well.
Keeping her back to the wall, she cautiously glanced around the corner. Blood pooled underneath the now prone guard's head. At the end of the hallway, shards of glass littered the parquet, two bullet holes punched through the window above.
"Get a move on," Amber's voice came through Olivia's earpiece. Olivia obeyed and continued down the corridor.
A minute later, she stood before a large, wooden door, a wreath of pink flowers hung to it from a nail. Outside, she could hear the sound of speeder cars approaching the estate. Taking a deep breath and holding her sidearm at the ready, Olivia pushed at the door. It slowly swung open.
The room was dark, only the light from the hallway casting any illumination into it. Through the windows on the far wall, Olivia could see that the sun had fully set. Cautiously, she stepped over the threshold. The floor was covered in a plush carpet, muting her footsteps. Glancing around, she could make out colorful wallpaper covered in paper drawings. The pictures looked like animals, or at least a child's interpretation thereof. In the far corner to the right stood a large canopy bed, translucent drapes hanging from its posters. A pile of blankets lay atop the mattress, haphazardly bunched together.
In the faint light, Olivia could make out just the slightest movement under the sheets. Slowly, she approached, aiming her pistol at the bed. Coming to its side, she reached out with her left hand, grabbed the blankets, and threw them to the floor.
