The Jerusalem Creed: A Sean Wyatt Thriller by Ernest Dempsey Page B

pointed his weapon but didn’t fire. If he were to miss, Tommy was now behind the door, and even though it could potentially stop the bullet, he didn’t want to chance shooting his friend. Sean’s thought was to use the gun as a way to get whoever came through the doorway to stop and surrender.
    Unfortunately, it didn’t go down that way.
    A man with a scarf over his face came through the door and only lost his balance for a split second, recovered quickly, and jabbed his own handgun at Sean’s chest. The long barrel of the silencer made the weapon awkward and unbalanced, a fact that played to Sean’s advantage in the moment it took the man to aim. Sean dropped his right hand and reached out with the other, grabbing the elongated barrel and yanking it to the right just as the intruder fired. The muffled pop sent a round harmlessly into the drywall. Before he could squeeze off another shot, Sean jerked the man toward him. Using his momentum, he planted his forearm squarely in the attacker’s nose.
    Behind the mask, the man grunted. He stumbled backward, dizzied by the shattered nose and the pain shooting through his skull. His eyes instantly watered, and he instinctively put his hands to his face. Sean took a step forward and was about to send his boot into the intruder’s gut when another man came through the door. Tommy had been waiting in his hiding spot, anticipating the right moment. Seeing the second attacker coming through, he took that as his cue and shoved the door hard as the next man tried to aim his weapon at Sean.
    The door crashed into the man’s side, jarring the arm that held the gun. The barrel puffed a thin cloud of smoke, and the bullet zipped through the wall on the other side of the room by the desk. Tommy yanked the door back and moved quickly around it. Using the element of surprise, and the attacker’s imbalance, Tommy punched him in the jaw with a right hook. The blow sent the man stumbling back through the door, but he kept his weapon in hand and regained his composure a moment later. Tommy’s stocky frame wasn’t the most agile, but he managed to duck to the side as the gun fired again. He sidestepped and then quickly slammed his elbow into the man’s forearm. Reaching over his elbow, Tommy grabbed the gun’s lengthy barrel and twisted it hard, using his momentum to wrench it from the intruder. As he did, the masked man spun his body and brought his leg up, snapping the top of his foot into the target. His boot struck Tommy in the face and sent him reeling backward until his back struck the wall in the corridor, outside the apartment.
    Inside the apartment, Sean lashed out at the crippled attacker while the man’s hands were still grasping at a bleeding and broken nose. He jumped forward and kicked out, aiming for the man’s ribs, but somehow the intruder was aware enough to step back and grab Sean’s shoe before it reached the target. In the same quick motion, the man twisted the foot to the left and pulled hard. The move caught Sean in midair and sent him in a spin, crashing to the floor. A sharp pain shot through his shoulder as it struck the hard surface. Sean didn’t have time to hurt, though. The intruder had regained his vision and stomped hard with his boot, intent on crushing Sean’s face.
    He rolled out of the way, put his hands on the floor, and swept his right leg out as the attacker tried the move again. Sean’s leg clipped the man’s ankle, and combined with his weight, sent him toppling backward onto the floor, landing hard on his shoulder blades.
    Sean spun to a crouching position as his opponent lifted his legs and, pressing his hands against the floor, leaped acrobatically back onto his feet. Sean’s shoulder ached. He had to keep focused, though. The other man was hurting too, blood oozing from his crushed nose down into the black scarf.
    The man put his hands up in a position Sean recognized. The intruder was evidently trained in the martial arts of