Rule Forty-Seven

It’s Sunday afternoon when the first signs of the impending attack occur. Harry receives a call from the man himself.

“You’re time is up, Styles.”

Five simple words that have the activity at the house decrease into a small whisper.

Noah and Harry are sitting at the front, like planned, thick bullet proof vests over their frames. Harry’s bandana is black, his shirt black, his tight pants black. He’s been quiet all morning, and Noah starts as she realises he has a cigarette between his lips. Maybe it’s a calming method, maybe it isn’t.

Noah herself is fitted much like Harry. They have gun holsters strapped to their thighs, one on each side, and a heavy pouch of ammunition in the sides of the vests. Noah’s heart is pattering like a steady drum beat; she feels like a cornered animal.

When the first explosion goes off, Harry walks silently over to Noah, kisses her softly, and then leaves to camouflage himself in the trees. She walks in the opposite direction, walking away from the house but staying hidden in the bush.

“First explosion gone,” Noah breaths into the intercom. “Positions at the front attained, waiting for a visual.”

There’s a cackle of silence and then Lou is talking back. “Tom and I are in the basement, door is locked, house is empty.”

Another moment of silence before Melanie chips in; “Positions at the back taken, waiting for your call Noah and then we’re moving out.”

Noah takes a deep breath, keeps walking. The air is cooling down, the late October season starting to show. She shivers.

Back at the house, Harry is breathing calmly in his position in the tree. The sniper rifle is hanging from his hand. Harry takes a moment to breathe softly, to savour this calm that surrounds him. He remembers the moments the... the family had. The time where Niall had almost burnt the house down trying to cook food, the moment he had caught Noah watching Zayn and Liam kiss. He remembers the way Noah looked in his clothes, smiling and at home.

His earpiece crackles into life. “Visual attained. About fifteen armed and ready in three SUVs. Prince is in the last one. Explosion site has a mangled vehicle, no survivors. Let’s get ready to role.”

Harry lifts the sniper into place and balances it precariously on his knee. His sight focuses on three moving cars, and he loads a bullet into the rifle. Shoots. Watches the tire on the first car explode. Shoots again. The opposite tire explodes.

The people in the car start yelling, the men jump out. Harry becomes efficient as he shoots the right side tires one by one. “Vehicles down, escape route hindered.”

“Noah?”

“Wait for it,” Noah breathes back. She’s situated behind a tree, staring at Prince who has not moved from the car, fiddling with a dagger in her hand. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“I have a sighting here,” Melanie’s voice says. “Five armed with guns, moving towards the house. Permission to kill?”

Noah stops moving the dagger, narrows her eyes at Prince. “Stealthily.”

“Copy.”

Melanie, who’s hiding behind a tree, motions to Josh who is next to her. They trade the guns in their hands for long blades, move out behind the five. Melanie and Josh move like clockwork, slicing through the delicate skin of their attackers and then advancing onto the next one without so much as a squeak.

Two minutes pass and Noah’s earpiece crackles back into life. “Back team down, moving into position again.”


“Good work, Melanie.”

“Happy to be of service.”

Noah smiles to herself, takes a deep breath. “Harry, you good to go?”

“All good on this end.”

But then Jack Prince is moving out of the car, climbing down onto the dirt road and glancing around. He focuses on the house in front of him and then around the woods. His voices rings out in the clear air.

“Noah Stone, I know you’re watching me,” he calls. His voice is too loud, he doesn’t know where she is. “This is your last chance to hand over what is mine before my people lay siege to your house.”

Though she knew this was coming, Noah feels a pang of hurt. The house was nice. She liked it a lot. Just another victim caught up in this stupid game.

“You have five seconds to come forward,” he calls again. “Five... four... three... two... one...”

For the longest time nothing happens.

“I think we took out his people,” Melanie laughs into Noah’s ear.

Noah smirks, watches Prince closely as he frowns. He purses his lips, motions forward with his hands to the people around him, and then Noah’s whispering into her intercom.

“Second position a go, Melanie.”

“Copy that.”

The men around Noah move slowly towards the house, guns arched gracefully.

The first shots that sound aren’t from them, though. They come from Melanie, whose first priority right at the moment is to protect Lou and Tom. She shoots two rounds off, smiles when two men fall limp to the ground. Noah grins in glee as she watches Prince’s face morph from confident to shocked.

Harry stays put in the tree, scope on the one furthest from him and closest to Prince. He wants to scare the man, not kill him. Not yet. His shot is loud, clear, rings eerily through the woods, hits the man he’s aimed for right on the temple. Prince jumps, lifts his pistol. Harry smiles coyly to himself.

For the first time, Noah’s intercom crackles into life with the sound of Liam’s voice on the other end. “You have an incoming. There’s three of them in the car, don’t recognize any of the faces.”

“Is the car marked?” It’s Lou now. She sounds worried, like she knows what’s going to happen.

“No. Blank.”

Noah stares at Prince, tilts her head. She whispers ‘take the queen and the city falls’ to herself (because there is something about that sentence), turns her back to Prince and stares down the dirt track towards the entrance to the cottage. A car turns down the driveway, slows to a stop at the wreckage. The three people climb out. And Noah feels dizzy and out of control and suddenly, so suddenly, she realizes why Prince wants her, and her team, to suffer.