Chapter 189 Storming the gates

Slipping out the back service entrance, she stuck to the lengthening shadows and blind spots of the late afternoon as the compound's perimeter fences started coming into view. Despite the all-black combat gear, Mariama moved with the specter-like silence of a wraith, hypersensitized to every subtle shift and snap of branches that could give away her position. She was only meters from a drainage culvert large enough to crawl through to the outside when klaxons suddenly shattered the quiet. Red warning lights started spinning as Vallejo's men snapped to alert stations. "They've found something!" Andre's voice crackled urgently. "Mariama, you need to move, now! Proceed to Point Zulu, I'll provide sniper overwatch!" A squawk of Spanish over the loudspeakers indicated the guards had found evidence of her infiltration already. She was made, her cover blown - there could be no turning back or trying to salvage whatever thin pretenses remained. Pure desperation fueled Mariama as she sprinte