Lady Death

seen them in the dark forest surrounding Schrader’s property. The thick canopy of treetops above blocked out the moonlight. Shadows blended with tree trunks; various forest shapes filled his eyes. The ground held the danger of tripping over unseen obstacles.
He knew he should abort since the dead man had alerted his fellow troops.
But he had to proceed with the mission.
Raven left the body and jogged a few yards to another position, sliding onto his belly. He had to get through the section of forest before reaching Schrader’s home. Now the opposition knew they had a breach. His attack-plan was flying out the window and he wasn’t anywhere near the main objective.
He listened as the boss—the voice sounded like Sebastian Speidel—called for the gunner Raven killed. When he continued to not get a reply, he directed the force to search in pairs. He didn’t know where the two dead men had been.
It gave Raven the chance he needed.
He listened to more radio chatter from other gunmen as the force began their search.
He backed away from the tree he lay beside and squatted a moment. He heard boots crunching the forest floor as the search teams stalked him. Raven moved forward, a few steps at a time, using concealment as he advanced. He didn’t want another engagement so far from the house.
He scanned as he moved. He didn’t stare at any single space, but kept his head moving. He wanted to catch any movement not consistent with the environment. The forest shadows might confuse him in the heat of battle, but there were ways to overcome the handicap.
Raven neared the end of the tree line where it met the property’s lawn. Raven looked around. The house was huge, many lights on within, with silhouetted figures near the front porch. Speidel, probably, directing the search.
A trio of luxury sedans sat in a line in the circular driveway. Raven stayed low as he followed the edge of the lawn. Most of the troop sounds were behind him, but then two shadows split and moved between tree trunks. Raven dropped flat. The two gunmen passed without noticing him. He remained in place until they had gone, but there were others, close by. He heard them whispering.
Then the radio burst with more chatter. Somebody had discovered the two bodies.
Raven hustled. Speidel shouted for his crew not to rush the area but to spread out in search of the intruder. Raven grimaced. Intruder. Singular. He thought Raven was alone. Raven wished he wasn’t.
Maybe he was making a mistake.
But there was no turning back now.
He kept moving.

14
The forest wrapped around the front and sides of the Schrader house. As Raven reached one side, he once again stretched out on his belly. The search party hadn’t branched out to this portion of the grounds. Speidel continued to direct from the porch. Raven shook his head. Naughty, naughty.
The wall sat about 20 yards away. Covered windows, trimmed bushes at the base. Raven broke cover and ran to the wall, stopping under one of the windows. He smashed the glass with the buttstock of the M4 Commando and lobbed a grenade inside. The blast lit the room and shook the house. A fire started. He bolted from the window and ran around the corner to the front. The trio at the porch, reacting to the blast, didn’t see him. He opened fire, the M4 spitting quietly. One gunner dropped. He shifted his aim to Sebastian Speidel, but the boss crashed through the front door. Raven’s burst missed. He tagged the second gunner in the chest. The man tumbled down the porch steps.
Raven rolled a second grenade under one of the cars, a Maserati coupe. He ducked around the corner. The explosion sent a wave of searching heat flashing by. The fireball lit the grounds. Two secondary blasts, the other two cars, joined the fray.
Raven reversed course. He ran around the back of the house, steering wide of the back patio stretching along the length of the rear. Thick smoke from the burning cars drifted across the compound.
The radio chatter in Raven’s ear was a stream of shouting and incoherence. Sporadic shots cracked. The troops were firing at each other, or at shadows, in desperation.
Raven reached the opposite tree line and took cover. He slapped a fresh magazine into the M4 Commando. The front of the house was ablaze now, the fire from the cars spreading to the structure. Raven used a tree trunk to block the glare of the flames. His eyes itched from the drifting smoke.
The side of the house Raven now faced contained the garage. Concrete curved from the garage door to the circular driveway in front. Raven faced too many troops for a frontal assault, but he could smoke out his quarry. When Schrader made his getaway, Raven would have him.
He tucked the carbine to his shoulder.
He waited. Anxious minutes passed.
Hugo Schrader’s body shook as he hid under his desk.
The study door crashed open.
“Mr. Schrader! Where are you?”
Speidel!
Schrader scrambled from his hiding spot and leaned both hands on the desktop.
“What’s happening?”
“It’s Raven! The front of the house is on fire, and one of the first-floor bedrooms is burning too.”
“The cars!”
“I know! We have to use the boat now.”
“It will only get us across the lake. What then?”
“We improvise.”
Schrader nodded. He wasn’t shaking anymore. He had a plan, a structure, a sense of order in the chaos.
“The easiest way out,” he told Speidel, “is down the wall.”
Speidel ran to the French doors. He pulled them open. Smoke drifted inside, enough to make him cough and step back. He issued orders over the radio to keep the troops looking for Raven.
Schrader joined Speidel on the balcony. Speidel climbed over the rail. He stood on the outer ledge a moment and stretched out a foot onto one of the stone steps running bottom to top on the wall. The steps led to the patio. From there, they would run to the lake and Schrader’s motorboat. It wasn’t a