“All right,” he told her. “Hank,” he said, “take her out front and meet me back here.” He nodded toward the office. “I’m going in.”

“Are you—”

“Yes. I’ll be fine. Take her out and hurry back.”

Hank and the girl rushed off, and he stepped inside the building. He moved slowly and carefully. He believed the student when she said that the shooters were gone, but it paid to be careful.

The first thing that hit him was the smell. Shit and piss and the coppery odor of blood. They must have shot off a lot of rounds because the scent of carbon was in the dusty air as well. Behind a counter whose top was chipped and shattered by bullets lay two women, one on top of another, both covered in an alarming amount of blood. Further on, down a short hallway, three more bodies lay bleeding onto the floor. Brad recognized one of them as Dennis Whittaker, the principal.

“Building one’s clear,” Mitch said over the radio. “Should we tell everyone to stay on lockdown?”

“Until it’s over,” Brad said.

“Then we’re heading toward the gym.”

Hank returned, stunned at the extent of the carnage.

“No one in the band room,” Paul announced. “Moving on to the theater.”

“I’m in the library—” Clint began. His voice was broken off by the sound of automatic rifle fire, its staccato bursts immediately audible both over the radio and live from outside.

The shooters were in the library.

“Go! Go!” Brad ordered.

He and Hank ran out of the office, weapons ready. He realized that he didn’t know exactly where the library was, but when he spotted Vern and Mitch sprinting across the school’s interior courtyard toward a building at the far end, he followed their lead, Hank keeping abreast of him. All four of them arrived at the same time, Norris and Paul only seconds behind.

They’d prepared for these sorts of tactical maneuvers during training sessions, but the most recent one had been awhile back, and Brad prayed that rustiness would not end up getting one of them killed.

The gunfire had stopped for several seconds, but it started up again, and Brad motioned for Vern to open the door. Indicating that the others were to follow him, he entered the building defensively, leading with his weapon, crouching low. They crossed the first hurdle and weren’t mowed down, but there was a uniformed body lying unmoving on the floor to their right. He couldn’t tell if it was Hildy or Clint. Paul quickly checked for a pulse, then shook his head. Another burst of gunfire erupted. It was too loud to determine the source, but nothing was splintering around them, so they obviously hadn’t been seen.