He pulled the dead man to the side of the road and removed his Glock, although Nick didn’t think anyone would be looting bodies for weapons if things spiraled out of control. A minute later, they were through the gate and had approached Founder’s Circle. The plan had been to circle the hub and hope that they weren’t spotted while trying to get a better layout of the battleground, what his command J-2, the intelligence officer, would call “preparation of the battlespace.” More importantly, he needed to find his brother. He knew his brother wouldn’t let this travesty go unpunished, and he absolutely would not abandon his neighbors to their demise.

As soon as they’d turned right onto Founder’s Circle, Sam had gasped in horror and pointed, and Nick had turned his head just in time to see a big man with a ponytail in a Falling Rock Kevlar vest near the backside of the pavilion point a pistol at another man in a similar vest and pull the trigger.

Sam inhaled sharply as the second man collapsed, and she immediately knew that whoever the killer was, the much older man he’d shot had likely been a resident.

“Sam, get down now!” Nick ordered, yanked the wheel to the left, and accelerated.

The Ford Explorer leapt over the curb and onto the grass, barreling straight for the pavilion and the three guards that held the remaining residents hostage. Nick scanned the rest of the area. Three in front of me, Ponytail and another in the back of the pavilion, and two others near one of the three vans, fifty yards away. These three are the priority.

Two gunmen on the pavilion had descended the short steps to the grass at the appearance of the SUV, and as the vehicle tore across the grass toward them, they raised their M4s and fired in unison.

The slugs impacted the windshield and created a patchwork of starbursts in Nick’s field of view. Sam shrieked in terror at the sound, as if baseballs were being thrown in rapid-fire succession by the world’s angriest pitcher.

“We’re fine,” Nick said calmly. “Bulletproof glass. I thought the glass looked a little thick.”

The men continued to fire, but for reasons only they could explain, they remained fixed to the ground, even as the SUV closed the distance.

“You thought?” Sam yelled at him angrily from below the dashboard.

“Relax. Now, hold on down there. You’re going to feel a bump or two,” Nick said, and floored the SUV. When the Ford Explorer was less than ten feet from the two gunmen, Nick turned the wheel to the left, and pumped the brakes, putting the SUV into a slide on the wet grass. The SUV struck both shooters simultaneously, as if they were bowling pins set slightly apart.