“We can’t wait any longer.” Megan Walker cocked her HK VP9 pistol and stepped out of the black Hyundai sedan.

 

“We still don’t have the authorization—”

 

“If we wait any longer, they’ll kill him,” she whispered in a firm voice. She squinted at Lucas, her partner with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, or ASIO. “You saw them enter the house five minutes ago. Why do you think they came at this ungodly hour of the night?”

 

“But our boss—”

 

“Let me worry about it, alright?”

 

Lucas Anderson shrugged and nodded.

 

Megan drew a deep breath, and the night’s cool air filled her lungs. She screwed the sound suppressor to the pistol’s muzzle and zipped the front of her gray windbreaker. She looked at the house they had been surveilling for the last hour. It was a two-story redbrick building on Cremorne Road. The two Asian men had arrived in a white Mitsubishi SUV and had parked illegally in front of the garage doors of the apartment building next to the house. Megan had positioned her vehicle across the intersection about fifty meters away. She and Lucas were able to observe everything, but were also set for a quick chase, if it became necessary.

 

She returned her eyes to Lucas, who had readied his pistol. “Here’s the plan,” she said in a low but clear voice, brushing back the brown bangs that reached her eyebrows, above her aqua-blue eyes. “I’ll take the front. They’re most likely to come out that way. Easier and faster.”

Lucas’s face was still twisted in a frown. He hesitated for a moment, then said, “Okay.”

 

“Don’t fire unless it’s necessary, but if you have to, shoot to kill.”

 

“I’ve got it,” he said in a slightly annoyed tone.

 

“I’m serious. These could be professional assassins.”

 

“I’ve done this before. I know what to do.”

 

Megan’s eyes caught the faint light of the corner streetlamp and sparked.

She smiled at Lucas. “Let’s do it well.” She tipped her head toward the house. “Follow me.”

 

She darted across the street, keeping the pistol close to her thigh.