Chapter 99: The Cowardly Leaders
The very instant the four automated turrets spun up and unleashed their first concussive discharge, every shred of tactical command vanished from Harlan Sterling mind. He did not shout an order to form a defensive line, nor did he instruct the men behind him to return fire with their hunting rifles. The thunderous roar of the discharge and the vicious whistle of rubber projectiles cutting the subzero air triggered a primal panic that wiped away forty years of patrician arrogance.
Harlan threw himself forward into the snow crust, hitting the frozen flagstones chest first as the first volley tore through the air where his torso had been standing half a heartbeat earlier.
Beside him, Torin dropped his tactical shotgun without firing a single shell, the heav
