Chapter 558

People were scrambling everywhere trying to get out of the line of fire. I pushed Vicky to the marble steps just as two rounds hit me in the chest. I had turned to face the gunfire pulling my Glock. I hoped the vest had stopped them from penetrating; it was hard to tell, I was hurting so much.

Abra and Farah had attempted to shield Vicky with their bodies. Vicky was having none of it. She had pulled her Glock and was responding. Ed was starting to do the same to me until he realized I was shooting at the people with the AK’s. I picked one and put four rounds into his body before he fell.

The AK fire was responded to by handgun fire that I recognized as more 40 cal from my bodyguards. There were other smaller caliber weapons being fired but very few.

The AK fire ceased after a few seconds that seemed like an hour. Ed and the others who had been shielding us picked me up and hustled us inside the building, but not before I took a quick glance around.

There was blood everywhere, splattered over the front of the palace and on the marble steps. The Vice Prime Minister and several others who I had just shaken hands with were dead.

Inside a quick count and we were all still alive. Several of my men had taken rounds in the vest. The security detail was wearing the heaver vest. Four of my men had flesh wounds in the legs from near misses. Vicky was unscathed. She had emptied a full clip at two of the shooters as had everyone in my security detail.

I was sitting on a table with my blood seeping through my jacket. Ziva and Vicky helped me take the jacket, blouse and vest off to look at me. When they pulled the vest off I screamed, it hurt so bad.

Prime Minister Cordeiro had made it without getting hit and was standing there watching. He was yelling for his staff to find his doctor.

The light vest had both rounds imbedded in it. The bullets had gone through far enough that the points and force of the impact had deeply punctured my flesh and I was bleeding. If I had been twenty feet closer I would have been dead.

I had Vicky taking pictures of my wounds and the blood running down my breast, and the attempts to stop the bleeding. I was sure there would be plenty of people wanting damage assessment.

After ice packs and dressing to apply pressure to stop the bleeding, I listened as my men described what they had seen and done.

I sent Ziva and Ed - along with a couple other men - to check the shooters; I wanted all the information they could get before the Portuguese police closed down everything.

William returned with the portable fingerprint scanner; it was one of the staples that were packed with the bag of security tools wherever we went any more.

Ed took pictures of them and everything in their pockets and all their tattoos while Ziva took fingerprints. Robert would have all of it in just a few minutes.

All of our phones were ringing; my State Department phone was indicating it was the President calling. I answered the call.

“What the hell is going on there?” he asked.

“You sent me into a trap,” I replied.

I knew he knew nothing, I doubted anyone other than the four individuals involved knew anything. I suspected this was a thrown together plot against the Portuguese Prime Minister and me being there was the icing on the cake. They couldn’t have known I was going to be there unless there was a spy in Prime Minister Cordeiro’s inner staff. That was always a possibility.

There was a long silence. “I had no idea anything was going to happen. Are you OK?”

“I have been better and worse, I was hit twice in the chest and I am still bleeding as we talk; four of my men were also hit. I have more security on the way within an hour. I will keep you informed,” I said as I ended the call.

The bleeding had stopped and Vicky was applying gauze dressings and tape. The doctor was busy with my four men. Two were going to be transported to the hospital; there were indications that the bullets had hit bone and they needed to check for shrapnel.