Chapter 9 - THE AVALANCHE OF STEELThe ground shook beneath Dante's feet as thousands of tons of steel containers began to shift, slide, and cascade toward the center of the pier like an avalanche of metal blocks.
"Get down!" Marco screamed, diving behind the concrete barrier of the control booth.
Federal agents scattered in all directions as massive twenty-foot steel containers crashed down around them, blocking exits and crushing the hoods of the SUV's. In the chaos of smoke, flying sparks, and screaming metal, Elena vanished into the shadows between the falling stacks.
Dante shielded Leo with his own body, pressing flat against the base of the crane as a towering wall of cargo boxes slammed into the pavement just feet away, cutting off the pier from the rest of the harbor.
When the deafening roar finally subsided and only the patter of the rain remained, Dante slowly stood up.
The pier was half-destroyed. The federal vehicles were trapped behind a wall of twisted steel. Smoke hissed from the blown-out electrical transformers, casting an eerie, apocalyptic orange glow over the wet concrete.
Marco jogged up, coughing through the acrid smoke, his clothes soaked and torn. "Dante! Are you and the boy alright?"
"We're fine," Dante said coldly, his eyes scanning the smoking wreckage. He reached down and picked up something small that had fallen near his boot—a silver Vane family crest pin, stained with mud and blood.
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"She's gone," Marco muttered, staring at the blocked exit. "She used the grid blackout to slip out through the drainage tunnels under the harbor."
Dante didn't answer. He carefully tucked the pin into his coat pocket, his expression hardening into a mask of pure, unyielding stone. "She thinks she won," he whispered, looking out toward the dark, endless ocean. "She thinks she finally broke the Moretti dynasty."
