Chapter 6 - The Siege of Pine Crest
CLICK.
The power to the entire bunker cut out. The heavy blast doors at the top of the stairs clicked shut, locking automatically from the outside.
Red emergency lights flashed, casting long, dark shadows across the room.
"Dad?" Leo asked, his voice calm, almost too calm. "Are bad people coming here now?"
Arthur didn't answer. He dashed to a heavy steel locker, punched in a five-digit code, and pulled out two tactical vests and a suppressed sidearm. He strapped one vest onto Leo and knelt in front of him.
"Listen to me, Leo," Arthur said, holding the boy’s shoulders tightly. "Whatever happens upstairs, whatever you hear... you stay behind me. Your mother... the woman talking on that speaker... she isn't the mother you remember. Do you understand?"
Leo looked into Arthur's eyes. "She wants to take me away from you."
"I won't let her."
"I won't let her either," Leo said quietly.
BOOM!
The heavy steel blast door at the top of the stairs blew inward with a deafening roar. Smoke and thermal tear gas poured down the concrete staircase.
Tactical boots crunched on the gravel outside. Flashlights cut through the thick grey smoke. Heavy-armored operatives from the Agency—clad in matte-black armor and night-vision goggles—began descending the stairs in tight formation.
"Move! Move! Secure the child! Eliminate the father!" a voice barked over the radio chatter.
Arthur didn't wait. He pulled two flashbang grenades from his vest, pulled the pins, and tossed them up the stairwell.
BANG! BANG!
Blinding light and disorienting sound erupted in the narrow concrete tunnel. The operatives shrieked in pain as their night-vision goggles overloaded.
Arthur moved like a hurricane. He bounded up the stairs, using the close-quarters environment to his absolute advantage. Disarming the lead operative in a flash of motion, he used the man's own body as a shield while firing with surgical precision. Three operatives fell in four seconds.
He kicked the fourth operative down the stairs, reloaded his weapon in a fluid motion, and pushed his way out of the smoke into the living room of the cabin above.
Standing in the center of the burning living room, surrounded by six heavily armed bodyguards, was Sarah Vance.
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She looked immaculate. A stark white coat, dark hair pulled back in a sharp bun, and eyes as cold as absolute zero.
"You haven't lost your edge, Arthur," she said smoothly, raising a sleek silver handgun and aiming it directly at Arthur's chest. "But you're fighting for a dream that was never real."
