Chapter 16 - Return to ChicagoThe Chicago skyline glittered beneath a cold, bruised autumn sky as our private jet touched down at O'Hare. The war had come full circle.
We stepped off the plane directly into an armored convoy led by Mason and a dozen of Gabriel's most trusted enforcers. The city was quiet, but the air felt heavy, charged with the unmistakable tension of an approaching storm.
"Rostov’s private charter landed two hours ago at a private airstrip in Gary, Indiana," Mason reported as we climbed into the back of the bulletproof Mercedes, Eli secured safely in his car seat between Gabriel and me. "His men are regrouping at an abandoned steel mill near the lakefront. They’re heavily armed, and they’re desperate."
"They want a war on my home turf?" Gabriel said coldly, pulling his SIG Sauer from its holster and checking the chamber with a sharp, metallic click. "We’ll give them a war."
I reached into my briefcase, pulling out a hardened tactical tablet displaying real-time satellite imagery and schematic blueprints of the abandoned steel mill.
"Don't just hit them front-on," I said, pointing to a highlighted section of the blueprints. "Rostov is expecting a direct assault. But look at the subterranean drainage tunnels beneath the mill. They connect directly to the municipal water grid—which happens to be right beside the main power substation feeding his communications array."
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Gabriel looked down at the tablet, then up at me, a slow, dangerous grin spreading across his face. "You want to blind them before we strike."
"I want to dismantle them completely," I replied, locking eyes with him. "Numbers, power, communications. Leave them in the dark."
