Chapter 9 - THE SIEGE OF CHICAGOThe glass windows of the penthouse safehouse suddenly shattered in a shower of glittering shards as a concussion grenade landed on the balcony outside.
"Get down!" Cassandra roared, tackling me to the floor just as the explosion ripped through the living room, sending smoke and debris flying everywhere.
Alarms blared deafeningly. Heavy tactical footsteps echoed from the hallway outside—not police, but private mercenaries wearing unmarked black combat gear, armed with assault rifles and breaching equipment.
"They breached the elevator shaft!" I yelled over the chaos, scrambling to my feet and drawing my firearm.
Emily emerged from the bedroom, clutching Lily tightly to her chest, her face pale with terror. "Daniel! What's happening?"
"Get into the reinforced panic room behind the master bath right now!" I ordered, pushing them toward safety before slamming and locking the heavy steel partition.
Cassandra was already kneeling by the central command console, her fingers flying across the holographic interface with terrifying speed.
"The local police won't come," Cassandra said calmly, bullets ricocheting off the reinforced exterior walls of the safehouse. "Victoria’s network owns half the city’s emergency dispatch. We are entirely on our own."
"Then we fight our way out," I said, grabbing a tactical rifle from the hidden armory cabinet in the wall.
Cassandra glanced at me, a rare spark of respect flashing in her green eyes. "Now you sound like a true Kincaid. Here’s the plan: the mercenaries are massing in the main corridor. I've overridden the building's emergency suppression system. When I give the signal, I'm going to vent high-density tear gas through the ventilation ducts, blinding them. We hit the service stairwell and make it to the underground parking garage."
"And if they're waiting for us there?" I asked, racking the slide of my rifle.
Cassandra grinned, a fierce, predatory smile that looked terrifyingly like our mother's. "Then we burn their entire convoy to the ground."
She slammed her palm down onto the manual override button.
Hsssss.
Thick, blinding white smoke flooded the hallway outside, followed immediately by the muffled shouts and choking coughs of the mercenaries.
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"Now!" Cassandra shouted.
We burst through the shattered doorway into the smoke-filled corridor, weapons raised, stepping straight into the warzone of our own family's making.
