Chapter 6 - THE TRIPLE CROSS"You really thought I brought you here out of sentimentality?" Cross laughed, the sound echoing harshly off the frosted walls. "I couldn't breach Vance's defenses without a wrecking ball. You were my wrecking ball, Evelyn. A mother fighting for her child is the most predictable weapon in the world."
Behind me, the heavy blast door hissed. Vance, bleeding from a shoulder wound, stood behind a bulletproof glass barrier inside the emergency escape tunnel.
"Cross, you fool!" Vance's voice squawked over the wall speakers. "You think you can handle her? She was the Vanguard's top operative for a reason! Kill them both now!"
Vance slammed a red manual override button on the wall.
WARNING: FACILITY DECONTAMINATION INITIATED. NITROGEN PURGE IN 60 SECONDS.
Thick, white clouds of pure nitrogen gas began hissing violently from vents in the ceiling. The oxygen level in the room plummeted instantly.
Cross's guards panicked, their focus shifting from me to the gas descending upon us.
That was the only mistake they needed to make.
I didn't draw my guns. I snatched two chemical road flares from my tactical pouch, struck them, and hurled them directly into the main fuel line connected to the cold-storage generators.
BOOM!
A fiery explosion ripped through the left wall, blowing the heavy metal door off its hinges and creating a massive pressure wave that threw Cross's guards off their feet. The blinding flash blinded their night-vision goggles.
I grabbed Maya, lifting her onto my back. "Hold on to my neck! Don't let go, no matter what!"
She locked her small arms tightly around my collarbone.
I sprinted through the smoke and fire, stepping on falling debris, using the chaos to strike down two of Cross's disoriented guards with close-quarters combat strikes. I grabbed an oxygen mask off a fallen mercenary and strapped it over Maya's face.
Cross was scrambling toward the exit, shouting orders into his comms, but his men were dropping like flies in the toxic haze.
I cut off Vance's escape route at the blast tunnel, kicking the damaged glass door until it shattered under the weight of my reinforced boots.
Vance turned, raising his pistol, but I was faster. I lunged, grabbing his wrist—just as I had done to Scarface at the diner hours earlier.
Snap.
Vance screamed as his wrist cracked. I pinned him against the wall, my blade hovering half an inch from his throat.
"Where is the master key to stop the biological degradation in her system?" I snarled, my voice terrifyingly calm. "I know how the Vanguard operates. You put a genetic decay trigger in her blood so she couldn't survive without regular stabilization!"
Vance wheezed, blood spurting from his lip. "It's... it's around my neck... the drive pendant... it contains the synthesis formula..."
I ripped the silver pendant from his neck, then struck him across the temple with the butt of my pistol, knocking him unconscious.
I turned around to secure the exit.
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Standing in the doorway, bleeding from a shrapnel wound on his forehead, was Daniel Cross. And he was holding a heavy revolver, aimed directly at Maya's back.
"Drop the pendant, Evelyn," Cross gasped, his hand shaking. "Or the kid dies right here."
