Chapter 15 - The Abandoned Dry Dock
The Baltimore Harbor at 2:00 AM was a labyrinth of rusted shipping containers, rotting wooden piers, and crashing black waves.
Arya and Rocco walked side-by-side down the center of Pier 4, the biting sea wind whipping through their jackets. Rocco carried a secure carbon-fiber transport case, while Arya kept her hand firmly on her concealed sidearm.
From the shadows of a giant crane, Victor Thorne stepped forward, flanked by six armed mercenaries carrying assault rifles. In front of him, tied to a metal chair with industrial zip-ties, sat Arya’s elderly mother, Elena, gagged and pale.
"Dr. Vance! And the legendary Marchetti," Thorne sneered, adjusting his silver-rimmed glasses. "I see you brought the cargo. Hand over the case containing the infant's DNA sequencing, and the old woman goes free."
"Let my mother go first," Arya demanded, stepping forward into the pool of yellow light cast by a hanging work lamp.
"Ah, ah, ah," Thorne laughed, raising a small electronic detonator. "We don't negotiate terms, Doctor. You drop the case, or I press this button and flood your mother's chair with five hundred volts."
Rocco took a slow, calculated breath. He looked at Thorne, then at the mercenaries scattered across the catwalks above.
"You think you hold all the cards, Thorne?" Rocco asked smoothly.
May you like
"I hold every card!" Thorne snarled.
"Wrong," Rocco whispered.
