Chapter 16 - Ambush in the Sub-Basement
Before Marcus could raise his weapon, heavy boots echoed down the corridor, followed by the chilling sound of a firearm sliding against concrete.
"Light’s out!" Marcus roared, shoving me behind a heavy filing cabinet as a burst of suppressed gunfire shattered the lightbulbs overhead, plunging the vault into absolute darkness.
Flashes of muzzle fire illuminated the subterranean room in stroboscopic bursts. Dante returned fire with calculated precision, his tactical training neutralizing the first two intruders before they could breach the inner door. But more footsteps were pouring down the stairwell, cutting off our primary retreat route back to the surface.
"We have to move, now!" Marcus yelled, covering our flank as he exchanged fire down the narrow tunnel. "They've sealed the service elevator!"
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"There's an old drainage sluice," I said, remembering the architectural blueprints I had memorized on the tablet earlier. "It leads out to the East River maintenance hatch near the pier."
With bullets pinging off the rusted steel walls, we scrambled through the narrow drainage pipe, the icy water soaking through our clothes as we crawled away from the gunfire. Dante pulled the heavy iron drainage grate shut behind us just as a fresh wave of operatives reached the mouth of the tunnel, sealing us temporarily in the safety of the river shadows.
