Chapter 19 - The Warehouse CrossfireThe first volley of automatic gunfire chewed through the corrugated metal walls like paper.
"Down!" Gabriel roared, tackling me behind a heavy stack of titanium pallets just as a hail of lead shredded the air above our heads.
Carmine returned fire instantly, his submachine gun barking short, controlled bursts that forced the mercenaries on the catwalk to duck behind the railing.
"Maya, keep working the valve!" Gabriel shouted over the deafening roar of gunfire, pressing his back against the pallet stack while returning fire with lethal precision.
"I'm almost done! The enzyme is saturating the entire batch!" I yelled back, my hands flying over the manual override pump as the digital pressure gauge climbed into the green zone.
Bullets ricocheted off the steel containers, showering us in sparks. From the catwalk, Silas was screaming orders, his voice frantic. "Flush them out! Use thermal charges!"
A glowing red cylinder tumbled over the metal railing, bouncing across the concrete floor toward us. A phosphorus flash-bang grenade.
"Grenade!" Carmine yelled.
Gabriel didn't hesitate. He grabbed the heavy steel pallet, pivoted, and threw his entire weight against it, creating an improvised blast barrier just as the grenade detonated with a blinding flash and a deafening CRACK.
The shockwave rattled my teeth, but the barrier held.
"Done!" I screamed, ripping the injection nozzle out of the crate and slamming the security valve shut. "The entire shipment is compromised!"
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Gabriel grabbed my arm, yanking me to my feet. "Carmine, fall back to the secondary exit! Now!"
Under a fierce cover fire from Carmine and Gabriel, we sprinted toward the dark loading dock doors at the rear of the warehouse, disappearing into the thick Atlantic fog just as the entire crate of synthetic polymers began to hiss and melt from the inside out.
