Chapter 16 - The Siege of Alpine
Adrien was moving before the final echo of the alarm could fade. The vulnerable, broken man of a moment ago vanished, instantly replaced by the lethal commander of the Moretti empire.
“Marco!” Adrien barked into his collar comms as he bolted out of the library and sprinted down the grand hallway toward the security wing. “Status!”
“Boss, we’re blind!” Marco’s voice crackled through the static, punctuated by the sharp, concussive pop of automatic gunfire in the background. “EMP strike! Localized high-altitude grid failure! Main gates are blown, and we’ve got multiple tactical units swarming the lower gardens!”
“Who?” Adrien demanded, drawing his Sig Sauer and slamming a fresh magazine into the grip as he reached the command center.
“Not the Bratva,” Mateo’s voice cut through the channel, strained and breathless. “Federal marshals! Heavily armed tactical strike teams backed by the Department of Justice! They have warrants signed by the Attorney General himself!”
Adrien’s jaw tightened so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek. Julian Cross hadn't just been a corporate litigator for a rogue syndicate; he was connected directly to the federal apparatus. Even from his Manhattan penthouse, Cross had left a dead-man’s switch—an automated directive routed to corrupt elements within the DOJ, executing a full-scale tactical raid on the Alpine estate the moment Cross’s biometric lifeline went flat.
They weren't just fighting a cartel anymore. They were fighting the United States government.
“Adrien!”
Sophia ran into the security wing, fully dressed in black tactical cargo pants and a dark sweater, her face set in grim determination. She carried a secondary Glock in her hand, having retrieved it from the hidden armory behind the library.
“The children?” Adrien demanded, grabbing her by the shoulders.
“Already in the sub-level safe suite with the nannies,” Sophia said quickly. “The heavy blast doors are sealed, and the automated tunnel is on standby. But the tactical teams are already breaching the ground-floor solarium!”
“They aren't here for a firefight, Sophia,” Adrien said, his mind calculating the tactical layout with chilling precision. “If they had wanted us dead, they would have called in an airstrike. They’re here for the flash drive. They’re here to seize the evidence and bury it forever.”
“Then we give it to them,” Sophia stated calmly.
Adrien stared at her. “What?”
“We give them the flash drive,” Sophia repeated, her eyes flashing with a brilliant, cunning light. “Not the real one. A decoy copy. But before we hand it over, we configure the master decryption protocol to broadcast every single encrypted file directly to every major news outlet, federal watchdog committee, and independent journalist in North America the moment it’s plugged into an official DOJ terminal.”
A slow, terrifying grin spread across Adrien’s face. The ultimate weapon wasn't a gun; it was the truth.
“Marco!” Adrien barked into the comms.
May you like
“Here, boss!”
“Fall back to the grand foyer! Let them in! Give them the decoy drive, and let the whole damn house burn!”
