Chapter 6 - The AscentThe private elevator bell chimed with a soft, cheerful ding on the fortieth floor.
The doors slid open to reveal a dimly lit corridor lined with priceless oil paintings and plush designer carpeting. Standing in the center of the hallway were six armed men in tactical gear, their submachine guns raised and pointed directly at the elevator doors.
They expected a shootout. They expected blood on the carpet within seconds.
Instead, the elevator car was completely empty.
The tactical team leader frowned, lowering his weapon slightly to look around. “Hold your fire. It’s a trick—where are they?”
Suddenly, the ceiling hatch of the elevator car blew outward with a deafening crash of metal and bolts.
Before the guards could pivot their weapons upward, Leo Bennett dropped from the ceiling like a striking panther, slamming his boots directly into the chest of the lead tactical officer. The man went down with a fractured sternum, his submachine gun clattering across the marble floor.
From the elevator shaft behind them, Vincent Calder hoisted himself up effortlessly, landing cat-like on the plush carpet. In each hand, he held a silenced pistol, his movements precise, cold, and devastatingly fast.
Puff. Puff.
Two suppressed shots echoed down the hallway. The tactical guards dropped their weapons as bullets clipped their shoulders and thighs, sending them crashing to the floor in groaning heaps of tactical nylon and blood.
Within ten seconds, all six elite guards were disarmed, zip-tied, and dragged into an empty janitor's closet.
Leo wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead, looking at Vincent in disbelief. “Vince, that was insane. You knew they’d be waiting at the elevator.”
“Sterling is predictable,” Vincent said, adjusting his cuffs without a speck of dust on his clothes. He stepped over a dropped radio and kept walking down the plush hallway toward the double mahogany doors of the Mayor's office. “He relies on walls and uniforms to keep him safe. He forgot that men like him only rule because men like us let them.”
They reached the end of the corridor.
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The double doors of the Mayor’s office were unlocked.
Vincent didn't bother knocking. He raised his right boot and kicked the heavy mahogany doors off their reinforced hinges with a thunderous crash that shook the art off the walls.
