Chapter 5 - Midnight at the MortuaryAt 11:55 PM, the primary lights on the 12th floor flickered once, twice, and then plunged into total darkness.
The emergency backup generators failed to kick in—a sign that the main power control panel in the basement had been manually bypassed.
Inside the pitch-black ICU room, Mara felt the shift in air pressure as the heavy doors were unlocked from the outside.
She was crouched behind the steel supply cabinet in the corner of the room, her hand wrapped around the textured grip of a suppressed 9mm pistol Lucian had slipped her ten minutes prior.
She couldn't hear the footsteps, but she felt the faint, rhythmic thuds against the linoleum floorboards. One... two... three figures moving in tactical formation.
A green laser sight cut through the darkness, sweeping across the empty hospital bed where Lucian had been lying moments ago.
Mara felt a cold hand touch her shoulder from behind—Lucian. He was standing in the shadows beside her, his breath steady, his presence unnaturally calm.
He pointed two fingers toward the lead assassin, then signaled a quick downward gesture. Take the left.
The lead gunman raised his silenced submachine gun toward the silhouette under the bedsheets—which was nothing more than bundled pillows.
Flash.
The muzzle flame illuminated the room for a microsecond. Mara didn't hesitate. She stepped out from behind the steel cabinet, raised her pistol with both hands, aligning the iron sights with the side of the gunman’s neck as he realized the trap.
She pulled the trigger.
The recoil vibrated up her forearms, but she held her stance, firing a second shot as the man crumpled.
Beside her, Lucian was a shadow of lethal efficiency. In three swift, silent movements, he disarmed the second assassin, used the man’s own body as a shield against the third, and snapped the second intruder's neck with a sickening, heavy twist that Mara felt through the floorboards.
The third assassin scrambled backward toward the hallway door, his weapon dropped.
Lucian didn't shoot him. He stepped forward, grabbed the man by the throat, and slammed him face-first against the glass partition.
Mara rushed over, pulling a tactical penlight from her pocket and shining it directly onto the surviving assassin's face.
It was Viktor’s personal bodyguard.
Lucian forced the man’s jaw up so he was looking directly at Mara.
"Read his lips," Lucian commanded, his mouth moving in the flashlight beam. "Where is Viktor?"
The bodyguard, bleeding from his nose, spat blood onto the glass and sneered. His lips moved in short, ragged bursts:
"He's already at the Docks... Terminal 4... The Mayor’s men are loading the shipment... You're already dead, Rossi!"
Mara instantly translated aloud, her raspy voice cutting through the silent, dark room: "Docks. Terminal 4. Mayor’s men. Loading the shipment."
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Lucian pulled his pistol, cleared the chamber with a crisp mechanical snap, and looked at Mara.
"It's time to meet the Mayor," he declared.
