Chapter 15 - The Loading Bay WarThe subterranean loading bay of the Metropolitan Museum was a cavernous labyrinth of concrete pillars, parked catering vans, and cargo lifts.
The overhead fluorescent lights had been smashed out, plunging the area into deep, echoing shadows.
Gabriel stepped out of the service elevator into the damp chill of the basement. He didn't turn on a flashlight. He moved with the silent, predatory grace of a man who had grown up in the brutal underworld of New York’s waterfront docks.
Click.
A red laser dot flickered against the concrete wall three feet to his left.
“Cross,” Arthur Sterling’s voice echoed out from the darkness near a loading dock door, amplified slightly by the cavernous acoustics. “I must admit, I expected you to send your dogs first. Coming down here alone? That’s either incredible bravery or terminal stupidity.”
Gabriel kept moving, melting into the shadow of a massive concrete pillar.
“You’re out of your depth, Arthur,” Gabriel called back, his voice steady and calm. “New York isn't London. You don't buy your way into my city, and you certainly don't touch my family.”
“Your family?” Sterling laughed—a cold, cultured sound that bounced off the walls. “A woman who left you, and three illegitimate boys you didn't even know existed until a month ago? You built a multi-billion-dollar logistics empire, Gabriel, and you’re willing to risk it all for a domestic soap opera?”
Three masked operatives stepped out from behind a parked catering truck, submachine guns raised, sweeping the shadows.
Gabriel didn't wait.
He raised his Beretta, squeezed the trigger twice, and dropped the first operative before he could swing his barrel.
As the second and third gunmen opened fire, chewing up the concrete pillar in a storm of dust and sparks, Gabriel rolled across the floor into the cover of a stack of wooden pallets, returning fire with lethal, surgical precision.
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Silence fell again, broken only by the groaning of the ventilation system.
Step by deliberate step, Gabriel stalked toward the loading dock door where Sterling stood.
