Chapter 16 - Descent from AboveBefore I could process her warning, a shattering crash echoed from above.
The reinforced glass skylight of the third-floor gallery imploded, raining shards down onto the marble staircase. Heavy tactical ropes dropped through the opening like thick black spiders, followed swiftly by two heavily armored mercenaries sliding down into the hallway.
Marco was already there.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Marco’s submachine gun barked in the confined hallway, catching the lead mercenary in the chest and sending him crashing backward over the railing. The second mercenary returned fire, bullets chewing into the mahogany wall inches from Marco’s head.
“Get down!” Marco yelled, ducking behind a marble pillar and returning suppressive fire.
I pushed the nannies and the triplets further into the inner reinforced alcove of the nursery, slamming the steel security door half-shut.
“Sophie!” I called out, seeing the little girl still standing out near the center of the nursery rug, completely exposed. “Get over here, now!”
Sophie didn't move. She held her button-eyed doll up toward the ceiling ventilation opening we had cleared earlier that night.
“They’re using the old chimney flues,” Sophie said softly.
Suddenly, a heavy metal grate on the side wall of the nursery blasted outward. A tactical smoke grenade hissed onto the carpet, filling the room with thick, blinding white fog in seconds.
“Gas!” one of the nannies screamed, coughing violently.
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Through the smoke, a dark silhouette dropped silently from the ventilation opening—a mercenary holding a silenced carbine, his thermal goggles glowing an eerie, artificial green in the haze.
He raised his weapon straight toward the cribs.
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