Chapter 6 - Siege of the Estate
"Get inside! Now!" I roared, grabbing Mave and shoving both her and Ethan toward the heavy oak doors of the foyer.
"Garrett, I won't leave you!" Mave cried, tears streaming down her face as she clutched Posie, who had been brought down by the upstairs nanny at the sound of the commotion.
"Take Posie to the panic room behind the library!" I ordered, my voice cutting through the rising panic with absolute, unyielding authority. "Wesley, seal the perimeter doors! Activate the steel shutters!"
"On it!" Wesley yelled, firing three rapid shots from his Glock as the first tactical operative charged up the marble steps, shattering the front glass sidelights with the butt of an assault rifle.
Glass exploded inward. The thunderous crack of gunfire echoed through the high-vaulted ceiling of the grand foyer.
I didn't hesitate. I lunged forward, tackling the lead operative before he could sweep his weapon toward the hallway where Mave and Posie were fleeing. We crashed hard onto the marble floor, wrestling for control of the rifle. With a sharp twist of his wrist and a brutal strike to his jaw, I neutralized the intruder, snatching his tactical sidearm from his holster.
The estate’s automated defense system hummed to life. Heavy steel ballistic shutters slammed down over every window and door, plunging the foyer into a dim, amber-lit twilight punctuated by the strobe-like flash of muzzle fire.
Inside the fortified library, Wesley was already manning the security console, locking down interior bulkheads.
"Boss! They're breaching the rear conservatory glass!" Wesley called out over the radio headset. "They brought thermal cutting torches!"
"Hold them off for ten minutes!" I shouted back, checking the magazine of the tactical pistol.
I pushed through the double doors into the library, where Mave was kneeling on the floor, frantically trying to calm a terrified Posie inside the reinforced panic room. Her hands were shaking so badly she couldn't enter the digital passcode.
"Mave, look at me," I said, dropping to my knees beside her. I gently took her trembling hands, placing them over the keypad and guiding her fingers through the six-digit code. Click. The thick steel door hissed open.
"Get inside," I said, kissing her forehead softly. "Lock it from the inside. Don't open it for anyone's voice except mine or Wesley's."
"Garrett, please..." she choked out, her fingers digging into my shoulders. "If you die out here..."
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"I'm not going anywhere," I promised, looking deep into her eyes with a fierce, unbreakable resolve. "I just found my family. I'm not about to lose them."
I pushed her gently inside the vault, shutting the heavy steel door just as a deafening explosion rocked the western wing of the mansion, blowing the conservatory doors off their hinges and signaling the start of the final, bloody clash.
