Chapter 9 - THE RIVER ESCAPEThe armored transport cart hurtled down the subterranean rail line beneath the Kane Tower, cutting through the damp, echoing darkness at breakneck speed.
Above them, a muffled, ground-shaking roar vibrated through the bedrock. The top floors of the Kane Tower were collapsing in a fiery inferno of collapsing steel and shattered glass, fulfilling General Vance’s desperate command to erase every trace of Project Cerberus.
In the back of the speeding cart, Titan stood with his front paws braced against the dashboard, his amber eyes fixed on the flickering light at the end of the tunnel where the dark, churning waters of the Chicago River awaited.
Marcus gripped the handrail, shouting over the roar of the wind. “Boss! If Vance thinks we died in that collapse, he’s going to go into hiding. How do we find him?”
Victor sat calmly in the passenger seat, pulling the matchstick-sized military data drive from his pocket and holding it up to the dim tunnel light.
“We don’t have to find him, Marcus,” Victor said, a lethal, shark-like smile spreading across his face. “When you leave a data drive like this behind, it doesn't just hold files. It holds a live tracking beacon programmed to ping the Pentagon’s central mainframe the second it reconnects to an unencrypted network.”
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Victor tapped the drive against his palm. “General Vance just blew up a landmark building in downtown Chicago to hide a murder. By morning, every federal agency in the country—and every syndicate boss who answers to me—will know exactly where he is.”
The cart burst out of the tunnel mouth, splashing into the secret subterranean boat dock along the riverbank, where a sleek, twin-engine Riva speedboat sat waiting in the shadows, engines idling with a low, predatory growl.
