Chapter 4 - THE BREACH AT DUSK“Take it off!” Gabriel yelled, snatching the apron from my hands and throwing it onto the floor. He raised his heavy leather boot and crushed the tracking disc into a dozen pieces of shattered silicon and silver wire.
“It doesn't matter now,” I said, panic rising in my throat as the concrete walls trembled from an explosion far above us. “They already have the coordinates!”
“The lower blast door will hold for four minutes,” Gabriel said, his mind calculating options at terrifying speed. He ran to a wall panel, ripped open a glass cover, and pulled two heavy tactical vests out. He threw one to me. “Put this on.”
“I don't know how to fight a private army!” I shouted, strapping the heavy Kevlar vest over my worn shirt.
“You don't have to fight them. You just have to keep Maya breathing,” Gabriel said. He pulled a heavy steel key from around his neck and placed it in my hand. “There is an old coal chute behind the secondary armory. It leads directly into the city sewer lines. Take Maya and run toward the river.”
“What about you?” I asked, grabbing his sleeve.
Gabriel looked down at his daughter. He knelt, taking Maya’s small face in his hands. “Papa will be right behind you, sweet girl. I promise.”
Maya shook her head violently, her lips trembling as she tried desperately to form words. No sound came out, but the tears streaming down her cheeks said everything. She wrapped her tiny arms around his neck, refusing to let go.
BOOM!
The heavy steel entrance door shook as a breaching charge blew off the outer hinges. Smoke began pouring through the cracks around the frame.
“Go!” Gabriel roared, pulling Maya off his neck and shoving her into my arms. “Cassidy, take her! Now!”
I grabbed Maya, holding her tight against my chest, and ran toward the back hallway. Behind us, the heavy blast doors gave way with a deafening metallic screech.
“VANCE!” a voice shouted through the smoke, heavily accented and dripping with cruelty. “You brought a waitress to a war! Where is the girl?”
I heard the rapid, deafening roar of Gabriel’s automatic rifle echoing through the loft, followed by screaming and the sound of shattering glass. I didn't look back. I sprinted down the narrow brick corridor, my heart hammering against my ribs so hard it felt like it would break through my chest.
We reached the secondary armory. In the corner was a rusted iron hatch marked COAL - 1922.
I shoved the heavy iron door open. A dark, vertical shaft dropped down into the cold blackness below. The smell of damp stone and river water rushed up to meet us.
“Maya, listen to me,” I whispered, turning her face to look at me. “We have to slide down. It’s going to be dark, but I will be right behind you. Do you understand?”
She nodded frantically, her small hands trembling.
I helped her into the iron chute. She slid down into the dark, disappearing with a soft splash seconds later.
I turned back to look down the corridor.
Gabriel was stepping backward down the hallway, firing rhythmically at three men advancing behind ballistic shields. Blood was pouring from a wound on his shoulder, his shirt soaked through with crimson.
“Gabriel!” I screamed.
He looked up, his eyes meeting mine for a brief second. “Close the hatch!”
A heavy bullet caught him in the side. He stumbled, collapsing against the brick wall, his rifle sliding across the floor away from him.
A man stepped out from behind the shields. He took off his tactical helmet, revealing a scarred face and cold, grey eyes.
It was Richard Vance—Gabriel’s uncle.
“You always were too soft, nephew,” Richard said, raising his hand, pointing a silver pistol directly at Gabriel’s head. “Where is my granddaughter?”
Gabriel spat blood onto the floor, looking directly into his uncle’s eyes with a brutal grin. “She’s somewhere you’ll never find her.”
Richard smiled back. “Oh, I don't need to find her. The waitress will bring her right to me.”
Richard looked past Gabriel, his eyes locking directly onto mine through the darkness of the hallway.
May you like
He raised his gun toward me.
I slammed the heavy iron coal hatch shut, locked it from the inside, and threw myself into the dark.
