Chapter 5 - Crossfire in the CloudsThe penthouse erupted into absolute chaos.
Before the guards could pull their triggers, Thomas—our driver—flung himself out of the elevator, firing a concealed submachine gun with pinpoint accuracy, shattering the overhead chandeliers and plunging the massive living room into a flurry of breaking glass and cascading crystal.
"Get down!" Daniel roared, shoving me behind a heavy marble pillar just as a hail of bullets chewed into the stone surface where we had stood a second earlier.
The twins began screaming at the top of their lungs, terrified by the deafening explosions of gunfire echoing through the glass-walled penthouse. I curled my body completely around the backpack, shielding them with my own flesh, my heart pounding in my throat.
Across the room, Julian was frantically shouting orders at his men while lunging for a panic button hidden beneath his mahogany executive desk. "Kill them! I don't care about the files, wipe them out!"
Daniel moved with lethal, terrifying speed. Despite his severe stomach wound, he closed the distance between himself and the nearest guard in three long strides, disarming the man with a brutal, fluid motion and turning the guard's own weapon against Julian's tactical squad.
Glass walls shattered outward as stray rounds pierced the floor-to-ceiling windows, letting in the ferocious howling wind of the Boston skyline seventy floors up.
"Thomas! Secure the perimeter!" Daniel shouted over the din of gunfire.
"Already on it, boss! Federal marshals are breaching the lobby elevators right now!" Thomas yelled back, firing suppressive rounds toward the grand staircase.
Julian, realizing his empire was collapsing around him in real-time, abandoned his desk, pulled a compact gold-plated pistol from his waistband, and charged directly toward us around the marble pillar, his eyes wild with desperate rage.
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"If I go down, you're all coming with me!" Julian shrieked, raising his pistol right at my head.
I froze, terror paralyzing my limbs as the dark barrel locked directly onto my eyes.
