Chapter 9 - The Siege
The thick, acrid smoke rapidly filled the penthouse, burning my eyes and throat.
Graham reacted with pure instinct, grabbing a thick blanket from the bed and throwing it over the sleeping children.
“Get them to the panic room!” he shouted over the hissing sound of the gas canister.
He had designed this safehouse specifically for worst-case scenarios.
I scooped up Leo and my daughter, coughing violently as the gas seared my lungs.
Graham grabbed our other son and led the way through the blinding smoke toward the master closet.
He pressed his hand against a hidden biometric scanner hidden behind a full-length mirror.
The heavy wall slid open, revealing a reinforced steel bunker equipped with oxygen masks and security monitors.
We rushed inside, and Graham slammed the heavy steel door shut, sealing us off from the toxic air.
I strapped the oxygen masks onto the triplets' tiny faces, listening to their terrified cries.
Graham quickly activated the security monitors lining the back wall of the bunker.
The screens displayed the ruined penthouse living room.
Six heavily armed mercenaries in tactical gear were methodically clearing the apartment.
They were not typical street thugs.
They moved with absolute military precision, checking corners and communicating with silent hand signals.
“They are going to find the hidden door eventually,” Graham stated grimly.
He opened a locked steel cabinet mounted on the wall.
He pulled out a heavy tactical shotgun and a sleek black pistol, handing the pistol to me.
“I am not going to let them touch our family,” he promised, his eyes burning with lethal determination.
I checked the magazine of the pistol, relying on the extensive firearms training the marshals gave me years ago.
On the security monitor, the lead mercenary stopped directly in front of the master closet mirror.
He raised a heavy breaching charge and slapped it directly onto the hidden door.
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“Cover your ears!” Graham yelled.
A deafening explosion rocked the bunker, ripping the reinforced door completely off its hinges.
