Chapter 7 - The Cartel Connection
The doctor's dying words echoed in my mind as the remaining gunmen reloaded their weapons in the smoke-filled room.
Maya hadn't just stolen my legitimate company; she had turned it into a massive money laundering and smuggling operation for a drug cartel.
I gripped the silver USB drive tightly, knowing it contained the absolute proof needed to bring the FBI down on her entire syndicate.
"We have to move right now, Lucy!" I yelled, pulling her toward the emergency ventilation shaft at the back of the room.
We scrambled into the narrow metal duct just as bullets sparked wildly against the steel grate behind us.
We crawled through the suffocating, dusty shaft until we dropped down into the hospital's underground laundry facility.
We managed to slip out through the loading bay and ran back to our stolen van, speeding away into the dark, rainy night.
I plugged the USB drive into my laptop as Lucy drove us toward the industrial district where my main furniture warehouse was located.
The drive contained shipping manifests proving that hundreds of kilos of narcotics were hidden inside hollowed-out luxury sofas.
"If we can film them actively loading the drugs into your trucks, the FBI will have enough evidence for an immediate raid," Lucy suggested bravely.
We parked blocks away from the warehouse and snuck onto the property through a hole in the rusted perimeter fence.
We climbed up onto the roof of the facility, peering through the dirty glass skylights at the massive operation below.
Dozens of armed men were frantically packing tightly wrapped bricks of white powder into my custom-built Italian leather couches.
I pulled out my phone and began recording high-definition video of the entire illegal loading process.
Suddenly, a heavy spotlight from a nearby guard tower swept across the roof, instantly illuminating our hiding spot.
The cartel guards shouted aggressively, pointing their assault rifles up at the glass skylights.
We desperately scrambled toward the edge of the roof, sliding down a drainage pipe just as bullets began shattering the glass above us.
We ran into the main loading yard, diving into an empty shipping container to hide from the pursuing guards.
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Before we could catch our breath, the heavy steel doors of the container were violently slammed shut and locked from the outside.
We felt a massive, terrifying jolt as a mechanical crane lifted our container completely off the ground.
