Chapter 6 - The Unseen Guardian
I backed away slowly, my spine pressing firmly against the cold brass lockboxes.
The two massive men stepped forward in unison, their eyes locked on me with lethal intent.
One of them pulled a medical syringe filled with a clear, bubbling liquid from his jacket pocket.
Claire stood safely by the door, clutching the leather ledger that held my only chance at freedom.
She told the men to hurry up because Daniel was expecting her for an expensive lunch downtown.
I frantically scanned the room for a weapon, but there was absolutely nothing but smooth metal and polished wood.
The man with the deadly syringe lunged violently at my chest.
I kicked out blindly, my heavy boot connecting perfectly with his left kneecap.
He grunted in pain and stumbled sideways, dropping the delicate needle onto the hard tiled floor.
The second man immediately reached into his suit, pulling out a heavy steel collapsible baton.
Just as he raised it to strike my skull, the building's fire alarm blared deafeningly through the basement.
Emergency sprinklers erupted forcefully from the ceiling, raining freezing water down on all of us.
The sudden chaos and blinding water distracted the men for a crucial fraction of a second.
In that exact moment, a dark figure stepped out from the deep shadows of the adjacent hallway.
It was a woman wearing a dark hooded jacket, moving with absolutely terrifying speed.
She grabbed the man with the baton from behind, violently twisting his arm until the bone snapped with a loud crack.
He screamed in sheer agony, falling heavily to the flooded floor.
The hooded woman spun around gracefully and delivered a devastating kick to the chest of the other man.
Claire shrieked in absolute terror and sprinted toward the open elevator, clutching the ledger tightly to her chest.
The mysterious hooded woman didn't bother chasing her.
She simply grabbed my wrist and forcefully pulled me toward the emergency concrete stairwell.
We burst out into the dirty alleyway behind the country club, gasping for breath in the freezing morning rain.
I pulled my arm away from her grip, demanding to know who she was and why she helped me.
The woman slowly lowered her soaking wet hood.
I stumbled backward in absolute, paralyzing shock at the face looking back at me.
It was Natalie.
But this was absolutely not the terrified, mild-mannered best friend who had driven my getaway car last night.
Her eyes were cold, incredibly calculating, and completely void of any normal fear.
She looked at me blankly and said we needed to move right now before the real police arrived.
I stammered, asking her how she knew how to fight like a highly trained assassin.
Natalie sighed deeply, pulling a set of electronic car keys from her dark jacket pocket.
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She told me that being my supportive best friend was just her daytime cover.
Her real job was keeping me alive, and Daniel had just doubled the underground bounty on my head.
