Chapter 6 - The Unlikely Ally
The thick green gas choked the remaining oxygen out of my burning lungs.
I pressed my face against the cold concrete floor desperate for a tiny pocket of clean air.
My vision faded to black around the edges as the poison seeped into my bloodstream.
Suddenly the reinforced glass door shattered entirely inward in a shower of sharp fragments.
A tall muscular man wearing a tactical gas mask stepped through the broken frame.
He grabbed me by the waist and threw me over his broad shoulder like I weighed nothing.
He sprinted out of the server room just as the self-destruct timer reached absolute zero.
A massive shockwave threw us both forward into the muddy gravel of the alleyway.
The warehouse imploded behind us in a deafening roar of fire and crushing metal.
The stranger dragged me behind a thick concrete barrier to shield us from the intense heat.
I coughed violently and tried to focus my blurry vision on my mysterious savior.
He pulled off his heavy black gas mask to reveal a young face with sharp striking features.
He introduced himself as Leo and said he owed Julian a massive life debt.
Leo claimed he was a rogue undercover operative working to destroy the syndicate from the inside.
He helped me to my feet and led me to a black armored vehicle hidden in the shadows.
We drove quickly away from the burning docks just as police sirens wailed in the distance.
Leo handed me a cold bottle of water and praised my extreme bravery in the server room.
I took a long sip of the water and finally felt a tiny shred of genuine hope.
I looked over at Leo as he gripped the steering wheel with his strong hands.
The sleeve of his dark tactical jacket rode up slightly to reveal his left wrist.
Etched deeply into his skin was a distinct tattoo of a black serpent eating its own tail.
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It was the exact same tattoo I had seen on the neck of the fake lawyer.
I realized with pure terror that I was sitting inside a locked car with one of the assassins.
