Chapter 15 - Breach and Clear
The blizzard was my greatest tactical advantage.
The howling wind masked the sound of my approach, and the heavy snowfall rendered the compound’s exterior security cameras virtually useless.
I belly-crawled through the deep snow drifts, moving inches at a time to avoid triggering the seismic sensors buried beneath the frozen ground.
I reached the base of the towering chain-link fence, the lethal electrical current humming audibly through the thick metal wires.
I pulled a specialized, military-grade thermal lance from my pack.
It burned with a blinding, concentrated white heat that melted cleanly through the reinforced steel and the electrical wiring in a matter of seconds, bypassing the alarm triggers completely.
I slipped through the narrow opening and moved silently into the shadows of a massive, concrete generator building.
Two armed guards in heavy winter parkas were patrolling the perimeter, smoking cigarettes and complaining loudly in Russian about the brutal weather.
I waited until they rounded the corner of the building before stepping silently behind them.
I executed a flawless, synchronized takedown, snapping the first guard’s neck with a sharp twist and driving a combat knife deep into the base of the second guard’s skull before he could even process the attack.
I dragged their bodies into a snowbank and stripped one of them of his access keycard.
I approached the heavy steel blast doors of the main subterranean facility and swiped the card.
The light flashed green, and the heavy doors hissed open on hydraulic hinges.
I stepped inside, immediately trading the freezing blizzard for the sterile, heavily heated corridors of a massive underground bunker.
The walls were lined with advanced server racks and complex communication equipment that rivaled Pentagon operations.
The Virginia cartel had been funding a rogue intelligence hub.
I moved fluidly down the hallway, neutralizing three more heavily armed mercenaries with silenced, precision shots to the head.
I reached the central command atrium, a massive room dominated by a towering wall of digital monitors tracking global financial markets and military deployments.
And there, standing in the center of the room with his back to me, examining a digital map of the Eastern Seaboard, was Lewis.
I raised my weapon, aiming squarely at the center of his back.
My heart pounded furiously against my ribs.
May you like
I had traveled halfway across the world, bled, and killed to find him.
I stepped out of the shadows, my voice echoing coldly in the cavernous room as I commanded him to slowly turn around and keep his hands where I could see them.
