Chapter 8 - Breaking the Cage
There was no time to panic or negotiate with a man pointing a gun at my car.
Marcus began walking slowly toward my vehicle, clearly enjoying the thrill of the hunt.
He raised the weapon and pointed it directly at my windshield.
I knew his silencer would mask the sound of the gunshot from the street above.
If I hesitated for even a single second, Theo and I would be dead.
I slammed my hand down on the horn, creating a deafening echo inside the concrete garage.
The sudden noise made Marcus flinch and take a step backward.
In that split second, I shifted the car into reverse and slammed on the gas.
The car shot backward, the tires squealing loudly against the polished concrete floor.
I whipped the steering wheel hard to the left, spinning the vehicle around in a violent arc.
Marcus recovered quickly and fired two shots.
The bullets shattered my passenger-side mirror and spider-webbed the rear window.
I ignored the breaking glass and aimed my car toward a row of heavy plastic trash dumpsters.
I hit the dumpsters at forty miles per hour, sending them crashing into a utility door.
The impact blasted the flimsy door off its hinges, revealing an old alleyway access tunnel.
I squeezed the damaged car through the narrow opening, scraping paint off both sides of the vehicle.
We burst out into the freezing night air, leaving Marcus trapped inside his own luxury cage.
I did not stop driving until we crossed the bridge into Manhattan and blended into the heavy city traffic.
Theo was crying softly in the back seat, terrified by the gunfire and the crash.
I pulled into a crowded diner parking lot and held him until his sobbing stopped.
I realized I could not keep running and hiding like a victim.
It was time to take the fight directly to the people trying to destroy us.
I left Theo asleep in the locked car while I used the diner's payphone to make a call.
I dialed a private number I had memorized years ago for emergencies just like this.
A gruff voice answered on the first ring, asking who was calling at this ungodly hour.
May you like
I told the man I needed him to hack a federal bank database, and I would pay him whatever he wanted.
The man laughed and said he had been waiting six years for me to finally ask for his help.
