Chapter 7 - The Hostage Trade
Shiomara stopped breathing as she stared at the live video feed of her terrified grandson.
Mateo was bruised, trembling, and bound tightly with heavy zip ties in an undisclosed location.
A masked mercenary stood directly behind the boy, holding a terrifyingly large combat knife.
Silas Thorne’s voice suddenly crackled over the security room’s intercom system.
“Did you really think a few locked doors could stop my empire, children?” Thorne laughed cruelly.
Shiomara placed her trembling hands on the computer monitor, tears streaming down her weathered face.
“Please, Silas, he is just a boy who has nothing to do with this!” Shiomara begged into the microphone.
“The boy’s life is entirely in your hands, Shiomara,” Thorne replied without a shred of empathy.
“Bring the property deed to the shipping docks at midnight, and come completely alone.”
The intercom went dead, leaving a suffocating silence in the security control room.
Leo slammed his fist violently against the metal desk in pure frustration.
“We are not letting you go to the docks alone, Shiomara,” Leo stated with absolute authority.
“He will kill Mateo if he sees you with me,” Shiomara cried, her heart breaking into a million pieces.
Maya stepped forward and gently wrapped her arms around the weeping grandmother.
“Thorne wants to play a game of shadows, so we will give him a war,” Maya promised fiercely.
Julian rapidly typed on his keyboard, analyzing the IP address of the incoming video feed.
“The signal is bouncing, but the background noise in the video matches the industrial foghorns at Pier 44,” Julian deduced.
They had exactly two hours to orchestrate a rescue mission against a heavily armed billionaire.
Shiomara wiped her tears and stood up extremely straight, her street-hardened resilience returning.
“I will walk through the front gate with the deed exactly as he asked,” Shiomara declared.
“You three will position yourselves in the shadows and take out his snipers.”
Leo handed Shiomara a small, discrete earpiece so they could communicate during the exchange.
“If things go wrong, you drop to the ground immediately,” Leo instructed her seriously.
The midnight fog rolled heavily over the abandoned shipping containers at Pier 44.
Shiomara walked alone into the center of the docks, holding the envelope tightly in her hands.
Thorne emerged from the fog, smiling wickedly as two guards dragged Mateo forward.
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“Hand over the deed, old woman,” Thorne demanded as he raised his gun.
Before Shiomara could move, a blinding spotlight from a police helicopter illuminated the entire dock.
