Chapter 7 - The Subterranean War
I stared at Vincent's bruised and battered face in absolute, terrifying confusion.
He had stayed behind at the beach to cover our escape, and Vanguard had completely outsmarted him.
"Where is my brother?" I roared, dropping the silver pen onto the concrete platform.
Mayor Sterling carefully folded the signed sixty-million-dollar contract and placed it into his tailored suit pocket.
"Julian has been dead for three days, Leo," Sterling revealed with a sickeningly cruel smile.
"He tried to escape the holding cell, and my men shot him in the back."
The entire world seemed to stop spinning as the devastating words registered in my mind.
I had surrendered my entire family empire for a complete, tragic lie.
"You really thought I would let the rightful heir live?" Elena mocked, stepping closer to me.
"We just needed you to sign the legal transfer before we exterminated the rest of your bloodline."
She raised her suppressed pistol and aimed it directly at my forehead.
"Kill Vincent, and then kill him," Sterling ordered his heavily armed mercenaries.
Before Elena could even pull her trigger, a massive explosion rocked the subway terminal.
Hannah had rigged a brilliant, remote-controlled shaped charge to the structural support beams directly above the platform.
A massive shower of concrete debris and thick, blinding dust rained down upon the Vanguard operatives.
The lights flickered and violently died, plunging the cavern into complete, chaotic darkness.
I immediately dove forward, tackling Elena to the ground and wrestling the pistol from her grip.
I struck her hard across the jaw, instantly knocking her completely unconscious.
The deafening roar of Hannah's heavy shotgun echoed through the darkness as she engaged the mercenaries.
Flashes of muzzle fire illuminated the room in brief, terrifying strobe effects.
I scrambled across the debris-covered floor until I reached Vincent's chained form.
I used Elena's stolen weapon to expertly shoot the heavy steel lock holding his chains together.
"Are you okay?" I yelled over the deafening sound of continuous gunfire.
"I have been better, boss," Vincent groaned, rubbing his bleeding wrists.
"They lied about Julian; he is not dead!"
I grabbed Vincent by his torn collar, my heart suddenly hammering with a renewed sense of desperate hope.
"Where is he?" I demanded, firing two blind shots at a shadowy figure approaching us.
"They are holding him in a reinforced bank vault on the sub-basement level of this facility," Vincent gasped.
I helped Vincent to his feet and handed him the stolen pistol for protection.
"Hannah, fall back to the maintenance tunnels!" I shouted into the chaotic darkness.
Hannah emerged from the thick dust cloud, reloading her shotgun with terrifying, lethal efficiency.
We moved as a perfectly coordinated unit, pushing through the heavy resistance toward the sub-basement stairwell.
The Vanguard mercenaries were completely disorganized, entirely unprepared for Hannah's devastating tactical assault.
We reached the heavy steel doors of the sub-basement and kicked them violently open.
At the very end of a long, brightly lit corridor stood a massive, stainless steel bank vault.
Four elite guards wearing heavy body armor were stationed directly in front of the locked vault.
Hannah threw a flashbang grenade down the hall, blinding the guards instantly.
We charged forward, eliminating the threat before they could even recover their vision.
I rushed to the electronic keypad on the vault door, my hands covered in dirt and blood.
"The code requires Mayor Sterling's biometric fingerprint," Vincent warned me.
I cursed loudly, realizing we were completely locked out of the impenetrable room.
May you like
Suddenly, the heavy vault door hissed loudly, and the massive steel locking bolts began to mechanically retract.
Someone inside the vault was manually opening the door from the inside.
