Chapter 9 - Fire and Ash
The red emergency lights flared, bathing the safehouse in a hellish crimson glow.
Sebastian grabbed a heavy assault rifle and a tactical bag, throwing them over his uninjured shoulder.
He pulled Norah toward a hidden emergency hatch located beneath the main control desk.
Marcus lay on the floor, laughing wildly as the countdown timer ticked past forty seconds.
Sebastian kicked the floor panel away, revealing a dark, narrow maintenance tunnel.
He shoved Norah down the ladder, barking at her to climb as fast as she could.
Norah scrambled down into the darkness, her hands slipping on the cold metal rungs.
Sebastian followed closely behind, the mechanical voice above them counting down the final ten seconds.
They hit the bottom of the tunnel and began sprinting blindly through the damp underground corridor.
A massive explosion ripped through the earth above them, shaking the tunnel so violently that Norah was thrown to the ground.
A wave of searing heat and dust washed over them, but the reinforced concrete walls held steady.
They crawled the rest of the way, eventually pushing open a rusted grate that led to a forgotten storm drain.
They climbed out into the cold morning air, coughing up dust and ash.
Sebastian looked back at the towering pillar of black smoke rising from his destroyed safehouse.
His empire was crumbling from the inside, corrupted by the very men he had trusted.
He opened the tactical bag he had salvaged, pulling out a rugged GPS tracker.
He told Norah that he had secretly planted a tracking chip on Marcus's vehicle months ago.
The signal was pinging from an abandoned shipyard owned entirely by the Moretti family.
They stole a parked truck from a nearby alley and raced toward the docks.
They arrived at the shipyard gates, but Norah's heart stopped when she saw what was waiting for them.
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Six police cruisers were parked outside the warehouse, their lights flashing silently in the dawn fog.
But as Norah looked closer, she realized none of the police cruisers had license plates.
