Chapter 4 - The Subterranean Hunt
The air in the basement was thick with humidity and the smell of sulfur. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, casting long, menacing shadows against the damp concrete. Water dripped from exposed pipes, the sound echoing like a ticking clock.
Vance walked ahead of me, his assault rifle raised, scanning every corner. I followed closely, my grip tight on the stun-pistol. The pain in my shoulder was a dull, throbbing reminder of how close I had come to death.
"Camera four is down," Vance whispered, pointing to a shattered lens hanging from the ceiling by a wire. "He moved through here recently."
I closed my eyes for a second, mapping the basement in my mind. "Up ahead is the central heating hub. There are three exits. If he's trying to bypass the security grid to reach the elevator shafts, he has to take the narrow maintenance corridor on the left."
We moved silently. As we approached the corridor, a sudden metallic clatter echoed from the darkness. Vance held up a fist. Stop.
Suddenly, the lights in our section of the basement completely died. We were plunged into pitch blackness.
"He cut the breaker," Vance hissed, reaching for his tactical flashlight.
Before the beam could cut through the dark, a shadow detached itself from the pipes above. Elias dropped down directly behind Vance. The hitman was massive, dressed in tactical black, moving with terrifying silence. He swung a heavy wrench, striking Vance in the back of the helmet. The security chief crumpled to the concrete with a heavy thud, unconscious.
I spun around, raising my stun-pistol, but Elias was impossibly fast. He kicked the weapon out of my hand, the pistol skittering away into the darkness. He grabbed me by the throat, slamming me hard against the brick wall.
"You're a tough girl to kill, Victoria," Elias growled, his breath hot against my face. "Your uncle said you were soft. He was wrong."
"How much... is he paying you?" I choked out, clawing at his thick forearm.
"Ten million," Elias smiled in the dark. "But right now, I’m killing you for free. I don't like messy jobs."
He reached for a combat knife strapped to his thigh. I had seconds to live. But my hand frantically searched the wall behind me, finding what I knew was there: the manual override valve for the emergency steam release.
May you like
I twisted the red iron wheel with all my remaining strength.
A deafening hiss erupted as a blast of 200-degree steam blasted directly into Elias’s face from the vent beside us. He screamed, dropping me, clutching his scalded face. I dropped to the floor, coughing, and grabbed Vance’s heavy flashlight, smashing it brutally into Elias’s knee. The hitman went down.
