Chapter 7 - The Breach
The explosive shockwave threw me violently to the marble floor.
Emergency red backup lights flickered on, casting the grand foyer in a terrifying, bloody glow.
"They are inside!" a guard screamed from the hallway before the sharp crack of an assault rifle cut him off.
The cartel had not just sent a silent assassin; they had sent a full tactical death squad.
I scrambled to my feet, grabbing Noah from the terrified guard and holding him tightly.
"We have to move to the panic room," I shouted, returning fire blindly down the dark corridor.
Suddenly, Frank Miller burst through the smoke, wielding a heavy shotgun.
He was bleeding heavily from a deep shrapnel wound in his shoulder, but his eyes were completely focused.
"It wasn't a cartel hit squad that breached the doors, Michael!" Frank roared over the gunfire.
"It's the paramedics!"
The horrifying realization washed over me like ice water.
The twelve medical professionals who had responded to my 911 call were not here to save Noah.
They were a heavily armed mercenary team sent to ensure the poison finished its job.
"Get to the hidden garage, I will hold the main staircase," Frank ordered, racking a shell into his shotgun.
"I am not leaving you behind, Frank," I yelled.
Frank offered me a bloody, fierce smile, the kind of smile he wore when we were young men fighting for our lives in the streets.
"You have to protect the boy, Michael," Frank said softly.
He turned his back to me and charged directly into the smoke, firing his weapon into the advancing wave of fake paramedics.
Emily grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the servant's quarters.
"There is a maintenance tunnel behind the pantry, we have to go now," she urged.
I followed her into the dark kitchen, listening to the brutal, deafening sound of Frank's final stand.
The heavy gunfire abruptly stopped, replaced by the terrifying silence of absolute defeat.
As we slipped behind the hidden pantry door, a dying voice crackled over my dropped security radio.
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"Don't trust the police, Michael," Frank gasped with his final breath.
"They are already here."
