Chapter 15 - The Assault on the Safehouse
“Mark! We have incoming! Armed syndicate operatives, three vehicles, coming up the primary access road right now!” I roared into my tactical radio as I sprinted out of the study and down the stone hallway toward the master suite.
The safehouse instantly transformed into a war zone. The emergency klaxons began to wail, bathing the interior corridors in a pulsing, blood-red tactical light. Mark Davis and his six security operatives moved with military precision, killing the main interior breaker to plunge the house into absolute darkness while taking up defensive firing positions behind the reinforced stone pillars of the main courtyard and the foyer.
I burst into the master suite where Elena was already standing over Noah’s bed, holding a heavy halogen flashlight in one hand and a suppressed 9mm sidearm—which Mark Davis had issued to her that afternoon—in the other. Noah was sitting upright, his eyes wide with terror as the alarm sirens echoed off the stone walls.
“Elena! Get him into the panic vault behind the dressing room bookcase! Right now!” I ordered, running to the bedside to help wrap Noah in a heavy winter blanket.
“Mr. Vance, what’s happening? Where are the police?” Elena asked, her voice tight but remarkably steady as she scooped Noah into her arms with surprising strength, cradling his protective blanket around his head.
“Julian escaped custody during a transport ambush. He brought the Chicago syndicate with him,” I said grimly, opening the heavy steel door of the reinforced panic room hidden behind the cedar paneling of the closet. “Once you get inside, drop the internal deadbolts. Do not open this door for anyone except me or Detective Miller, no matter what you hear happening out in the hallway. Do you understand me?”
“I’m not leaving you out here to fight them alone, Marcus!” Elena protested, her eyes flashing with fierce, protective loyalty.
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“Your job is to guard my son, Elena! That is the only thing that matters tonight!” I told her firmly, pushing her and Noah into the safe room. I looked my son in the eye one last time. “I love you, buddy. I’ll be right outside.”
I slammed the heavy steel door shut just as the first deafening, explosive detonation shook the foundation of the coast house. Downstairs, the Valetti operatives had just blown the reinforced steel perimeter gates off their hinges with a shaped C4 breach charge.
