Chapter 4 - The Phantom Threat
Sterling broke quickly. The man was a corporate vulture, not a hardened criminal. But his confession brought cold comfort.
He had hired a mercenary group known as The Syndicate to retrieve the data from Clara. Sterling didn't know where she was; the mercenaries had lost her in Chicago. But he knew they were still hunting her, and worse, they knew she had sent a package to Silas.
Silas’s burner phone vibrated.
It was Mercer.
"Boss. We have a problem."
Silas’s blood turned to ice. "Report."
"A drone just hit the penthouse balcony. EMP blast. It knocked out our primary comms and the security grid. We are blind, and they are breaching the lower elevator shaft."
"Protect the boys," Silas roared, sprinting out of the boardroom, leaving a sobbing Sterling to the guards. "I'm ten minutes out. If a single hair on their heads is harmed, Mercer, I will end you."
Silas bypassed the elevator, taking the emergency stairwell down to his armored SUV. He drove like a madman through the Manhattan streets, ignoring traffic lights, the V8 engine roaring.
He had built his empire by anticipating his enemies' moves. He had been blind to this one.
When he arrived at the residential spire, the lobby was filled with smoke. The fire alarm was blaring. Silas pulled a customized Glock 19 from the glove compartment, chambered a round, and kicked the lobby doors open.
He found two men in tactical gear unconscious on the marble floor.
He moved silently toward the emergency stairs, his heart hammering against his ribs. Clara had kept the boys hidden for five years to protect them. He had them for twenty-four hours and had already put them in the crosshairs.
Silas burst into the penthouse stairwell to find Mercer bleeding from the shoulder, standing over another neutralized mercenary.
"The boys?" Silas demanded, breathless.
May you like
"Safe," Mercer coughed, pointing to the reinforced panic room. "Little guys didn't even cry. The older one, Elias? He told me to aim for the kneecaps."
Silas let out a breath he felt he’d been holding for a decade.
