Chapter 6 - Dead Men in Uniform
Dante moved purely on predatory instinct. He dropped his gun, grabbed the operative’s wrist, and twisted it until the bone snapped with a sickening wet crunch.
The man screamed beneath his tactical balaclava, but Dante gave him no room to breathe. Driving his knee upward into the operative’s sternum, Dante heard ribs cave in. He caught Clara before she hit the floor, spun the falling operative around by his vest, and used the dead weight as a human shield just as a burst of automatic fire sprayed from the central staircase.
Bullets hammered into the back of the mercenary's armor. Dante pulled the pin on a flash-bang grenade with his teeth, threw it down the stairwell, and dove into the service alcove behind the linen closets.
A blinding, concussive boom rocked the mansion. Screams of disoriented men echoed below.
Dante slid down the wall in the darkness of the alcove, Clara cradled against his ribs. Her breathing had grown even more labored, her small hands turning cold. With trembling precision, Dante located the femoral vein on her upper thigh and plunged the adrenaline injector through her dress, depressing the plunger fully.
Clara gasped, arching her back as the stimulant hit her bloodstream, fighting the synthetic venom. Her eyes snapped wide, filled with tears. ""Uncle Dante... it hurts...""
""I know, baby. I know. You're fighting it. Just breathe for me,"" he whispered, pressing a kiss against her clammy forehead.
He leaned over the corpse of the operative he had used as a shield. Dante ripped off the man's balaclava and shone the low-intensity tactical light across the dead face.
Dante’s blood ran cold.
The dead man was Marcus Cole. Marcus was not an outside mercenary; he had been the captain of Dante’s personal security detail for four years. Sewn inside the collar of Marcus’s tactical vest was a brand-new patch: a black crest with the silver serpent of Julian Vance.
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From the radio clipped to Marcus’s shoulder, Julian’s voice crackled through the static, cool and venomous.
""Dante. Stop running. You can't save her, and you can't leave the grounds. Hand the child over, and I'll let you die like a soldier.""
