Chapter 10 - The Drop
Thorne had never intended to spare her.
"Now, Marcus!" Julian bellowed.
A heavy .50 caliber sniper bullet tore through the rainy night, striking the crane operator squarely in the chest before he could throw the manual release lever. But as the man fell, his dying reflex jerked the hydraulic emergency dump.
The steel cable snapped with a sound like a cracking whip.
The cage plummeted toward the dark, churning water below.
Julian moved with explosive fury. Driving his forehead into the nose of the mercenary holding his right arm, he spun, using the man’s momentum to break the second guard's grip. He wrenched the combat shotgun from the enforcer’s sling, fired a single blast that blew Thorne's bodyguard off the gantry, and sprinted toward the edge of the platform.
He didn't look back at Thorne. He didn't check if the bullet he sent toward Thorne’s chest found its mark.
Julian leaped into the void.
The fall was dizzying, sixty feet through cold wind and driving rain. The cage struck the harbor water with an explosive splash, sinking instantly into the black abyss.
Julian hit the surface a fraction of a second later, the icy seawater knocking the breath from his lungs like a sledgehammer blow.
He opened his eyes underwater. The murky, brine-choked harbor was illuminated only by the faint glow of Pier 44’s spotlights above. Twenty feet down, the cage was descending rapidly, dragged into the darkness by its heavy iron weights.
Julian kicked with every ounce of strength in his body, diving straight into the deep. His lungs burned, the icy pressure squeezing his chest. He reached the cage bars at thirty feet.
Lily was inside, fighting the rising water inside the steel enclosure, her eyes wide with terror as bubbles escaped her lips.
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Julian grabbed the lock on the cage door. It was a heavy-duty industrial padlock. He couldn't pick it with freezing fingers. He couldn't break it with bare hands.
He drew his secondary 9mm handgun, pressed the muzzle directly against the padlock's shackle underwater, and pulled the trigger.
