Chapter 8 - The Tunnel of Ash
Gabriel charged across the open floor, ignoring the crossfire humming past his ears. A round tore through the leather on his shoulder, grazing skin, but the pain didn't register.
He vaulted over the steel workbench, sliding into the darkness of the maintenance tunnel just as the steel grate was kicked shut from the other side.
Gabriel smashed his boot into the padlock. The rusted chain snapped, and he barreled into the narrow, unlit shaft beneath the old mine. The sound of rapid footsteps echoed up ahead, accompanied by Maya’s muffled struggles.
"Let go of me! My dad is going to kill you!" she fought back fiercely, biting down on the mercenary's wrist.
A curse echoed in the tunnel. Gabriel heard the mercenary strike her—a soft slap that echoed louder than any bullet in Gabriel's ears.
Something primal and ancient shattered inside Gabriel.
He didn't run like a man anymore; he moved like an unchained predator in the dark. He knew every turn of these old abandoned silver tunnels; he had hidden weapons here during the border wars a decade ago.
Gabriel rounded a blind corner. A mercenary turned, bringing up a suppressed submachine gun, but Gabriel caught the weapon's barrel with his bare left hand, shoving it violently upward as a burst of rounds chewed into the tunnel ceiling. With his right hand, Gabriel buried his combat knife between the plates of the mercenary's chest rig.
The man collapsed with a choked gasp.
Gabriel stepped over the body without breaking stride, rounding the final exit into the blinding daylight of the ravine.
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Fifty yards away, Miller stood beside an idling black chopper, his suit stained with dust, a cruel grin splitting his face. He held Maya by the scruff of her neck like an unwanted stray, holding a pistol pressed directly against the girl’s temple.
"Take one more step, little brother," Miller yelled over the howling rotor blades, "and Arthur Vance’s bloodline ends right here on the rocks."
