Chapter 5 - Fire on the Perimeter
The wailing sirens tore through the quiet evening air, bathing the grand manor in flashing crimson light. Outside, heavy automatic gunfire echoed across the manicured lawns.
Briggs drew his sidearm instantly, moving to position himself between Alexander and the reinforced bay windows. “Security team, report! Sector four breached!” Briggs barked into his comms unit. Static and frantic shouts answered him.
“Multiple hostiles in tactical gear! They brought armored transports through the eastern gates! They’re using thermal smoke—!” The transmission ended abruptly with the roar of an explosion. A blast rattled the manor’s foundation, shattering the decorative glass chandeliers in the upper gallery.
Alexander didn't flinch. He walked over to the mahogany cabinet, pulled out a custom silver-plated Kimber .45, and racked the slide with a clean, practiced motion. “Victor is getting desperate. He didn’t wait for midnight. He wants the ledger before I can hand it to the authorities.”
“Mr. Vance, we have to move you to the safe room below ground,” Briggs urged, ushering two guards into the study with assault rifles raised.
“The safe room is a tomb if they bring heavy ordnance,” Alexander said smoothly. “They didn't come to kill me. They came to retrieve Julianna and destroy the paper trail. Where are the security feeds?”
Elena, who had been huddled beneath a desk in the corner, crawled out, weeping. “The security room is... it’s on the ground floor! They cut the main power, sir!”
The emergency generators kicked in with a low hum, casting eerie amber emergency light across the blood-splattered foyer. Heavy footsteps pounded up the grand spiral staircase. Alexander motioned for the two tactical guards to flank the doorway.
The first intruder breached the threshold, weapon raised, clad in unmarked black Kevlar. Before the man could acquire a target, Briggs dropped him with two center-mass shots. A second operative lunged around the doorframe, firing a burst that shredded the antique wallpaper. Alexander stepped forward calmly, raised his handgun, and fired a single round through the shooter’s throat. The man collapsed backward over the railing, tumbling down to the foyer below.
Silence settled over the second-floor corridor, thick with the stench of cordite and burning drywall.
Briggs moved to the railing, checking the ground floor with his rifle barrel trained down. “That was a recon squad. The main assault team is regrouping in the courtyard. They brought an armored breach vehicle.”
Alexander pulled his phone from his pocket. He dialed a direct line to the city’s port authority commissioner. The line rang twice before a nervous voice answered.
“Commissioner Hayes,” Alexander said, his tone chillingly polite. “Your private account in the Cayman Islands just received an advance of ten million dollars. In exchange, you will declare an emergency lockdown on Victor Kane’s private docks within five minutes. If you refuse, the federal fraud unit receives the transaction receipts.”
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“Vance?! Are you insane? Kane’s men are everywhere!” Hayes stammered.
“You have four minutes,” Alexander hung up, then turned to Briggs. “We aren't defending this house. We are taking Victor’s fortress while his army is busy dying on my lawn.”
