Chapter 6 - Into the Lion's Maw
The rain turned to sleet as Marcus accelerated the stolen pickup along the winding logging trails of Pine Ridge. The mountain road was entirely off the public grid, guarded by automated license-plate readers and remote thermal towers.
Marcus parked the truck half a mile below the first security barrier, camouflaging the chassis beneath cut pine branches. Slipping into a black tactical windbreaker from Lin’s stash, he strapped the rifle across his chest and moved uphill through the freezing underbrush.
Pine Ridge Manor was not merely an estate; it was an armed fortress built of reinforced stone, glass, and steel. High-intensity halogen floods swept the manicured lawns. Four private guards in multicam gear patrolled the perimeter with Belgian Malinois attack dogs.
Marcus lay flat in the mud, waiting for the wind to shift. When the crosswind masked his scent, he used a suppressed pistol to take out the remote camera housing above the eastern generator shed.
He advanced quickly, silent as a predatory wraith. Two patrol guards rounded the corner of the shed, whispering about the cold. Marcus stepped out of the shadow between them, disarming the first with a throat strike and putting two rounds through the second's center of mass before the men hit the lawn.
Marcus stripped a keycard and radio from the guard's vest. He pressed the receiver to his ear.
""Control to all units,"" a voice crackled through the earpiece. ""Client wants the recording equipment set up in the cellar vault. We have twenty minutes before the storm takes out the satellite uplink. Finish the recording and prepare the furnace.""
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Marcus’s vision narrowed to razor-sharp focus. They were planning to record an interrogation or an execution, then destroy her body entirely.
He slid the stolen keycard through the heavy steel door of the manor's maintenance access tunnel. As the lock clicked green, Marcus dropped two flashbangs down the stairwell, kicked the door wide, and descended into the fire.
