Chapter 7 - The Lower Vault
The flashbangs detonated with deafening concussions, blowing out the basement corridor's emergency lights and filling the concrete hall with blinding smoke. Marcus stormed down the steps, his rifle firing in tight, controlled bursts.
Three guards tumbled backward, their weapons clattering against the epoxy floor. Marcus stepped over the bodies without stopping, sweeping through the labyrinth of wine cellars and climate-controlled vaults.
At the end of the corridor, behind a blast-rated security door, he heard a sickening sound: the thud of an open hand striking skin, followed by a muffled scream.
Marcus kicked the door open with a brutal heel thrust.
Viktor Sterling stood in the center of the room. Half his face was bandaged in white medical tape, his jaw wired shut with metal pins, his eyes bloodshot and psychotic. Ava was bound to a steel medical chair, blood dripping from her split lip onto her collarbone, but her eyes were wide open, blazing with pure defiance.
Two heavily armed bodyguards spun toward the entrance. Marcus raised his weapon, but Sterling pulled Ava out of the chair, throwing his left arm around her neck and pressing the barrel of a chrome-plated .44 Magnum into her temple.
""Drop it!"" Sterling snarled through his wired teeth, the words whistling through the fractures of his jaw. ""Drop the rifle or her head comes off right now, Commander!""
The two bodyguards raised their weapons, red laser dots settling over Marcus’s chest.
Marcus kept his weapon aimed squarely at Sterling’s exposed right eye. ""You let her go, Viktor. This ends between us.""
Sterling laughed, a wet, choking sound. ""You think you're a hero, Vance? The public thinks you’re a rogue deserter. Hayes has already signed the warrant authorizing lethal force on sight. You die here, she dies here, and history remembers you as a lunatic.""
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Marcus’s finger squeezed the trigger slightly, taking up the slack. ""Then let's make history.""
Before Sterling could react, Ava threw her head backward with everything she had, slamming the back of her skull straight into Sterling’s shattered jaw.
