Chapter 13 - Blood and Steel
""Down!"" Christian spun, tackling Clara into the narrow recess between two refrigerated containers just as a high-caliber round slammed into the concrete where they had been standing, blasting a crater of dust and stone fragments into the air.
Titan didn't wait for a command. Recognizing the immediate threat to Clara, the Cane Corso broke into a dead sprint toward the sniper's blind spot beneath the gantry structure.
""Titan, no!"" Clara screamed, but her voice was swallowed by the sudden roar of automatic fire echoing through the container canyon.
The two guards by the flatbed truck engaged immediately, laying down suppressing fire on the narrow alleyway where Christian and Clara were pinned. Plaster, rust, and sparks cascaded around them as high-velocity rounds perforated the thin steel walls of the storage units.
Christian leaned around the corner, firing three rapid, measured shots. The first guard dropped instantly, his weapon clattering across the asphalt. The second scrambled behind the truck's heavy tires, returning fire in blind panic.
From fifty feet up in the crane tower, the operator engaged the searchlight, swinging the blinding beam across the yard, searching for Clara and Christian’s position.
""I need to reach that ladder!"" Christian yelled over the deafening echoes of gunfire. ""If he gets the crane engaged, he'll drop a twenty-ton container directly onto that truck and crush the girl inside!""
""I'll draw the searchlight!"" Clara said, gripping the tablet.
""Are you insane? Clara, no!""
""Trust me!"" she shouted. Clara darted out from the recess, running toward the open yard, holding the tablet high. Its bright screen reflected brilliantly against the fog.
The crane's searchlight swung instantly toward her, illuminating her silk robe, now soaked and covered in grit. The second ground shooter leaned out from behind the truck tire to line up his sights on her chest.
He never pulled the trigger.
Out of the darkness, a black silhouette descended from the hood of the truck. Titan landed squarely on the shooter's back, driving him into the pavement with a bone-crushing impact. The gun skittered away, and the man went limp beneath the dog's relentless fury.
Meanwhile, Christian moved like a specter through the blind side of the light. He cleared the base of the gantry in five seconds flat, bounding up the steel industrial staircase three steps at a time.
The sniper above never heard him coming over the roar of the idling diesel truck. Christian rounded the platform, swept the sniper's rifle aside, and drove his elbow into the man’s jaw, sending him over the guardrail to the concrete sixty feet below.
Christian stood at the door of the operator's booth. He kicked it open.
Inside, the operator was reaching for an emergency manual release that would drop the gantry spreader directly onto container forty-two. Christian fired once through the reinforced glass. The operator slumped over the controls.
Christian rushed to the console, slapping his palm against the glowing green biometric scanner.
A mechanical voice droned over the harbor speakers: BIOMETRIC CONFIRMED. ENTER SECONDARY CIPHER.
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Christian looked out the booth window. Clara was in the center of the yard below, kneeling by Titan, looking up at him.
Suddenly, from the shadows behind container forty-two, a figure stepped forward with a raised weapon, aiming straight at Clara’s back. It was Julian. He had slipped his bonds.
