Chapter 14 - Fire on the Helipad
The breaching charge exploded, blowing the heavy fire doors into the hallway. The Bratva vanguard stormed through the smoke, firing automatic rifles in tight formation.
Julian and Clara opened fire from behind the mahogany barricades. Clara’s shots were surprisingly precise, dropping the first two mercenaries while Julian’s heavy caliber pistol tore through the body armor of the rest. Marcus and his men laid down suppressing fire, retreating methodically toward the sky-bridge that led to the rooftop helipad.
The wind and rain slammed into them as they burst out onto the roof. The storm was in full fury, lightning illuminating the sleek black twin-engine helicopter waiting on the pad, its rotors already spinning into a deafening roar.
Behind them, the door to the roof blew open.
A dozen Bratva mercenaries emerged, led by a hulking man with a scarred scalp—Dmitri, the supreme enforcer of the northern syndicate.
"Kill the men! Capture the girl!" Dmitri roared above the gale.
A vicious rooftop gun battle erupted in the pouring rain. Julian pushed Clara toward the open helicopter door where the pilot gestured frantically.
"Get in!" Julian yelled over the roar of the blades.
Clara leaped into the cabin, turning around to pull Julian inside. Julian fired his last three rounds, sending Dmitri stumbling back, but another bullet caught Julian in the thigh. He fell to one knee on the wet asphalt of the helipad, blood washing away in the rain.
"Julian!" Clara screamed, leaning out of the helicopter door and reaching her hand out into the storm.
Dmitri, bleeding from his shoulder, raised his assault rifle, aiming directly at the helicopter’s fuel tank. "Nobody leaves!"
Clara grabbed the pilot's emergency flare gun mounted beside the cabin door, aimed straight at Dmitri, and fired.
The blazing phosphor flare struck Dmitri directly in the chest, erupting into a blinding inferno. The mercenary screamed, stumbling backward over the low rooftop barrier and plummeting sixty stories into the abyss below.
Clara leaned further out, grabbing Julian’s tactical vest with both hands. With a surge of desperate strength, she dragged him into the cabin.
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"Go! Lift off!" she shouted to the pilot.
The helicopter lifted into the stormy sky just as gunfire peppered the undercarriage, peeling away into the low-hanging clouds and leaving the burning tower behind.
