Chapter 11 - Blood on Marble
Elena stood alone in the sealed vault room, looking at the heavy ledger, then down at the eagle tattooed on her arm beneath her damp sleeve.
We are the cleanup crew.
She closed the ledger, slipped it into her coat, and turned to the emergency electrical panel on the side wall of the vault. As a military flight engineer, she knew industrial power grids inside out. She popped the breaker cover with her pocketknife, stripped two primary copper grounding wires, and jammed them across the master circuit.
A shower of sparks erupted from the panel. The vault’s primary lights died instantly, plunging the subterranean complex into pitch-black darkness, followed by the deafening clang of the automated emergency lockdown sirens.
Elena kicked open the security door before the secondary magnetic lock could engage, melting into the shadows of the corridor.
Upstairs in the private lobby, the contractor holding Marek hesitated as the lights flickered and died, switching on his weapon-mounted tactical flashlight. In that fraction of a second, Marek threw his weight backward, headbutting the operative in the bridge of his nose.
The man stumbled, firing a wild suppressed shot into the ceiling plaster. Before he could recover, Elena burst from the stairwell like a specter of vengeance, driving her combat knife through his collarbone, pinning him to the marble counter. She wrenched the pistol from his failing grip, shot him twice in the center mass, and severed Marek’s plastic cuffs with the bloodied blade.
""You're late,"" Marek wheezed, rubbing his bruised wrists.
""The elevator was occupied,"" she replied, handing him the contractor’s sidearm. ""Cole is in the city. He’s running this from a mobile command post nearby.""
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""Then we don't run anymore,"" Marek said, checking the magazine.
""No,"" Elena said, her eyes fixed on the glass front doors leading out into the rain. ""Now we hunt.""
