Chapter 5 - Shadows of the Waterfront
The blinding glare of industrial halogens stripped away the shadows of the subterranean yard, exposing a cavernous space stacked high with rusted shipping containers. From the catwalk, Diana looked down to see a dozen black luxury SUVs idling, their exhaust pipes sending white plumes into the chill night air. Standing in the center of the perimeter was not Julian Vance, but an older man with silver-streaked hair, wearing an impeccably tailored cashmere coat over a charcoal suit.
Alexander Vance. Julian’s father, and the true architect of the syndicate's stranglehold on the city.
“Diana,” Alexander’s amplified voice echoed through the concrete expanse, smooth and devoid of human warmth. “You always possessed an astonishing capacity for violence. It was your father's greatest pride, and your most unfortunate curse.”
Diana stepped back into the sliver of darkness provided by a massive ventilation duct, keeping Lily shielded from the sniper lines she knew were currently painting the catwalk. She untied the silk sash, gently setting Lily behind a stack of steel reinforcement plates. “Stay here. Do not make a sound. If I say run, you run to Marcus. Do you understand?”
Lily’s eyes were wide, brimming with unshed tears, but she bit her lower lip and nodded. “I love you, Mama.”
“I love you more than the world,” Diana whispered, kissing the girl’s forehead before rising.
She turned to Marcus, her eyes burning with a terrifying, calm fury. “How many rounds do you have left?”
“Two magazines for the sidearm. One drum for the submachine gun,” Marcus replied, checking his chamber without looking. “The extraction boat is moored three hundred meters west through the floodgate. If we hit the control switch, the lock opens and floods the lower basin. It’ll drown their vehicles, but it will give us an exit.”
“The switch is down there,” Diana said, nodding toward a reinforced glass control booth situated directly behind Alexander Vance’s security perimeter. “He knows we have no high-ground advantage for long. He’s going to order a mortar strike on this superstructure within three minutes to bury us.”
“Then we don't have three minutes,” Marcus said grimly.
Diana stepped out onto the edge of the catwalk, her emerald dress torn and blackened by gunpowder, but her posture entirely regal. She looked down at the elder Vance, who smiled thinly up at her.
“Send the child down, Diana,” Alexander called out, spreading his hands in a mock gesture of peace. “She is a Sterling heir. She has value to our coalition. You, on the other hand, have become entirely too expensive to maintain.”
“You talk too much, Alexander,” Diana’s voice rang clear across the cavern. “You always did, right before you lost everything.”
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With a single fluid motion, Diana kicked a loose steel girder off the edge. It plummeted fifty feet, smashing directly into the hood of the central SUV, triggering its horn in a continuous, blaring scream.
Before the echo could register, Diana vaulted over the railing into the abyss.
