Chapter 10 - Breaking Point
The central penthouse elevator lobby was a war zone of shattered drywall, smoking electrical panels, and empty brass shell casings. Voss stood near the emergency stairwell door, his expensive suit ruined, his silver hair wild, his chest heaving with exhaustion. His last two remaining tactical operators flanked him, their weapons raised toward the dim hallway as the building around them groaned under the strain of structural fires and failing generators.
“Where is the chopper?” Voss snapped at the operator on the comms link.
“Negative on the extraction, sir! The municipal airspace has been locked down by federal transit control! We’re grounded!” the operator shouted back over the roar of the wind.
Voss slammed his fist against the concrete wall in a rare display of unbridled rage. Everything he had meticulously planned over five years was dissolving into ash because of one stubborn man and a massive dog.
Suddenly, the overhead emergency lights flickered and died completely, plunging the penthouse lobby into absolute darkness, illuminated only by the frantic crimson pulse of the floor-level emergency strobes.
“Movement at the end of the hall!” the second operator yelled, swinging his rifle muzzle toward the shadows.
A slow, heavy rhythm echoed down the corridor—the unmistakable sound of bare feet slapping against the concrete floor, accompanied by the low, menacing growl of a Cane Corso.
“Light him up!” Voss screamed, losing all semblance of his usual aristocratic composure.
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Tracer rounds erupted from the operators' weapons, tearing through the drywall and shattering glass partitions in a blinding storm of sparks and fire. But the corridor was empty where the shadows flickered. Dante wasn't standing in the open; he had used the service vents to drop directly behind their flank.
Before the operators could pivot their weapons, a heavy metal fire extinguisher came hurtling out of the gloom, catching the first operator squarely in the chest and sending him crashing backward over the marble partition.
