Chapter 5 - THE SIEGE OF BAYSIDE
The titanium doors unlocked with a heavy hiss. I stepped out into the crimson-lit hallway, moving like a phantom.
Two mercenaries posted outside the office turned their weapon lights toward the opening, but before their triggers could travel a millimeter, a burst of suppressed fire drilled through their visors. They collapsed silently onto the carpet.
"Move! Left corridor!" I signaled Elena.
She kept low, running with determination despite the agony in her fractured ribs, keeping Mia shielded beneath her arm. We descended through the narrow access shaft, bypassing the elevators that Marco had rigged with explosive charges.
Every level of the Duca Tower had become a war zone. Downstairs in the grand lobby, gunfire was already echoing as Marco’s loyalists executed my personal security detail. The betrayal was thorough; Marco had bribed the exterior perimeter guards and cut the city fiber-optic lines.
We reached the sub-basement parking garage. The vast underground space was dark, illuminated only by the headlights of idling black SUVs.
"There he is! Kill the boss!" a voice shouted from behind a concrete support pillar.
Muzzle flashes illuminated the subterranean gloom. Bullets ricocheted wildly off the concrete floor, sparking against the steel pillars. I shoved Elena behind the reinforced wheel well of a heavy armored van and opened fire with the MPX, dropping three gunmen in the first volley.
"Get in the car!" I yelled, tossing her the encrypted key fob to the Maybach.
Elena sprinted toward the armored sedan, opened the rear door, and secured Mia into the custom child seat installed in the rear—a seat I had originally kept empty for business associates' families, never imagining it would hold my own flesh and blood.
Suddenly, a sniper round pierced the side glass of the adjacent vehicle, showering Elena with pellets of tempered glass. She dropped to the ground, firing her 9mm twice to suppress a shooter advancing from the maintenance ramp.
I launched a flashbang grenade toward the center of the garage. A blinding white detonation ripped through the space, accompanied by a deafening bang that disoriented the hit squad.
Leaping into the driver's seat of the Maybach, I slammed the ignition. The twin-turbo V12 engine roared to life with terrifying power. Elena threw herself into the passenger seat, panting heavily.
"Hold on!" I roared, throwing the transmission into drive and slamming the accelerator.
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The heavy armored vehicle smashed through the security barricades, pulverized two opposing SUVs blocking the ramp, and burst out into the pouring rain of Manhattan's midnight streets.
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