Chapter 18 - The Siege
The drive back to the estate felt like an eternity. I had stolen a car from a parking garage, driving recklessly through the backroads to avoid the main highways. As I pulled up to the gate, the entire estate was dark.
The 'Iron Gate' protocol had worked. The house was a silhouette against the night sky, and the perimeter fence was humming with an electric charge.
Two SUVs were parked near the main entrance, their doors open, their occupants nowhere to be seen. They had been trying to breach the front door, but the reinforced steel had held.
I crawled through the woods, keeping low. I could hear the sound of a mechanical saw biting into the metal of the front entrance. They were getting in.
I pulled my backup handgun from my holster—a weapon I had kept locked in the glove box for a year. I checked the clip. Eight rounds.
Eight chances to end this.
I slipped through the side garden door, which was still unlocked, and moved into the house. The interior was pitch black, silent as a tomb. I could hear the faint sound of drilling near the main foyer.
I moved through the hallway, my footsteps silent on the carpet. I reached the doorway to the foyer and looked in. Three men in black gear were working on the lock, their backs to me.
"Drop the drill," I said, my voice echoing in the grand room.
May you like
The men spun around, their rifles swinging up. I fired twice. Two of them fell, their gear clattering on the marble floor. The third man dived behind a sofa, returning fire.
The bullets chewed up the wood of the front desk. I dived behind a pillar, my heart hammering against my chest. This was it. The moment I had been dreading for a year.
