Chapter 14: Descent Into the Alps
The private Gulfstream jet cut through the turbulent midnight clouds, descending rapidly toward a clandestine airstrip tucked deep within a snowy valley in the Swiss Alps.
Inside the cabin, Victor was strapping on a tactical load-bearing vest over his heavy winter gear, checking the magazine of a suppressed compact carbine. Serena sat across from him, reviewing architectural blueprints of the subterranean bunker they were about to infiltrate.
"This isn't like the sea cave in New England," Serena cautioned, looking up from her tablet. "Mercer’s compound is a reinforced nuclear-grade bunker built into the side of a granite mountain. It has automated defense grids, biometric locks, and a private mercenary garrison."
"I don't care if it's a fortress," Victor replied coldly, racking a round into his weapon. "She wants the Sterling bloodline? I'll hand it to her myself—at the end of a barrel."
The jet touched down on the snow-covered tarmac with a heavy shudder, taxiing quickly into a darkened aircraft hangar. The bay doors closed instantly behind them, sealing them inside the freezing industrial space.
Waiting for them by the exit was a local tactical support team—four hardened operatives equipped with arctic camouflage and heavy breaching gear.
"Gear up and move out," the lead operative nodded to Serena.
They piled into two armored all-terrain vehicles, roaring out of the hangar and into the howling blizzard of the alpine pass. The wind whipped blinding sheets of snow across the windshields as they climbed higher and higher up the treacherous mountain road, toward the isolated bunker.
Twenty minutes later, the vehicles cut their engines, plunging into the deep shadows of a rocky ridge overlooking a massive steel blast door set directly into the cliffside.
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"This is it," Serena whispered, adjusting her night-vision goggles. "The primary entrance to the subterranean server hub. According to the thermal scans, there are at least twelve armed guards patrolling the exterior perimeter."
"Leave them to me," Victor said, opening the vehicle door and stepping out into the biting alpine cold.
