Chapter 5: Point Blank
The echo of Victor’s roar had barely faded when he pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
The heavy 12-gauge slug tore through the dim air of the cavern, striking the wooden pillar inches from Arthur’s head, sending giant splinters exploding in every direction.
Arthur shrieked, ducking behind a stack of steel supply crates as the mercenary team reacted instantly.
"CONTACT LEFT!" one of the mercenaries barked, raising a suppressed carbine and unleashing a volley of automatic fire toward the upper ledge.
Muzzle flashes strobed brightly in the pitch-black cavern. Bullets kicked up stone dust and ricocheted wildly off the ancient granite walls around Victor and Serena.
"Cover!" Serena screamed, grabbing Victor’s tactical vest and hauling him behind a massive stone pillar just as a hail of lead tore through the space they had occupied a second before.
Serena leaned out from behind the pillar, firing three precise shots. Two mercenaries went down instantly, their bodies splashing into the icy sea water below the dock.
"Get Ethan!" Victor yelled, racking another shell into his shotgun. "I’ll cover you!"
"Victor, don't be stupid! They have the high ground on the lower stairs!" Serena shouted back, tossing a smoke grenade down the rock face.
Thick grey smoke spewed across the lower cavern, obscuring the mercenaries' line of sight.
Down on the dock, chaos erupted.
"Get the boat ready! NOW!" Lily yelled, shoving Ethan into the arms of the remaining mercenary. She drew her sidearm, backing slowly toward the RIB boat as the automated transfer terminal on the crate blinked furiously: 98% COMPLETE.
"Victoria! The terminal!" Arthur panicked, crawling along the slippery dock planks, his expensive suit soaked in salt water. "We can't leave without the physical drive!"
"Shut up, Arthur!" Lily snarled. "The digital transfer is almost complete! Grab the drive and get on the boat!"
Above them, Victor charged through the wall of smoke like a man possessed. He didn't care about the gunfire. He didn't care about the cold, blinding mist. All he saw was his son.
A mercenary stepped out of the smoke right in front of him, raising his rifle. Victor didn't hesitate—he slammed the barrel of his shotgun upward, knocking the rifle aside, and fired point-blank into the soldier's chest plate. The force threw the man off the dock into the churning ocean.
Victor broke into the open, sprinting down the wooden planks of the pier.
"Lily!" he screamed.
Lily turned, her face twisting into a mask of pure fury. She raised her gun, aiming straight for Victor’s head.
TRIPLE TAP.
Serena sprinted out from the upper rocks, firing on the run. Her bullets caught Lily in the right arm and shoulder. Lily screamed in pain, her gun dropping into the ocean water below.
She stumbled back onto the stern of the boat, clutching her bleeding arm.
"Push off! PUSH OFF!" Lily shrieked to the boat driver.
The heavy twin outboard engines roared to life, churning the dark sea water into white foam. The RIB boat began pulling away from the dock.
Arthur Sterling was still on the wooden pier, scrambling toward the floating terminal drive. "Wait! Victoria! Take me with you!"
Lily looked down at Arthur with utter disgust from the moving boat. "You were just the bank account, Arthur. You're useless now."
She reached down with her left hand, grabbed a remote detonator from her tactical belt, and pressed the primary red switch.
BEEP.
Deep within the cavern walls behind Victor, a series of muffled, explosive thuds vibrated through the stone foundation. Heavy dust and fist-sized rocks began raining down from the ceiling.
"THE CAVE IS COLLAPSING!" Serena shouted over the deafening roar of falling debris. "VICTOR, GET OUT OF THERE!"
Victor didn't look up at the falling ceiling. He leaped across the gap between the pier and the moving boat just as it accelerated toward the cavern's ocean outlet.
He slammed onto the rubber deck of the speeding vessel as giant rock slabs smashed into the pier behind them, crushing the wooden dock and swallowing Arthur Sterling in a avalanche of shattered granite.
The boat burst out of the dark sea cave into the open ocean, slamming violently over eight-foot storm waves under a moonless, rain-swept sky.
On the deck of the tossing boat, Victor pulled himself up, wiping blood and salt water from his eyes.
Across the deck, the mercenary holding Ethan was drawing a combat knife. Lily was kneeling by the console, frantically pressing buttons on the encrypted transfer terminal.
"Touch my son," Victor growled, standing up to his full height against the roaring wind and rain, "and I will tear this boat apart with my bare hands."
Lily wiped blood from her lips, a terrifying, unhinged smile spreading across her face as she looked up at him.
"You're too late, Victor," she laughed, holding up the glowing digital ledger pad. "The transfer reached 100%. Clara’s legacy is gone. Your family is ruined."
"I don't care about the money," Victor said softly, stepping forward as a massive wave rocked the boat. "I only came for Ethan."
Before Lily could answer, the night sky above them exploded with light.
A high-powered military searchlight cut through the black storm clouds, blinding everyone on board. The deafening, rhythmic thump-thump-thump of heavy twin helicopter rotors shook the air directly overhead.
A booming voice echoed down from a heavy tactical megaphone attached to an approaching Coast Guard Strike Helicopter:
"UNIDENTIFIED VESSEL, THIS IS THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION. HEAVY STRIKE TEAM IS AUTHORIZED. CEASE ENGINES IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL BE ENGAGED WITH HEAVY ORDNANCE!"
Lily’s smile instantly evaporated.
She looked at the helicopter, then at Victor, her eyes filling with desperate rage.
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She grabbed the biometric terminal—and reached for Ethan's thermal blanket, pulling the terrified child toward the open ocean edge of the speeding boat.
"If I don't get the trust," Lily screamed over the roar of the engines and the chopper blades, "NO ONE DOES!"
