Chapter 4 - A Message from the Dead
Adrian picked up the phone, pressing the speaker button. "Speak."
A synthesized, metallic voice filled the quiet penthouse. "Mr. Vale. You have taken possession of property that belongs to the United States Government."
Nora stepped closer to the phone, her hand tightening around her rifle. "Vance."
A soft, cold laugh echoed through the speaker. "Hello, Agent Hale. Or should I call you Blackridge Four? I must admit, hiding as a twenty-dollar-an-hour waitress in a Chicago mob den was surprisingly clever. It took my sweep teams six years to isolate your biometric profile."
"You murdered the entire unit, Vance," Nora said, her voice dropping into a deadly register. "You blew up the depot in Shenandoah. You killed Miller, Reyes, and Chen."
"They were liabilities, Nora," Vance replied casually, as if discussing a bad financial investment. "The Blackridge program was being decommissioned by the Senate Select Committee. If my operatives were questioned, my private security contracts in Eastern Europe would have been dismantled. I simply cleaned up my workspace."
"And now you're in Chicago," Adrian interjected coldly. "Standing on my territory."
"Ah, Judge Vale," Vance mocked. "The self-made king of the West Side. Do not confuse your local street racket with international defense apparatus, Mr. Vale. I have two hundred private military contractors currently surrounding your city. I have federal warrants pre-signed by corrupt judges in D.C. If you do not hand Nora over to my transport team at the Navy Pier terminal by 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, I will burn your entire empire to the ground."
"You're welcome to try," Adrian said flatly. "My construction crew just paved a new parking lot in Cicero. I have plenty of room beneath the concrete for two hundred more bodies."
"You have twelve hours, Vale," Vance snapped, his tone darkening. "If she isn't at Navy Pier, I won't just kill her. I will publish the financial records of every political partner you own in Illinois. I will dismantle your family piece by piece. Starting with your brother in Seattle."
The line went dead with a harsh tone.
Silence descended upon the penthouse once more.
Nora turned to Adrian, her face pale with fury. "He knows about Julian. Adrian, you can't fight him. Vance doesn't operate by mob rules. He has satellite surveillance, military-grade drones, and high-level political coverage."
"And I have Chicago," Adrian replied instantly, his eyes burning with an unshakeable, lethal authority. "He thinks he's the hunter because he wears a suit from D.C. But he walked into my city, threatened my family, and brought a war to my doorstep."
He walked over to his desk, opened a concealed floor safe, and pulled out a heavy black leather folder containing encrypted flash drives and satellite maps of the Chicago waterfront.
"Navy Pier at 8:00 a.m.," Adrian murmured, spreading the maps across the desk. "Vance wants a exchange. He thinks we're going to play defense."
Nora stepped up to the desk, her black-ops training overriding her shock. She looked down at the satellite maps of Navy Pier, her eyes immediately identifying choke points, sniper perimeters, and escape routes.
"He expects us to bring a small team," Nora said, pointing to the northern edge of the pier. "He'll place two snipers on the Ferris wheel structure, three assault teams inside the main pavilion, and a boat waiting at the end of the dock for maritime extraction."
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Adrian looked up at her, a dark, proud smile curling his lips. "And how do we break that setup?"
Nora looked at him, her dark eyes flashing with a cold, terrifying brilliance. "We don't break it, Adrian. We turn his own trap into a kill box."
