Chapter 4 - The Hunters of Red Hook
BANG.
The sound of small-arms fire rattled through the floorboards, followed instantly by the heavy, muffled thud of a body hitting the concrete below.
"Marcus!" I yelled, stepping toward the door.
Nora grabbed my arm, her face white with fear. "Adrian, no!"
I pulled a heavy iron pipe from the side of the desk, moving swiftly to the top of the metal stairs that overlooked the main warehouse floor.
Below, through the dim shadows of the shipping containers, three men in unmarked tactical gear were moving with military precision. They carried suppressed carbines, their laser sights painting long red lines through the dusty air.
Marcus was lying near the rusted hull of an old generator, holding his shoulder, blood pooling on his jacket. He had managed to take down one of their point men, but the remaining two were already pushing past him toward the stairs.
Behind them stepped a woman in a long wool coat.
Evelyn Cross.
She wasn't wearing her wedding dress anymore. She wore black trousers, leather boots, and a tailored coat. Her hair was pulled back into a tight braid, her face completely calm, completely devoid of the panic she had feigned on Fifth Avenue.
"Adrian!" Evelyn called out, her voice echoing clearly off the high brick walls. "I know you're up there! Don't make this messy! We just want the drive!"
I stepped out onto the iron landing, holding the pipe, keeping my body between her and the room where Nora and Lily were hiding.
"The cathedral blast was yours," I said, my voice cutting through the damp darkness.
Evelyn looked up, her blue eyes cold and empty under the dim industrial lighting.
"It was a necessary distraction," she said casually, as if talking about a delayed board meeting. "Your mother was losing control of the situation. She was about to let you walk across Fifth Avenue and make a scene that would have tanked our pre-market stock valuation by forty percent."
"You killed twelve people inside that hotel," I said.
"Collateral damage," Evelyn replied without a flicker of hesitation. "My father spent twenty years building the Lantern network. We are six weeks away from securing the federal contract for the entire VA hospital system. Do you really think we were going to let a disgruntled ex-researcher and a bastard child ruin a forty-billion-dollar acquisition?"
"She isn't a bastard," I said, every nerve in my body burning with a cold, lethal focus. "She’s my daughter."
Evelyn smiled—a sharp, poisonous expression.
"She’s an error in the ledger, Adrian. Just like your father was."
She nodded to the two tactical operators beside her.
"Clean the room," she ordered. "Bring me the drive."
The two men raised their carbines and began advancing up the iron staircase.
Before the first operator could reach the third step, a heavy iron chain suspended from the ceiling crane snapped with a deafening CLANG.
Marcus, bleeding heavily on the floor below, had reached the emergency release lever on the wall.
A three-ton steel shipping crate swung violently across the floor, slamming directly into the two operators with terrifying force, crushing them against the brick wall of the warehouse.
Evelyn gasped, jumping back as sparks showered from the broken crane cable.
I didn't wait. I charged down the iron stairs, vaulting over the railing, and hit the concrete floor right in front of her.
Evelyn reached into her coat for a small pistol, but I grabbed her wrist, twisting it until the gun clattered onto the concrete. I slammed her back against the side of a shipping container, holding her pinned by the throat.
"Where is your father?" I growled, my face inches from hers.
May you like
Evelyn choked, struggling against my grip, but her eyes were filled with insane, arrogant triumph.
"He’s at the federal courthouse," she managed to gasp out, a red stain of lipstick smearing against her teeth. "With your mother... signing the emergency asset transfer... Vale Meridian is already ours, Adrian... you have nothing left..."
