Chapter 5 - The Breach at Coral Gables
Two nights later, a heavy thunderstorm rolled across South Florida. Sheets of tropical rain battered the palm trees surrounding the Sterling estate in Coral Gables.
At 2:00 a.m., the perimeter security system at the rear of the estate flickered and went dark.
Viktor Kross and two armed men dressed in dark tactical gear slipped through the iron gate, having cut the power lines supplying the estate’s outer security grid.
Kross carried a suppressed automatic pistol in his right hand. He had spent twenty-four hours studying the estate’s layout. He knew Richard Sterling had hired four private guards, but Kross was a former military operative—civilian guards were nothing to him.
Silently, Kross and his men neutralized the two guards patrolling the swimming pool terrace, slipping zip-ties around their wrists and ankles after knocking them unconscious.
Kross used a glass-cutter to open the patio doors leading into the main house’s conservatory.
“Find the girl’s room,” Kross whispered to his men in the dark hallway. “Make it look like an accidental fire. Destroy the evidence.”
Suddenly, the floodlights in the hallway exploded into blinding white light!
A loud siren echoed through the mansion, piercing the quiet night!
Kross shielded his eyes, cursing under his breath.
Standing at the top of the grand marble staircase was Richard Sterling, holding a heavy tactical shotgun, flanked by six armored officers from the SWAT team of the Miami-Dade Police Department!
“Drop your weapons!” a SWAT commander shouted through a megaphone. “You are surrounded!”
Kross realized too late that he had walked into a trap.
Marcus Vance had monitored Julian Vance’s offshore accounts and intercepted encrypted cell transmissions between Kross and the billionaire hours earlier. Richard had deliberately leaked false news reports that Luna was staying in the ground-floor guest room to lure the killers into the open.
“Fire!” Kross screamed, raising his gun.
A chaotic gunfight erupted in the marble foyer! SWAT officers returned fire with precision, taking down Kross’s two accomplices instantly with non-lethal rubber rounds and stun grenades.
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Kross, desperate and bleeding from a shoulder wound, bolted toward the rear kitchen, trying to escape back into the storm.
Richard dropped his shotgun, pulled a heavy flashlight from his belt, and sprinted down the hallway after the man who had tried to murder his family and target little Luna.
