Chapter 9 - The Siege of the Calumet Basin
"Boss!" Franco’s voice cracked over the secure tactical radio clipped to Gabriel’s shoulder. "We’ve got multiple vehicles breaching the perimeter! Moretti’s primary enforcer squad—at least fifteen armed men moving in from the north docks. They tracked our signal!"
Gabriel didn't flinch. He holstered his Glock with practiced efficiency and drew a secondary compact submachine gun from beneath his coat, shoving it into Natalie’s hands.
"Can you shoot?" Gabriel demanded.
Natalie blinked, staring at the weapon in sheer bewilderment. "I... I don't—"
"Learn fast," Gabriel barked, turning his attention to me. He grabbed my arm, pulling me behind the reinforced steel desk in the mezzanine office. "They’re going to try to flatten this entire building to erase the ledger. We need to get to the extraction vehicle at the rear loading dock."
"What about the ledger?" I asked, pointing toward the encrypted hard drive sitting on the desk beside a bank of computer monitors.
"Leave it," Gabriel said. "We don't need the evidence anymore. We have the source."
Outside the glass office, automatic gunfire erupted with terrifying intensity. Bullets chewed through the corrugated metal siding of the warehouse, sending sparks and shrapnel flying across the freezing interior. Shouts, curses, and the thunderous roar of heavy ordnance echoed through the cavernous space.
"Franco is pinned at the eastern dock!" Gabriel shouted over the deafening racket, his tactical earpiece flashing red. "We have to break through the western maintenance exit now!"
Natalie scrambled to her feet, clutching the submachine gun like a drowning person holding onto driftwood. The fear on her face had vanished, replaced by the hard, desperate survival instinct our parents had drilled into us when we were children.
"There’s a utility tunnel beneath the floorboards behind the server racks," Natalie shouted over the gunfire. "It leads straight out to the river culvert. It’s our only way out!"
Gabriel didn't hesitate. "Lead the way."
We bolted out of the office and down the metal staircase, ducking low as a sustained burst of automatic fire shattered the remaining glass panels of the mezzanine windows above us. Glass rained down around us like frozen rain.
We sprinted across the concrete floor, weaving between towering stacks of wooden crates while bullets ricocheted off the metal framing overhead. The smell of cordite and burning rubber was suffocating.
Natalie reached a heavy steel floor hatch tucked away behind a bank of smoking computer servers. She threw her weight against the rusted handle, heaving it upward with a sharp metallic screech. A dark, damp gust of subterranean air rushed up to meet us.
"Go!" Gabriel yelled, shoving Natalie down the ladder first.
I scrambled down next, my boots hitting the wet concrete of the utility tunnel just as a blinding flash illuminated the warehouse above us. A concussion grenade detonated near the entrance, shaking the ground beneath our feet and sending a shockwave rolling through the tunnel.
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Gabriel dropped down behind us, kicking the heavy steel hatch shut and throwing the manual locking bolt into place just as heavy boots thundered across the grating overhead.
We plunged into absolute darkness.
