Chapter 53 - Bloodline in the Crosshairs
The storm of bullets tore through the command room, shattering monitors and sending sparks showering over the floor.
Claire grabbed Hayes by his tactical vest and hauled him behind the solid steel frame of the primary console.
"Don't shoot him!" a voice shouted from the walkway. "The admiral needs to remain alive until the transfer clears!"
"Contractors," Thomas yelled over the deafening clatter of automatic fire. "Black Sun mercenaries!"
Julian dropped flat against the floor, sliding behind a heavy electrical housing as bullets chipped concrete inches above his head.
"They're Hayes's personal security detail from the lower level!" Julian shouted, pulling a submachine gun from under his trench coat.
"How many?" Claire asked, swapping her magazine with mechanical precision.
"At least a dozen!" Thomas replied, blind-firing two rounds around the edge of the server rack.
A mercenary dropped from the catwalk, his body tumbling twenty feet into the darkness of the lower silo.
Hayes leaned his head back against the steel paneling, chuckling softly despite the chaos erupting around them.
"You can't fight an army in a shoebox, Commander," Hayes mocked, blood trickling from his split lip.
Claire ignored him, her mind entering the lethal, hyper-focused state that had earned her the moniker One-Eighty-Seven.
She took a deep breath, calculating the ricochet angles in the narrow corridor.
"Thomas! Suppress the high catwalk!" Claire ordered, her voice cutting through the gunfire like a razor.
"Copy that!" Thomas yelled, leaning out and emptying half a magazine into the upper railings.
The mercenaries scrambled for cover as sparks and lead danced across the steel beams.
In that half-second of suppressed fire, Claire broke from behind the console like a ghost unleashed.
She moved with terrifying fluidity, firing three controlled pairs into the smoke-filled corridor.
Two mercenaries dropped instantly, their armor failing against the high-velocity armor-piercing rounds.
A third operative lunged forward with a shotgun, but Claire ducked under the barrel, driving her combat knife up under his Kevlar collar.
The man collapsed with a choked gasp, and Claire immediately stripped the fragmentation grenade from his chest harness.
"Fire in the hole!" Claire screamed, pulling the pin and hurling the grenade toward the entrance of the blast door.
"Get down!" Julian yelled, covering his head.
The grenade detonated with a concussive roar, sending a shockwave through the narrow mountain chamber.
Shrapnel screamed off the bulkheads, followed by the agonizing groans of wounded mercenaries.
Claire didn't wait for the smoke to clear.
She sprinted through the haze, clearing the corner with her sidearm raised.
The corridor was clear, but when she turned back toward the command room, her heart dropped into her stomach.
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The space behind the primary console was completely empty.
Hayes was gone.
