Chapter 18 - The Siege of Margaret House
Before Ethan could process Claire’s words, the sudden shriek of a car horn echoed from the driveway, followed instantly by the deafening crack of rifle fire.
Maya.
Ethan spun on his heel, adrenaline surging through his bloodstream like liquid fire. "Claire, stay down!"
He sprinted down the hallway, bursting into the living room just as a hail of high-caliber rounds shattered the front bay windows, raining glass shards across the floor. He dropped to his stomach, sliding behind the reinforced brick fireplace.
Through the broken window, he saw Maya’s car. She had rammed the black Mercedes, blocking the driveway, but two black tactical SUVs had pulled up onto the lawn. Men in unmarked gray raincoats and tactical vests were deploying across the wet grass, their weapons fitted with suppressors, spitting rhythmic, deadly bursts into the front facade of the cottage.
They weren't police. They weren't federal marshals. These were corporate private military contractors—the kind Richard Vance’s offshore trusts had employed for thirty years to silence whistleblowers in South America and Africa.
Ethan peered through the shattered sill. Maya had managed to crawl out of the passenger door and was pinned behind the stone well forty feet away, clutching her arm.
"Maya!" Ethan roared above the storm.
A suppressed round chipped the brick six inches above his temple, spraying sharp mortar into his hair.
Then, from the darkness of the tree line beyond the driveway, a flare shot into the sky, bathing the entire clearing in an eerie, hellish crimson glow.
From the lead SUV, a tall, immaculately dressed man stepped out into the rain, holding an open satellite phone. Even from fifty yards away, through the smoke and torrential rain, Ethan recognized the silhouette.
It was Arthur Vance-Pemberton—the quiet, obsequious vice president of Sovereign Trust.
Arthur wasn't holding an umbrella. He stood calmly amidst the gunfire, his voice amplified through a tactical megaphone mounted to the SUV's grille.
May you like
"Ethan!" Arthur’s refined voice boomed across the valley. "Do not be foolish! You have the child, and you have Claire. Deliver them to me, and the trust will grant you and Maya safe passage to Canada! Refuse, and we will level this house, followed immediately by Margaret House down the road!"
***
