Chapter 20 - TO BE CONTINUED...
The iron-masked enforcer fired the launcher without a moment of hesitation.
A loud blast blew the front double doors of the hospital off their hinges.
Debris and dust filled the air, obscuring everything in a thick gray cloud.
Marcus was thrown backward by the shockwave, slamming hard into the concrete.
His ears rang loudly as he tried to push himself up from the ground.
Through the clearing smoke, he saw the masked man advancing slowly into the ruined lobby.
Agent Carter lay motionless on the pavement nearby, unconscious.
Marcus dragged himself toward the shattered entrance, his vision fading in and out.
He reached the doorway and looked down the long, dark basement staircase.
At the bottom of the stairs lay Leo’s small, torn sneaker... dropped in the scramble.
The stroller was gone.
The sound of a helicopter's rotors hummed softly from the fog above the city.
A mechanical voice echoed from the masked man's chest communicator.
"Asset secured. Moving to extraction point Omega."
Marcus squeezed his bloody hand into a tight fist, pressing his forehead against the cold floor.
Tears cut clean tracks through the dust on his exhausted face.
He had promised the boy he would protect them.
He stood up slowly, clutching his side, his eyes burning with a dangerous, dark fury.
He picked up a discarded tactical shotgun from the floor.
"I will find you," Marcus whispered into the quiet, smoky air.
"And I will tear your world apart."
Far away, inside a dark cargo plane flying above the clouds...
Little Leo held his sleeping baby sister tightly in his arms inside a locked steel room.
He wiped a tear from his eye, looking out the small oval window at the distant city lights below.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper Marcus had given him earlier.
On it was a single phone number and three words written in heavy ink:
NEVER GIVE UP.
Leo held his sister closer and whispered softly into the dark.
May you like
"Hold on, Hope..."
"Marcus is coming for us."
