Chapter 11 - Shadows in the Snow
The night outside had turned frigid, a light snowfall dusting the dark pine trees. Six heavily armed mercenaries moved silently through the fog, night-vision goggles glowing faint green in the dark.
They thought they had trapped a wounded wolf in a wooden cage. They were wrong.
Julian Rossi didn't defend the house from the inside; he slipped out into the freezing night through a side vent, becoming one with the dark shadows of the mountain. He moved like a ghost, his knowledge of the terrain absolute.
The first mercenary never saw him coming. Julian stepped out from behind a massive pine tree, grabbing the man in a lethal chokehold, breaking his neck before he could make a sound, and quietly laying the body in the snow.
The second and third fell in rapid succession—one taken down with a silenced round through the throat, the other dragged into the dark underbrush.
Panic began to spread among the remaining mercenaries. Their radio chatter grew frantic.
"Team leader, we have lost contact with Bravo and Charlie! He’s in the trees! I repeat, Rossi is in the—"
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A shot rang out, cutting the transmission short.
Inside the house, the leader of the strike team—Marcus's top lieutenant, a sadistic enforcer named Viktor—realized the trap had sprung on them. Disregarding the perimeter, Viktor kicked open the front door of the cabin, intent on finding the child to use as leverage.
