Chapter 5 - Blood and Black Powder

A deafening horn echoed through the canyon walls as an armored pickup truck slammed through the rusted perimeter gate and roared down the dirt ramp at breakneck speed.

"Ambush!" one of the mercenaries yelled, drawing his weapon.

"Miller, shoot her!" Julian shouted, retreating toward the SUV.

Before Miller could align his sights, the pickup truck drifted sideways across the mud, its steel bull bar slamming directly into the side of the police cruiser. The impact sent Miller sprawling into the mud, his gun flying into the darkness.

The driver's door of the truck kicked open. A tall, rugged man in a soaked canvas jacket emerged, raising a 12-gauge shotgun. Boom.

The blast tore through the windshield of Julian’s SUV, showering the interior with safety glass. Julian screamed, diving into the backseat as his two hired guards opened fire with automatic pistols.

"Maya, get down!" a voice roared.

Maya rolled frantically behind the crushed rear bumper of the cruiser as bullets pinged off the metal frame. She recognized that voice instantly—Marcus Vance, Dr. Robert Vance’s estranged younger brother and an ex-narcotics investigator who had spent the last three years hunting down the Callahan family’s illicit pharmaceutical pipelines.

Marcus fired two more heavy slugs, suppressing the mercenaries, then lunged through the mud to Maya's side. He grabbed the chain of her handcuffs with a pair of heavy-duty bolt cutters. With one sharp crunch, the steel link snapped, freeing her hands.

"Can you move?" Marcus shouted over the gunfire.

"I can fight," Maya gasped, rubbing her bruised wrists and scrambling to her feet.

"Truck. Now!"

Across the clearing, Julian leaned out of the SUV window, his face pale with fury. "Kill them both! Don't let them leave the quarry!"

Marcus returned fire, shattering the SUV’s front tire. Maya scrambled into the passenger seat of the truck, slamming the door just as a bullet spider-webbed the glass inches from her face. Marcus dove behind the wheel, threw the truck into reverse, and slammed the accelerator.

The four-wheel-drive tires dug into the sludge, launching the heavy vehicle backward before Marcus spun the wheel, shifting into drive and roaring up the steep incline toward the highway.

In the rearview mirror, Maya watched Julian standing in the downpour, screaming into his satellite phone as the flashing lights of more incoming private security vehicles appeared on the horizon.

"Where is the boy?" Marcus demanded, shifting gears as they hit the asphalt at seventy miles per hour.

"Still inside the main estate," Maya said, her voice shaking with adrenaline. "They're moving up the timeline, Marcus. Julian knows someone is closing in. If we don't get Leo out tonight, Compound-9 is going to kill him."

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Marcus slammed his fist against the steering wheel. "The Callahan estate is an armed fortress, Maya. We don't have the firepower to breach the gates."

"We don't need to breach the gates," Maya said, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the digital clock on the dashboard. "We just need to make them open the doors themselves."