Chapter 14 - The Reckoning of Blood
The double doors of the boardroom shattered inward as four smoke grenades tumbled into the executive chamber, hissing white phosphorus clouds.
Screams erupted from the terrified board members as they dove beneath the heavy mahogany table for cover.
Major Vance Cross strode through the blinding smoke, wearing full tactical combat gear and carrying a suppressed submachine gun.
Behind him moved three private military contractors, their weapons raised to sweep the executive suite with lethal efficiency.
“Secure the girl!” Cross roared through his tactical comms headset.
“Eliminate the rest!”
Nico reacted with blinding speed, grabbing the edge of the sixty-foot mahogany conference table and heaving upward with all his strength.
The massive table overturned onto its side, creating an improvised wooden barricade just as a volley of automatic fire chewed through the wall panels.
Jake threw Mia to the carpeted floor behind the overturned table, shielding her entire body with his own bulk.
“Stay down, Mia, do not raise your head for anything!” Jake shouted over the deafening clatter of gunfire.
Mia pressed her face against the carpet, her arms locked tightly around her stomach, praying with every beat of her heart.
Jake drew his sidearm from beneath his overcoat, leaning around the heavy table leg and firing three double-taps into the advancing smoke.
The lead contractor fell backward into the hallway, his weapon firing uselessly into the acoustical ceiling tiles.
Nico fired from the opposite flank, his rounds pinning the second mercenary behind a decorative marble pillar.
Dominic Romano scrambled along the wall toward the private fire exit, clutching a leather briefcase containing his offshore passcodes.
Sergeant Reed suddenly appeared from the maintenance access door behind the podium, tackling Dominic to the floor with surprising ferocity.
The briefcase burst open, spilling encrypted hardware tokens and bearer bonds across the blood-splattered carpet.
Dominic pulled a small derringer pistol from his boot, aiming it at Reed’s chest.
“Die, you old fool!” Dominic snarled.
Reed caught Dominic’s wrist, twisting the bone with combat-honed strength until the small pistol fired into the plaster wall.
Reed slammed Dominic’s head against the marble baseboard, knocking the traitorous uncle unconscious in a single, decisive blow.
“That was for Anthony,” Reed muttered through bloodied lips.
In the center of the boardroom, Cross advanced relentlessly, firing continuous controlled bursts into the overturned mahogany table.
Wood splinters exploded into the air, one sharp fragment tearing across Nico’s cheek and opening a bleeding gash.
“Jake Romano!” Cross shouted, his voice echoing with mocking contempt over the gunfire.
“You should have stayed dead in Helmand, boy! You would have saved your pretty little maid a lot of suffering!”
Jake’s eyes turned pitch black, the calm, gentle man from Queens disappearing beneath the deadly focus of an elite combat operator.
“Nico, cover Mia!” Jake commanded.
Nico slid into position over Mia, raising his weapon to protect her flank.
“Go get him, Jake!”
Jake broke cover at a dead sprint, diving across the open floor toward the executive lounge area as Cross redirected his fire.
Bullets chewed through the leather sofas and glass coffee tables behind Jake’s heels.
Jake vaulted over the low partition, slamming his shoulder directly into Cross’s tactical vest with the force of a freight train.
Both men crashed through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall of the private terrace, tumbling onto the outdoor balcony high above Manhattan.
The wind howled around them, forty-eight stories above the street, the cold autumn rain lashing at their faces.
Cross’s submachine gun skittered across the wet concrete pavers, tumbling over the ledge into the abyss below.
Cross drew a combat knife from his chest rig, slashing viciously toward Jake’s throat.
Jake leaned back, the razor-sharp steel slicing open the collar of his civilian coat, missing his jugular by millimeters.
Jake caught Cross’s wrist, driving a brutal elbow strike directly into the major’s fractured jawbone.
Cross grunted in agony, dropping the blade, but wrapped his hands around Jake’s throat, driving him backward toward the waist-high glass railing.
Jake’s spine bent backward over the dizzying drop, the tiny cars on Park Avenue resembling toy miniatures thousands of feet below.
Cross leaned his full weight onto Jake’s windpipe, his pale eyes burning with sadistic, homicidal fury.
“Your father couldn't stop me, and you won't either!” Cross hissed through bloodied teeth.
Jake’s vision began to tunnel as his oxygen supply was cut off, his hands struggling to break Cross’s ironclad grip.
Suddenly, a heavy bronze corporate award struck Cross across the side of his skull with a deafening metallic clang.
Cross staggered sideways, his grip breaking as he cried out in shock and pain.
Standing on the wet balcony behind him was Mia Walker, her hair whipping in the wind, holding the heavy bronze statue in both shaking hands.
“Get away from my husband!” Mia screamed into the storm.
Cross turned in fury, his fist raising to strike her down.
That split second was all Jake Romano needed.
Jake surged forward from the railing, driving an uppercut into Cross’s exposed jaw, followed by a devastating knee strike to his sternum.
Cross collapsed onto his back on the wet terrace pavers, gasping for air as his ribs cracked under the impact.
Jake straddled the fallen commander, pressing the cold barrel of his recovered sidearm directly between Cross’s eyes.
Cross looked up into the black muzzle, his arrogant smirk finally evaporating into pure, unadulterated fear.
“Jake... don't... it was business, your father knew...”
Jake’s finger tightened on the trigger, the rage of eighteen months of stolen life screaming inside his skull.
“Jake, no!” Mia’s voice cut through the roaring wind.
Jake froze, his chest heaving, his eyes burning into the monster beneath him.
Mia knelt beside him on the wet balcony, placing her warm hand over his trembling fingers on the firearm.
“Don't let him take your soul, Jake,” Mia whispered, tears streaming down her face.
“Our baby needs a father who is whole, not another killer in this family.”
Jake looked at Mia, seeing the pure, untainted love that had saved him from darkness in Queens.
He exhaled a long, shuddering breath, slowly easing his finger away from the trigger.
He struck Cross across the temple with the heavy frame of the pistol, knocking the mercenary commander into absolute unconsciousness.
At that exact moment, the thunder of heavy rotor blades beat through the rain clouds above the tower.
Two black Department of Justice tactical helicopters descended over the roof, their searchlights pinning the terrace in blinding white light.
Federal tactical agents in tactical armor rappelled onto the balcony, their weapons securing Cross and the perimeter within seconds.
Behind them, Harrison Cole and federal marshals led by an assistant U.S. Attorney stepped onto the terrace.
“Captain Jacob Romano?” the lead federal agent called out over the rotor wash.
Jake rose slowly to his feet, pulling Mia into his arms and wrapping his coat around her shivering body.
“I am Captain Romano,” Jake answered, his voice steady, proud, and clear.
“The evidence from Project Nightwatch has been received by the Attorney General,” the agent announced, looking at the fallen traitors.
May you like
“Vanguard Nine is officially decommissioned, and you are free to go home, Captain.”
Jake held Mia against his chest, their foreheads resting together in the pouring rain, while the city below turned golden beneath the breaking morning sun.
