Chapter 9 - The Siege on the Tenth Floor
The instincts that had kept me alive through a decade of mob warfare took over before my brain could even register fear.
I grabbed Sophie by the waist, hauling her off the chair and sweeping her behind the heavy mahogany credenza bolted against the interior structural wall.
"Stay down and do not make a sound, no matter what happens," I ordered in a harsh, urgent whisper, shoving my spare Kimber pistol into her trembling hands.
"Keep your finger off the trigger until someone comes through that door who isn't me or Marcus."
"Ethan, don't leave me!" she gasped, her knuckles turning white around the checkered grip of the firearm.
"I am not leaving you," I promised, pressing a fierce, desperate kiss against her forehead. "I am ending this."
The heavy wooden door of the suite burst open with a splintering crash as two tactical operatives clad in unmarked black gear swept into the room, carbines raised.
I didn't wait for them to acquire their targets.
I launched myself from the shadows behind the door, driving my tactical combat knife upward beneath the jawline of the first gunman with lethal precision.
Before his partner could pivot his weapon, I grabbed the falling operative's rifle, using his collapsing body as a human shield while pumping three rounds into the second man's chest.
The heavy rounds tore through his tactical vest, dropping him instantly onto the hardwood floor in a spray of dark blood.
Down the corridor, the red emergency exit signs cast a bloody, surreal glow over the carnage.
Marcus was pinned behind a nursing station fifty feet away, trading rapid pistol fire with three additional mercenaries advancing down the hall.
"Boss!" Marcus shouted over the deafening cracks of gunfire. "They cut the main transformers in the sub-basement and jammed all cell signals!"
"It's Salerno's remnants and Dominic’s personal security unit!"
"They know you're here alone!"
Dominic had planned a fallback fail-safe with Salerno before I raided his office; they intended to wipe both me and Sophie out in the hospital and seize control of the Moretti council in the ensuing chaos.
I leaned out from the doorway, firing controlled, double-tap bursts down the hallway with the captured carbine, dropping one of the advancing shooters with a clean headshot.
The remaining two gunmen fell back behind the heavy steel linen carts, unleashing a wall of suppressive fire that pulverized the drywall around my head.
Plaster and fiberglass exploded in a blinding white cloud, stinging my eyes as bullets whined off the metal doorframe.
Suddenly, one of the mercenaries lobbed an incendiary flash grenade down the corridor, aiming straight for the open doorway of Sophie’s suite.
Time slowed to a crawling crawl.
The canister bounced twice on the linoleum, spinning directly toward the alcove where Sophie was hidden.
I didn't think about tactical positioning, survival odds, or the empire waiting for me.
I threw my entire body across the threshold, using my back and shoulders to smother the blast just as the canister detonated with a concussive roar.
The shockwave slammed into my spine like a sledgehammer, tearing through my bespoke coat and scorching my flesh with searing heat.
Shrapnel bit deep into my left shoulder blade, sending a blinding wave of agony shooting down my arm.
I grunted in agony, collapsing to one knee, coughing up blood that tasted like copper and burning sulfur.
"Ethan!" Sophie screamed from behind the furniture, throwing caution to the wind as she crawled across the floor toward me.
"Get back!" I roared through the pain, forcing my burning body back onto my feet by sheer force of will.
The surviving gunman charged through the smoke, raising his assault rifle to finish me off at point-blank range.
Before he could pull the trigger, a sharp, deafening gunshot echoed from the floor behind me.
The bullet struck the mercenary directly in the throat.
He stumbled backward, clutching his neck, his eyes wide with shock as he collapsed heavily against the wall and slid into a lifeless heap.
I turned my head through the haze of smoke.
Sophie was kneeling on the floor, holding the Kimber .45 with both hands, the smoking barrel trembling violently in her grip.
Her knuckles were white, her eyes blazing with a fierce, protective fury that mirrored my own.
Down the hall, Marcus finished off the last attacker with two center-mass shots, his breathing ragged as silence finally fell over the ruined hospital floor.
The siege was over.
I looked at Sophie, a breathless, bloody smile breaking through the grime on my face.
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"Remind me never to make you angry again, Mrs. Moretti," I coughed out, leaning heavily against the shattered doorframe.
The gun slipped from her fingers, clattering onto the floor as she threw her arms around my neck, sobbing uncontrollably against my bleeding chest.
