Chapter 26 - The Ambush on the Ice
"DOWN!" I roared.
I tackled my father to the floor an instant before the high-caliber round pulverized the double-paned window, blowing the stone mantle behind us into a cloud of shrapnel.
The glass hadn't even finished falling when the perimeter alarms Marcus had set began screaming. Through the shattered window, heavy tactical flares dropped from the night sky, bathing the snowy forest in blinding magnesium light.
Four snowmobiles and an armored personnel carrier were roaring up the switchback road, their engines roaring like hunting beasts.
"Lily!" I scrambled across the hardwood floor on my elbows, dragging her down into the safety of the sunken floor beneath the sofa.
She woke with a gasp, her eyes wide with terror, but she clamped her little hands over her mouth, remembering the drill. "Daddy, the lights! They’re here!"
"Arthur, take Lily to the cellar boat slip!" Marcus shouted, racking the bolt of a Steyr AUG he had pulled from a hidden floor cache. "There's a Zodiac tied to the dock below. Go down the lake toward Brunnen!"
"I am not running again, Marcus!" Arthur barked, pulling an ancient Colt .45 from beneath his wool sweater.
"You will protect your granddaughter, or I will put a bullet in your knee myself!" I snarled, handing Lily to him. "Take her, Father! Now!"
Arthur's eyes softened for a fraction of a second. He took Lily into his arms, holding her tight against his chest. "I swear on Claire's soul, Daniel. Nothing touches her."
They vanished down the cellar stairs.
Marcus and I moved into tactical symmetry. He took the high angle from the loft, while I took the shattered front door.
The first wave of operators breached the porch. They weren't standard mercenaries; their movements were unnervingly fast, their coordination terrifyingly fluid. They moved through the knee-deep snow with an unnatural speed that defied human biology.
"They're dosed!" Marcus yelled from above, opening up with controlled bursts. "Project Lazarus field operatives! Aim for the head! Center mass won't stop them!"
Two operators burst through the door. I fired three rounds into the lead man's torso. He didn't even slow down; he raised his submachine gun with a cold, dead-eyed expression.
I adjusted instantly, driving a 9mm round directly through his eye socket. His head snapped back, and he dropped like a severed marionette. The second man leaped forward with inhuman momentum, knocking my weapon from my hands with a bone-shattering swipe of his forearm.
The impact threw me across the room, smashing my back into the stone hearth. The operator drew a serrated combat knife, his pupils completely dilated, black veins bulging across his neck. He lunged, driving the blade toward my throat with terrifying force.
I caught his wrist with both hands, muscles tearing as I fought against his freakish strength. The blade stopped inches from my jugular.
*Crack!*
A round from Marcus’s rifle tore through the operative’s skull from above, showering me in gore. The heavy body collapsed on top of me.
I shoved the corpse aside, retrieving my fallen SIG Sauer.
From below the floorboards, the muffled roar of a boat engine echoed across the water. Arthur had made it to the lake.
"Daniel!" Marcus called from the loft, his voice suddenly thick and strained. "We have a problem."
I climbed the wooden ladder to the loft. Marcus was slumped against the wall, clutching his side. Dark, arterial blood was pulsing between his fingers, staining his tactical rig.
"Marcus..."
"I bought you time, kid," he coughed, a grim, bloody smile pulling at the corner of his lips. "Get to the boat. Protect the girl."
"I’m not leaving you behind!"
May you like
"You have to," Marcus whispered, pointing his rifle out the high dormer window toward the driveway. An armored gunship helicopter was descending through the swirling snow, searchlights illuminating the bloodied grounds. "Because if you don't stop the commander on that bird... nobody leaves this mountain alive."
***
