Chapter 14 - Ambush in the Shallows
The deafening crack of suppressed assault rifles echoed relentlessly off the iron girders above.
Concrete chips and rusted rivets rained down on Arthur’s head as he hugged the damp floor.
Maya fired two controlled bursts into the catwalks, sending an armored gunman crashing through the safety railing.
"We’re pinned!" Maya shouted, ejecting an empty magazine and slapping a fresh one home in a single fluid motion.
"How many?" Arthur yelled back, drawing a bead on a moving silhouette near the crane controls.
"At least eight," she answered, peering around the rusted flange of the support beam. "They’re ex-mercenaries, elite tier."
Arthur squeezed the trigger, his round finding the chest of an approaching shooter, who collapsed into the standing water.
The adrenaline coursing through his veins burned away the shock of Victoria’s revelation.
He wasn't fighting for an inheritance anymore; he was fighting against an ancient parasite that had consumed his entire family tree.
"The service dock," Arthur pointed toward an open conduit leading out to the freezing waters of Lake Geneva. "There's an emergency launch."
"Move! I'll cover your six!" Maya barked, leaning out to lay down a suppressive wall of lead.
Arthur sprinted through the blinding spray of bullets, sliding across the grease-slicked floor toward the dock edge.
A heavy boot struck him square in the ribs, knocking the wind from his lungs and sending his gun skittering into the dark water.
Arthur gasped for air, looking up into the dead eyes of an operative towering over him with a combat knife.
The blade descended in a lethal arc, aimed directly for Arthur's throat.
Arthur caught the man's wrist with both hands, muscles tearing as he fought against the brute force pressing down.
"The Synod sends their regards, Hawthorne," the man hissed, spittle flying from his clenched teeth.
With a desperate surge of strength, Arthur slammed his forehead into the mercenary’s nose, hearing the satisfying crunch of bone.
The operative stumbled back, momentarily blinded by blood and pain.
Arthur seized the opening, driving his shoulder into the man's midsection and driving both of them over the lip of the pier.
They hit the freezing lake water together, an explosion of icy blackness that shocked Arthur’s senses to their core.
Beneath the murky surface, the operative clamped his hands around Arthur's throat, dragging him deeper into the abyss.
Arthur’s lungs screamed for oxygen as sunlight faded above, replaced by the crushing weight of the alpine lake.
His fingers clawed frantically along his belt, finding the small tactical folding knife Maya had given him in Zurich.
He flicked the blade open by feel and drove it upward into the attacker’s thigh.
The grip on his throat vanished as the operative convulsed, releasing a trail of crimson bubbles into the dark.
Arthur kicked frantically toward the surface, breaking through the freezing water with a desperate, ragged gasp.
May you like
A pair of strong hands grabbed his collar, hauling him onto the deck of an idling patrol launch.
"I told you to move, not take a swim," Maya yelled, slamming the throttle forward as bullets chewed through the wooden transom.
