Chapter 5 - The Siege of Pacific Heights
"Perimeter breach! North gate!"
The estate's alarm system didn't scream with loud sirens; instead, soft red emergency lights flickered along the baseboards of every room, accompanied by a low, rhythmic chime.
Claire rushed down the stairs, grabbing Ivy into her arms, her eyes wide with terror. "Ren! What’s happening?!"
"Sato’s men," Ren said calmly, rack-sliding the bolt of a heavy black rifle he had pulled from a concealed wall panel in the hallway. "They knew they couldn't beat us at the docks, so they brought the war to my front door."
Kenji and six heavily armed security guards took positions behind the reinforced oak doors of the grand foyer. Outside, heavy tires squealed against the gravel driveway, followed by the deafening sound of automatic gunfire shattering the heavy iron outer gates.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Glass shattered in the upper display windows as high-caliber rounds slammed into the exterior stone.
"In the vault! Now!" Ren commanded, grabbing Claire’s arm and pulling her toward the hidden elevator behind his study library.
"I’m not leaving you!" Claire cried out over the roar of gunfire.
"You have to!" Ren shouted back, his eyes fierce. "The vault is subterranean! It is steel-reinforced! Nothing gets through that door!"
He shoved Claire and Ivy inside the elevator cab, pressing the emergency override button. As the heavy steel doors began to slide shut, Ivy looked through the closing gap, her voice ringing out over the sound of explosions outside.
"Mr. Ren! Watch the roof!" she yelled frantically. "The man in the truck said they are dropping down the chimney skylight!"
Ren didn't question her. As the elevator doors sealed shut, he whirled around, aiming his rifle directly up at the grand stained-glass skylight three stories above the foyer.
Two seconds later, three black-clad mercenaries rappelled down from the roof, smashing through the glass!
Ren opened fire before their boots touched the marble floor.
The foyer turned into a storm of smoke, sparks, and deafening thunder. Ren and Kenji moved with terrifying synchronization, flanking the attackers, taking down the breach team within thirty seconds of their entrance.
Down in the subterranean vault, Claire sat on the floor, holding Ivy tightly against her chest as the muffled thuds of gunfire echoed through the concrete ceiling.
"It’s okay, baby, it’s okay," Claire sobbed, pressing kisses into Ivy’s hair. "We’re safe here."
Ivy sat quietly in her mother’s arms, but her eyes were fixed on the array of security monitors lining the vault wall. The estate’s camera feeds were still operational, displaying twenty different angles of the mansion.
Ivy pointed at Monitor 4.
On the screen, Sato himself—the scarred uncle—was walking into the ruined front foyer surrounded by four heavily armed bodyguards. Ren was crouched behind a overturned marble pillar, his rifle out of ammunition, holding only a sidearm.
Sato was standing twenty feet away from Ren, gesturing with his hands, his mouth moving rapidly in Japanese.
"Mommy," Ivy said urgently, reaching for the wall intercom microphone connected to Ren’s earpiece. "I have to talk to Mr. Ren."
"Ivy, no! Stay down!" Claire begged.
Ivy grabbed the microphone, pressed the red button, and spoke with absolute clarity into the headset.
"Mr. Ren! He is talking to you!" Ivy shouted through the comms. "He says he knows you only have three bullets left! But he doesn't know Kenji is hiding behind the red curtain on his left! Tell Kenji to shoot the chandelier cables!"
Upstairs in the foyer, inside Ren’s ear piece, Ivy’s clear, calm voice rang out like an angel of victory.
Ren didn't hesitate. He didn't look at the curtain. He simply shouted into his lapel mic: "Kenji! The cables! Now!"
Behind the velvet curtain, Kenji raised his sidearm and fired three heavy rounds into the brass winch holding the three-ton crystal chandelier above the foyer!
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The massive iron chain snapped. The giant crystal chandelier plummeted from the ceiling, crashing directly onto Sato’s four bodyguards with a catastrophic, crushing roar!
Dust, crystal, and stone exploded across the foyer.
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Ren lunged out from behind the pillar, tackling Sato to the ground before the traitor could draw his weapon. Within seconds, Ren had Sato pinned against the ruined floor, the barrel of his sidearm pressed directly against Sato’s forehead.
The siege was over.
