Chapter 5 - The Ambush at Pier 14
Dawn broke over the Columbia River in shades of bruised purple and grey. Fog rolled thick across the wooden planks of Pier 14, swallowing the massive cranes and stacked shipping containers in a ghostly haze.
I stood behind a stack of rusted steel crates, fifty yards from the edge of the dock, watching a three-story cargo vessel maneuver into position.
Beside me, Silas was checking the magazine of his rifle. "Pier 14 is a bottleneck, Dominic. If Vance brings his heavy crew, we're surrounded by water on three sides. It's an ambush waiting to happen."
"Vance is arrogant," I replied, watching a black sedan roll down the pier, followed by two heavy pickup trucks loaded with armed men. "He thinks because he has the Syndicate behind him, nobody in this city dares to touch him. He doesn't know we have his ledgers."
The driver's side door of the sedan opened, and a tall, gaunt man stepped out. He wore an expensive wool coat that looked ridiculous over his hollow, predator-like features. Gregory Vance. The monster who had locked five children in a cellar and left them to die in their own waste.
He was carrying a sleek leather briefcase, talking animatedly on a satellite phone while six heavy security guards fanned out around his vehicle.
"Check the perimeter," Vance barked to his men, his raspy voice carrying through the damp fog. "Miller said Moretti was asking for me. If that old mob bastard shows his face here, I want him floating in the river before sunrise!"
I didn't wait for him to finish.
I stepped out from behind the shipping container into the open, my heavy overcoat blowing back in the river wind, holding a single weapon at my side.
"Looking for me, Vance?" I called out.
Vance spun around, his phone dropping from his hand. His guards instantly raised their weapons, but before they could squeeze a single trigger, Marco and my sniper team positioned on the crane towers opened fire.
Four of Vance's guards dropped in a span of three seconds, their weapons clattering against the wet wooden planks.
The remaining two guards panicked, spraying blind fire into the fog as they scrambled for cover behind the sedan. Silas moved up instantly, laying down heavy suppressive fire that pinned them behind the tires.
Vance turned to run toward the cargo vessel, but I crossed the distance between us like a phantom, grabbing him by the back of his expensive coat and hurling him violently onto the rain-slicked dock.
Vance slammed into the wood, rolling onto his back, gasping for air. He reached frantically for a small pistol hidden in his ankle holster, but I brought my heavy leather boot down on his wrist with enough force to shatter the bone.
Vance shrieked in agony, clutching his crushed wrist as he curled into a ball on the wet planks.
"You... you crazy old bastard!" Vance screamed through his teeth. "You don't know who you're messing with! Vanguard will skin you alive for this!"
I crouched down beside him, grabbing him by his thinning hair and pulling his head back until he was forced to look into my eyes.
"Vanguard isn't here, Gregory," I said, my voice dead and cold. "Just me. And the five children you chained to a pipe in Eastside."
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Vance's eyes widened in sudden, absolute terror as he finally realized why I was there. It wasn't about turf. It wasn't about money.
It was about Leo.
