Chapter 5 - Fire in the Safehouse
Three masked men clad in black tactical gear burst through the emergency doors, silenced submachine guns raised. They weren’t corporate security; they were high-grade private mercenaries.
“Take him down! Target the head!” one shouted.
Ethan didn’t hesitate. Before the lead gunman could raise his weapon, Ethan lunged forward, grabbing the barrel of the submachine gun and forcing it upward. A burst of muted gunfire shattered the ceiling tiles.
In one fluid motion, Ethan drove a brutal elbow into the gunman’s throat, twisted the weapon out of his grip, and used the man as a human shield as the second shooter opened fire.
Bullets ripped into the tactical vest of the mercenary. Ethan swept the fallen guard’s legs, grabbed his sidearm from his holster, and fired two precise shots into the chest plates of the remaining two attackers. They crumpled to the floor, gasping for air as their armor absorbed the lethal kinetic force.
Ethan stood over the lead mercenary, slamming his boot onto the man’s wrist until he dropped a encrypted comms device.
Ethan picked up the device. A harsh voice static-transmitted from the speaker: “Team Alpha, report. Is the asset Ethan Vale neutralized? Proceed to the penthouse for the boy.”
Ethan’s blood ran colder than ice.
They weren’t just trying to kill him in the corporate tower—they had dispatched a secondary team to his penthouse where Leo was waiting.
Ethan pressed the comms button. “Team Alpha is dead,” Ethan said into the radio, his voice flat and terrifying. “And if your men so much as breathe near my son’s door, I will hunted down every single person who paid you.”
He didn’t wait for a response. Ethan sprinted toward the private express elevator, pulling out his secure cell phone to dial Marcus.
“Marcus! Protocol Red! They’re at the tower!”
“Boss!” Marcus’s voice came through amidst the heavy sound of gunfire in the background. “We’re under siege! Private contractors bypassed the front lobby security! I’ve locked Leo in the panic room, but they’re using thermal charges on the vault door!”
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“Hold them for three minutes!” Ethan yelled, stepping into the elevator and hitting the manual override switch, forcing the elevator into high-speed emergency ascension. “Just three minutes!”
As the elevator shot upward, Ethan stripped off his ruined suit jacket, racked the slide of the stolen tactical pistol, and prepared to unleash hell.
