Chapter 18 - Fire on the Water
The grounds of the Whitmore estate had become a war zone. Smoke drifted across the manicured lawns where, just forty-eight hours earlier, children had been eating ice cream and laughing beside the turquoise water.
The glass walls surrounding the indoor pool had been blown out by concussion grenades. Inside, two of Charles's bodyguards lay wounded on the marble tiles, while three masked mercenaries in black tactical gear were setting up a hydraulic spreader against the vault-grade steel door of the master panic room.
Inside that panic room, seven-year-old Lily sat on the floor, her hands clasped tightly over her ears, tears streaming down her face as the heavy steel groaned under the pressure of the hydraulic jacks.
"Package is sixty seconds from breach!" one of the mercenaries shouted in Russian over his tactical headset. "Get the transport chopper into the LZ over the pool deck!"
Suddenly, the shattered glass doors of the pool pavilion blew open completely as Charles's armored SUV rammed through the remaining decorative arches, crushing a concrete planter and coming to a halt directly at the edge of the water.
The mercenaries spun around, raising their short-barreled rifles, but Emily was already firing through the windshield. The ballistic glass of the SUV cracked under return fire, but Emily kicked her door open, dropping into a low combat crouch behind the front wheel.
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
The lead mercenary dropped to the marble tiles, clutching his leg as Emily’s shots struck true.
"STAY DOWN!" Charles roared, stepping out from the rear of the vehicle, not with a handgun, but with an automatic tactical submachine gun. The old billionaire, his silver hair soaked with rain, laid down a blistering wall of suppressive fire that shredded the patio furniture and forced the remaining two operatives to dive for cover behind the pool's stone waterfall.
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"LILY!" Emily screamed, running toward the panic room door. "LILY, IT’S MOM! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"
From inside the reinforced steel, a small, muffled voice cried out: "MOMMY! THE MONSTERS ARE BREAKING THE WALL!"
