Chapter 44 - The Shattered Perimeter
The blast door groaned as hydraulic jacks expanded against the lock-pins, sending iron shavings showering down onto the concrete floor.
"Step back!" Marcus shouted, hurling the incendiary charge against the forward barricade before grabbing the heavy iron wheel set into the south wall.
With a grinding groan of rusted gears, the heavy steel sluice gate that separated Blackwood Manor's lowest drainage level from the ocean cliff face began to rise. Decades ago, this tunnel had been an old rum-runner’s passage during Prohibition, built to siphon seawater directly into a sub-level basin to disguise high-tide landings.
Freezing Atlantic seawater immediately surged into the tunnel, rising to our ankles within seconds, foamy and biting. Noah let out a soft whimper beneath the waterproof tactical blankets, shivering against my chest.
"I have you, baby," I whispered against his forehead, feeling the frantic thump of his little heart. "Mommy has you. Nobody touches you."
Behind us, the blast door blew outward with an ear-shattering crack. The shockwave threw Marcus forward into the rising water. Three heavily armored figures stepped through the smoke, their laser sights cutting through the damp darkness like bright red daggers.
"Vance Alpha to Command," the point man spoke into his comms unit, raising his weapon toward us. "Target acquires. The female and the child are trapped in the south drainage corridor. Preparing non-lethal immobilization."
"Not on my watch," Marcus roared, rising from the icy water with his sidearm barking three consecutive shots. The rounds struck the point man’s ceramic chest plate, knocking him backward off balance.
I didn't hesitate. I drew my Glock and fired directly into the high-voltage electrical junction box mounted above the doorway.
The box exploded in a blinding cascade of blue sparks. Live four-hundred-volt industrial cables snapped from their conduits, thrashing violently into the flooded floor behind us.
A terrifying electric arc erupted through the water, engulfing the two forward contractors in blinding blue lightning. Their screams were cut short as their bodies seized, their electronics short-circuiting into burning plastic fumes.
"Run!" I screamed, grabbing Marcus by the shoulder as the water surged toward our knees.
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We plunged forward into the pitch-black tunnel, the icy current dragging at our legs as the sea wind howled from the distant opening ahead. Above us, the entire west wing of Blackwood Manor shook as secondary explosions from our defensive charges tore through the foundation, collapsing the grand estate into a mountain of burning rubble behind our backs.
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