Chapter 18 - The Freezing Point of Betrayal
A roaring, sub-zero blizzard of liquid nitrogen erupted from the nozzle, expanding instantly into a massive wall of boiling white vapor that dropped the room's temperature by a hundred degrees in a fraction of a second.
The mercenary on Miller’s right took the direct blast across his face shield. The polycarbonate visor instantly shattered under the extreme thermal shock, followed by a horrifying scream as the cryogenic fluid froze his flesh and tactical gear solid within seconds.
"Fire! Kill him!" Miller screamed, stumbling backward through the doorway, his eyes burning from the freezing fog.
The remaining mercenaries fired blindly into the dense white mist. High-caliber rounds chewed through the stainless steel cabinets, shattering cryogenic vials and showering the room with liquid glass and frozen chemicals.
Dr. Cross lunged forward, tackling the second mercenary around the waist, driving him into a bank of electrical transformers. A shower of blue sparks erupted as Cross hammered his fist into the operative’s throat, sacrificing himself to buy Daniel three seconds of cover.
"Go, Daniel! The tunnel!" Cross roared, before a burst of automatic fire cut his voice short.
Daniel didn't look back. With Noah pressed tight against his chest, shielded beneath his own body, he sprinted into the dark, inclined opening of the bootlegger tunnel.
Behind him, the steady *beep-beep-beep* of Miller’s receiver suddenly turned into a high-pitched, discordant screech. The extreme cold introduced into the room had disrupted the short-range radio transmission, corrupting the data stream mid-packet.
"He corrupted the sequence!" Evelyn’s voice shrieked from the hallway outside the vault, shrill and feral with agony. "Shoot the father! Bring me the boy’s arm! Just cut the arm off!"
Daniel plunged into the pitch-black tunnel. The air here was damp, freezing, smelling of mud and decaying leaves. The floor was an uneven incline of slick stone and rotting wooden railway ties dating back to the Prohibition era. Every step sent a lightning bolt of agonizing pain through Daniel’s bullet-shattered shoulder, but the adrenaline coursing through his heart was an unstoppable, volcanic engine.
Noah was sobbing hysterically now, the green light beneath the scar on his arm flickering erratically, casting eerie, pulsing emerald shadows against the slimy stone walls of the subterranean passage.
"Dada! Hurts! Arm hurts!" Noah screamed, thrashing against Daniel’s chest.
"I know, baby, I know," Daniel gasped, running blind through the darkness, his lungs burning like fire. "Dada’s got you. Just a little further. Just stay with me, Noah!"
Behind them, the beam of high-powered tactical flashlights pierced the tunnel’s gloom. Heavy combat boots splashed through the subterranean puddles in relentless pursuit.
"You can't outrun a 5.56 round, Daniel!" Miller’s voice echoed down the stone passage, amplified by the natural acoustics of the tunnel. "Whispering Pines has been our property for seventy years! Every brick, every stone, every path belongs to the Vance trust! You have nowhere to go!"
Daniel saw a glimmer of silver light ahead. The end of the tunnel.
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He burst through the decaying wooden barricade at the tunnel mouth, collapsing forward onto the muddy, rain-drenched banks of the roaring Hudson River.
***
