Chapter 75 - The Crimson Convoy: She Drove the Armored Interceptor Through the Burning Checkpoint with Two Cradles in the Back
The descent into the bedrock was a nightmare of damp concrete, flickering auxiliary floodlights, and the distant, rhythmic thud of secondary charges breaching the upper levels of the mansion.
Valeria couldn't walk. Dante hoisted the wounded twin over his shoulder with brutal efficiency, leading the way down the spiral iron stairs with his weapon leveled down the spiraling dark. Claire moved right behind him, her hands steady on the harness securing Leo and Lucian against her chest. The two boys were eerily calm, their fingers still intertwined, their silver pendants pulsing with a coordinated, faint blue cadence that seemed to guide their way through the suffocating gloom.
At the bottom of the two-hundred-foot shaft lay a subterranean rail siding. Parked on the narrow gauge tracks was an armored tactical transport—a custom-built, matte-black subterranean rail vehicle designed to punch through collapsed mining shafts and flooded tunnels.
"Get them inside," Dante ordered, throwing open the heavy rear hatch. He set Valeria down onto the bench inside, securing her with a three-point harness.
Before Claire could climb aboard, the ceiling above the spiral staircase collapsed in a shower of pulverized concrete and rebar.
Four heavily armed commandos rappelled down the center of the shaft, tactical lights cutting through the billowing dust.
"Moretti! Drop the assets!" the lead commando shouted through a loudspeaker amplifier, his laser sight dancing across the front glass of the transport.
"Not in this lifetime," Claire hissed.
Stepping sideways to shield the babies with the open armored door, she brought her rifle up in a single, fluid motion. Her military training surged through her veins like liquid ice. She didn't squeeze off panicked bursts; she fired controlled, double-tap pairs.
*THWIP-THWIP. THWIP-THWIP.*
Two commandos plummeted from their ropes, their bodies hitting the concrete floor with dull thuds. Dante stepped out beside her, his combat shotgun barking three deafening times, the heavy tungsten slugs tearing through the remaining rappel lines and collapsing the catwalk above, burying the remaining hostiles beneath tons of steel debris.
"Drive!" Dante yelled, shoving Claire into the driver’s cabin and slamming the hatch behind them. "The tunnel leads directly to the dry dock beneath Anacostia! If we don't clear the intake valve before they flood the chamber, we drown in the dark!"
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Claire slammed the throttle forward. The electric motors screamed, throwing them back into their seats as the heavy rail vehicle surged down the forgotten tunnel into the black belly of the nation’s capital.
***
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