Chapter 9: The Siege
Chapter 9: The Siege
They found us that afternoon. Richard, in his absolute desperation to save his own skin, had hired high-tier dark-web trackers. They managed to locate a brief ping from Lily’s old cell phone before I had smashed it to pieces. They traced the ghost signal to the Appalachian region.
Four heavily armed, ex-military mercenaries surrounded the cabin, moving with disciplined stealth. I saw their heat signatures on the perimeter cameras hidden in the pines.
"Lily," I said, my voice eerily calm as I racked the slide of my weapon, handing her a loaded compact pistol. "Get in the reinforced bunker under the floorboards. Lock the deadbolt. Do not come out until I knock three times. If anyone else opens that hatch, you shoot."
May you like
She nodded, terrified tears brimming in her eyes, and vanished beneath the heavy rug.
I killed the main breaker, plunging the cabin into pitch darkness. The first mercenary breached the front door, sweeping his laser sight. I put two suppressed rounds into his chest armor, riding the recoil up for a third in his throat before his foot even hit the floorboards. The others opened fire blindly, heavy caliber rounds tearing the cabin's wooden walls to splinters, shattering glass and ceramic. I moved like a ghost through the layout of my own home, slipping out a hidden side-hatch into the snow. I flanked them from the tree line, picking them off one by one in the dark. Three minutes later, the woods were dead silent again, save for the wind.
