Chapter 13 - The Last Stand at Pier 9
"They tracked the satellite ping," Marcus muttered, his face pale under the dust and grime. "Arthur owned the satellite constellation. He baited me into turning it on."
He turned to Lily, kneeling down so their faces were level. He unzipped his jacket, pulled off a heavy silver chain containing a small, encrypted USB flash drive, and placed it around her neck, tucking it beneath her nightshirt.
"This is everything," Marcus said, gripping her face in his hands. "Every ledger, every shell company, every crime Arthur and his cabal committed over the last twenty years. If anything happens to me, you give this to the Federal Bureau in Washington. Only them. Do you understand?"
"No, Daddy, don't say that!" Lily sobbed, tears spilling over again. "Come with me! We can take the car!"
"The car won't make it through five armored trucks," Marcus said softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I'm going to draw them through the main processing floor toward the fuel depot. You take the basement stormwater valve we came out of and run to the public ferry terminal. It’s six blocks north. The morning commuter ferry starts boarding in twenty minutes. Blend into the crowd."
"I'm not leaving you!" she cried, clinging to his arms.
Marcus stood up, his jaw set, tears finally welling in his own hardened eyes. "You have to survive, Lily. Because as long as you are alive, they lose. Now run!"
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He racked the slide of his captured assault rifle, kicked open the heavy iron door leading into the main warehouse, and stepped out into the spotlight beams, firing a deafening salvo of suppressive fire directly into the engine blocks of the lead SUVs.
The night exploded into gunfire, flame, and thunder.
