Chapter 10 - The Breach at Dawn
The concussion blast shattered the remaining windows of the warehouse, sending a wave of concussive pressure rippling through the interior. Smoke and dust billowed into the plywood office as the heavy metal doors were blown inward with a deafening screech of twisted steel.
"Contact! Multiple hostiles!" Elena shouted, dropping instantly to one knee behind an overturned shelving unit and returning fire with controlled, rapid bursts from her carbine.
Muzzle flashes strobed through the gray smoke as tactical operatives in black gear swarmed into the cavernous building, their weapons leveled and moving with brutal, synchronized precision. Mark shoved Sarah behind a heavy concrete pillar, drawing his pistol and stepping out to cover Elena’s flank.
"Move, move, move!" Mark yelled over the deafening crack of gunfire, firing two precise shots that forced the lead DIA operative to dive behind a concrete pillar.
Sarah grabbed Mark’s arm, her eyes wide with frantic urgency as bullets chipped fragments of stone from their cover.
"There’s an old drainage culvert beneath the floorboards behind the supply crates!" Sarah shouted over the chaos. "It leads directly past their outer perimeter fence toward the secondary highway!"
Elena fired her last magazine, locked the slide back, and tossed the empty rifle aside before pulling a secondary sidearm.
"Go! I'll cover the rear!" Elena yelled, squeezing the trigger until the slide clicked empty. "Don't look back, Mark! Get to Clara!"
Mark didn't hesitate. He grabbed Sarah by the hand, dragging her through the maze of debris toward the rear of the warehouse. A heavy burst of automatic gunfire chewed through the wooden crates just inches to their left, raining splinters over their shoulders. Mark pushed Sarah down behind a rusted forklift and fired three rapid shots to suppress the advancing enemy squad.
With a final, desperate heave, Mark ripped open the heavy iron floor grate, revealing a dark, rushing stream of rainwater flowing through the concrete culvert below.
"Go, Sarah! Drop down!" Mark ordered, keeping his body positioned as a shield against the incoming fire.
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Sarah slid down into the rushing water without a second thought, looking up at him with desperation in her eyes. Mark glanced back toward Elena, who was holding off three operatives with a tactical smoke grenade, before dropping into the culvert himself and pulling the heavy iron grate shut above them just as a fresh wave of bullets slammed harmlessly into the metal.
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