Chapter 6 - The Laser’s Edge
The small, crimson dot flickered against the black fabric of Jax Vance’s suit jacket, burning like a tiny ember directly over his heart. Marcus reacted with terrifying speed, tackling Jax violently to the concrete floor of the subterranean garage while drawing a suppressed automatic pistol from his shoulder holster in a single fluid motion.
“Sniper! Down! Get down!” Marcus roared, dragging his boss behind the heavy steel-reinforced chassis of the Lincoln Navigator.
Panic erupted in the enclosed garage. The two secondary bodyguards drew their weapons, scattering into tactical positions behind concrete pillars, their eyes scanning the high-vaulted ceiling and the reinforced ventilation shafts overhead.
Elena screamed, dropping to her knees and instinctively throwing her entire body over the toddler, shielding Leo with her own back as concrete dust rained down from the impact of a silenced bullet that slammed into the pillar inches from her head. The sharp crack of the suppressed rifle echoed deafeningly through the concrete cavern.
“Elena! Stay low!” Jax shouted over the chaos, scrambling on his hands and knees across the slick floor to reach them. He grabbed both Elena and the crying boy, dragging them behind the thick engine block of the vehicle just as a second bullet sparked violently against the car's armored door.
“Who is that? Why are they shooting at us inside your own building?” Elena cried out, her voice cracking with terror as Leo buried his face into her shoulder, sobbing hysterically from the sudden violence.
Jax didn't answer. His face had gone completely pale, stripped of all arrogance, replaced by the cold, calculating focus of a man who realized his entire empire had been thoroughly compromised. He pressed a tactical comms button on his lapel.
“Control, this is Vance. Sector four breach in the lower subterranean garage. Lock down all elevator shafts, seal the ventilation tunnels, and trigger the EMP perimeter shield. Nobody leaves this building alive.”
“Sir, the system isn't responding,” a panicked voice crackled back through the small earpiece of the bodyguard. “We’re locked out of the mainframe. Someone inside the building is overriding our security protocols!”
Jax cursed loudly, slamming his fist against the reinforced tire of the Navigator. The realization hit him like a physical blow. The sniper wasn't shooting to kill them yet; the sniper was pinning them down. It was a distraction.
“Marcus!” Jax yelled across the concrete. “Check the private elevator! Now!”
Before Marcus could even push himself off the ground, the heavy steel doors of the private elevator at the far end of the garage chimed softly, sliding open to reveal an empty car filled with thick, swirling smoke and a single, ominous package ticking softly on the floor.
Elena stared at the elevator, her breath catching in her throat as the realization dawned on her. She looked up at Jax, her eyes wide with desperate urgency.
“It’s not a distraction,” Elena whispered, her voice trembling violently. “They didn't come to kill us here. They wanted us trapped down in the garage while something else happened upstairs.”
Jax froze, his dark eyes widening in sudden, utter horror as he remembered who was currently resting safely in the private medical wing on the fourteenth floor.
May you like
“Your mother,” Jax breathed out, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.
---
