Chapter 14 - The Parking Garage Ambush
The sharp bark of the small brown puppy echoed off the concrete walls of the hospital ambulance bay, cutting through the steady roar of the rain. Before Director Reed or Elena could react, the overhead security lights in the multi-level parking garage across the street flickered violently and died, plunging the entire structure into pitch blackness.
"Ambush! Get down!" Federal Marshal Thomas Vance yelled, lunging forward and pulling Elena and the toddler back inside the armored shelter of the ambulance doors.
A volley of heavy, suppressed gunfire cracked through the darkness. Bullets sparked off the concrete pavement just inches from Director Reed’s boots, sending the federal security detail scrambling for cover behind the emergency vehicles.
"Who is that?" Reed demanded, drawing his sidearm with practiced speed as he dropped to one knee beside the rear tire. "Arthur’s men are all locked up! Who else knows about this location?"
Elena peered through the driving rain toward the shadowed entrance of the parking garage. Two heavy-duty black SUVs without license plates rolled silently out of the darkness, their headlights completely off, guided only by night-vision optics.
"Not Arthur's men," Elena shouted over the din of gunfire. "That's a black-ops extraction team. They're here to eliminate the boy and silence everyone who knows the truth!"
A heavy machine gun mounted on the lead SUV opened fire, chewing through the sheet metal of an empty patrol car with deafening force. Glass shattered in a brilliant cascade of diamonds across the wet asphalt.
Inside the ambulance, little Leo didn't scream or cry. He wrapped his small arms even tighter around the shivering brown puppy, his big emotional eyes fixing on the oncoming vehicles with an intense, unwavering focus.
Suddenly, the puppy leaped from Leo’s arms, dropping onto the floor of the ambulance and darting out the open rear doors directly into the rain-soaked pavement.
"No, wait! Come back!" Elena yelled, but it was too late.
The puppy bolted across the open space toward the dark shadows of the parking garage, moving with astonishing speed for such a tiny animal. The black-ops shooters, distracted by the sudden movement, shifted their weapon barrels toward the running dog.
"Hold your fire!" Director Reed roared, but his command was drowned out by the stutter of an assault rifle.
Instead of hitting the puppy, a blinding flash of blue-white light erupted from the wet pavement directly beneath the lead SUV's front tires. The vehicle lurched violently upward as if struck by an invisible electromagnetic pulse, its engine dying instantly with a shower of electrical sparks.
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Elena and Thomas stared in absolute shock as the second SUV slammed on its brakes, its entire electrical system shutting down simultaneously, leaving the black-ops team stranded in the middle of the rain-slicked street.
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