Chapter 10 - The Final Bastion
Captain Ruiz surveyed the room, taking in the unconscious mercenaries in the hallway and the tense, resolute expressions on our faces. A faint, respectful smile touched the corner of her mouth.
“Looks like you boys were having a busy evening,” Ruiz said, walking over to the side of Evelyn’s bed and offering a reassuring nod to our daughter. “Don't worry, kiddo. Your dad used to be the best tactical instructor the Corps ever produced. Nobody gets past him.”
She turned back to me, her expression turning strictly professional as she pulled a manila folder from her tactical vest.
“Marcus Harris is downstairs rounding up Nurse Higgins and the rest of the security detail. The federal indictment package against Victor Vance has been officially stamped by the U.S. District Attorney’s office. State police are raiding the Pier 14 warehouse right now as we speak.”
I exhaled a long, slow breath, feeling the crushing weight of the last twenty-four hours finally begin to lift from my shoulders.
“And Victor?” I asked.
“Warrant is out. His financial assets are frozen, his docks are sealed, and he’s currently trying to flee toward the state line in a beat-up sedan,” Ruiz replied, tapping the folder against her palm. “He won't make it twenty miles before highway patrol boxes him in.”
She looked down at Evelyn, then back at Eleanor and me.
“We have an armored military transport waiting in the subterranean bay. It’s fully equipped with a mobile medical rig. We can transfer Evelyn to a secure federal safe-house facility five miles outside the city boundary by 3:00 a.m.”
Eleanor looked at me, her eyes shining with unshed tears of pure exhaustion and relief. I reached out, taking her hand and squeezing it tightly.
“Let’s go home,” I said quietly. “Or as close to it as we need to be.”
May you like
As the military police officers gently wheeled Evelyn’s mobile bed down toward the secure freight elevator, wrapped safely in blankets and surrounded by people who would die before letting her come to harm, I took one last look back down the empty hospital corridor.
The game was over. The syndicate was broken. And for the first time in fifteen years, my training had done what it was always meant to do: keep my family alive.
