Chapter 10 - The EMP Gambit
The tactical operatives advanced slowly across the garage floor, their heavy combat boots crunching against the gritty concrete. The lead operative raised his rifle, aiming a laser sight directly at the center of our windshield, while another reached for a heavy pneumatic breaching tool to smash the driver’s side window.
“Stay down,” I muttered to Maya and Julian, keeping my voice low and steady.
My fingers brushed against the cold metal casing of the EMP device inside the glove compartment. It was an experimental, uncertified prototype Arthur Vance had smuggled out of a municipal transit storage locker three weeks ago—powerful enough to fry every unshielded electronic circuit within a fifty-foot radius, including fuel-injection systems and encrypted comms gear.
The operative with the pneumatic tool swung it hard against the driver’s side window. The reinforced glass spider-webbed instantly under the first heavy blow, threatening to cave inward.
“Now!” I shouted.
I yanked the activation pin on the EMP emitter and pressed the heavy toggle switch down with my thumb.
A blinding flash of purple-blue light surged from the device, accompanied by a sharp, electric crackle that filled the interior of the car. Instantly, the dashboard screens flickered and died, plunging our vehicle into absolute darkness.
Outside the car, the effect was immediate and catastrophic. The two incoming Vanguard SUVs sputtered violently as their engine control units fried; their high-beam headlights instantly went black, and their internal electrical systems shorted out in a shower of sparks beneath the hoods. The armed operatives staggered backward in total darkness, shouting curses as their weapon-mounted tactical lights flickered and died in their hands.
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“Hold on!” I slammed the SUV into reverse, flooring the accelerator.
The heavy vehicle roared backward, tearing away from the trapped SUVs, spinning in a tight semicircle toward the secondary service exit ramp that led down into the old city drainage tunnels beneath the financial district.
