Chapter 9 - The Garage Trap
We scrambled down the remaining thirty-six flights of stairs in a silent, agonizing blur of motion, bursting through the heavy ground-floor fire door into the subterranean parking garage just as the distant, muffled sound of a breaching charge echoed from the floors above us.
The garage was dim, lit only by amber overhead security lights reflecting off the polished hoods of our parked vehicles. In the center aisle sat my personal SUV, its keys resting securely in my coat pocket.
“To the car!” I hissed, motioning for Maya and Julian to follow as I sprinted across the concrete floor.
I pulled the key fob from my pocket and hit the unlock button. The parking lights flashed twice in the gloom. I yanked the driver’s side door open, sliding behind the wheel and slamming it shut, hitting the central locking button as Maya dove into the passenger seat.
Julian scrambled frantically for the rear door, pulling the handle, but it wouldn't budge. “It’s locked! Evelyn, let me in!”
“Open the door, Maya,” I commanded, reaching across the console to pop the rear locks.
Before Julian could scramble fully into the back seat, the concrete ramp leading up to the street-level exit gate was suddenly illuminated by the blinding, high-intensity headlights of two large, matte-black SUVs that roared down into the garage, blocking our only route out.
The tires screeched against the concrete as the SUVs stopped dead twenty feet from our bumper, trapping us in a blinding crossfire of high-beams.
Heavy doors slammed shut in unison. Four armed men in tactical gear stepped out, their automatic carbines raised and pointed straight at our windshield.
Julian slumped back against the leather seat in the rear, his face completely devoid of hope. “It’s over. David sent his own private strike team. We’re dead.”
May you like
“We’re not dead yet,” I whispered, my hand sliding slowly toward the glove compartment where my father had insisted I keep a heavy-duty portable EMP emitter left over from his old municipal security consulting days.
---
