Chapter 10 - The War at the Silos
The hydrofoil’s diesel engines suddenly whined with a deafening pitch as the automated navigation system engaged, slamming the vessel into reverse and pulling away from the pier before Gideon could leap aboard. The wake churned white water against the concrete pylons as the sleek black boat vanished into the thick river fog, heading north toward Lake Michigan.
Gideon stared at the glowing laptop screen for a fraction of a second longer before smashing the display with the butt of his weapon, shattering the monitor into a mosaic of dead pixels and jagged glass. He turned around, stepping off the ramp back onto the solid ground of the marina where Sarah was kneeling on the wet concrete, holding Maya and Lily tightly against her.
“Are you both hurt?” Gideon asked, his voice uncharacteristically steady, though his eyes burned with an atomic rage.
Maya shook her head, her face buried in Sarah’s jacket, while Lily sniffled softly, clutching a corner of the fabric. “He said... he said if we didn't run to you, they were going to burn the house down,” Maya whispered, her small frame still trembling.
Sarah looked up at Gideon, her gray eyes hardening into steel. “It’s a trap, Gideon. Vance knows we’re coming. The silos on the Wisconsin border are a ghost town—he’s had twenty years to turn that abandoned facility into an impregnable concrete bunker.”
“Let him build a fortress,” Gideon replied, his voice dropping into that chilling, quiet register that made every hardman in Chicago check their pulse. He walked over to the edge of the pier, tossing his empty magazine into the dark, churning water and slamming a fresh thirty-round clip into the MPX with a sharp, satisfying click. “A bunker is just a tomb with better ventilation.”
Thomas jogged down the path from the main house, two more armed guards trailing behind him, carrying tactical gear bags and assault rifles. “Boss! We cleared the north wing. The perimeter is secure, but the comms are locked down. We intercepted a radio transmission on the tactical band—Vance’s team is consolidating at the old grain elevator off Route 41.”
“Mount up,” Gideon ordered, turning to face his men. “Every man we have. Full armament. If Vance wants a war for my waterfront, I’m going to give him an apocalypse.”
Sarah handed Maya and Lily over to Thomas, giving them a firm, reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. “Keep them in the panic room beneath the main vault. No one gets in without my biometric override.”
“And you?” Thomas asked, looking between Sarah and Gideon.
“We’re going to a family reunion,” Gideon said, racking his weapon one final time as the first pale slivers of dawn began to bleed through the heavy storm clouds over Lake Michigan.
May you like
He climbed into the passenger seat of the armored black SUV idling by the dock, his hand resting comfortably on the cold steel of his rifle. The twenty-year ghost was real, his daughter was alive, and the men who had stolen his life were about to learn what happened when you poked a sleeping bear in the heart of its own kingdom.
The engine roared to life, kicking up a spray of gravel and mud as the convoy tore out of the estate gates, heading north into the gray dawn toward the final reckoning.
