Chapter 9 - The Crossfire at Midnight
"Ambush! All units, code zero!" Agent Hayes shouted into his shoulder radio, firing two warning shots down toward the driveway before dragging me bodily back inside the master bedroom.
Glass rained across the hardwood floor as a heavy round punched straight through the bedroom window, embedding itself in the opposite wall. Lily screamed from the hallway, and I broke away from Hayes’s grip, sprinting out to scoop her up in my arms.
"Stay low! Keep moving toward the back stairs!" I yelled over the deafening chatter of automatic gunfire echoing from the front lawn.
Downstairs, the heavy oak front door shuddered under a violent kick. The unbadged mercenaries had breached the ground floor.
"They're not local law enforcement," Hayes muttered, chambering a fresh round in his Glock as he covered our retreat down the rear service staircase. "That’s private corporate security deployed by the syndicate. They're here to erase the server archives and eliminate anyone who has access to David’s decrypted files."
We burst through the kitchen door into the dimly lit mudroom that led out to the backyard patio. Through the reinforced glass of the back door, I could see David pinned behind his van in the driveway, returning fire with a suppressed pistol he had pulled from his coat while the mercenaries advanced under the cover of smoke grenades.
"Dad! Mom!" Lily cried, burying her face in my jacket as the house shuddered from another impact.
"We can't go out through the front," I said, thinking fast as the memories of growing up in this house flooded back. "The old storm shelter. The access hatch is behind the potting shed near the back fence."
"Move!" Hayes ordered, leading the way through the back door into the chilly autumn fog.
We sprinted across the damp grass, the sounds of shouting and shattering glass echoing from inside the kitchen behind us. The fog hung thick over the garden, blurring the shapes of the boxwood hedges and the old wooden shed. I dropped to my knees beside the overgrown ivy, pulled the heavy iron ring of the underground storm shelter hatch, and threw it open.
"Get inside, Lily! Quick!" I urged, helping her slide down the metal ladder into the dark concrete room below.
Hayes turned back toward the house, raising his weapon to cover our rear, but a heavy boot slammed against the patio door just thirty yards away.
"Go! I'll cover the hatch!" Hayes shouted.
"I'm not leaving you out here!" I yelled over the din of gunfire.
"Captain Harrington," Hayes said, using my old intelligence title with absolute authority, "get your daughter underground. That's an order!"
Before I could argue, a sharp burst of gunfire erupted from the side yard. David came sprinting out of the smoke toward us, his left shoulder stained dark with blood, clutching a heavy military-grade flash-drive in his right hand.
"They breached the server room!" David gasped, stumbling as he reached the edge of the hatch. "Evelyn, take the drive! It contains the encryption keys to every offshore account they own!"
I grabbed his uninjured arm, hauling him toward the open ladder as a burst of automatic fire chewed up the grass inches from our boots.
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"Get down the ladder, David! Now!" I screamed, shoving him downward toward Lily and dropping in right behind him, slamming the heavy iron storm doors shut just as a concussive blast rocked the earth above us.
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