Chapter 53 - Alistair’s Gambit
"Alistair, get back!" Dominic barked, raising his pistol as he moved to cover him.
"Nonsense, my boy. A proper Englishman always greets his uninvited guests with a touch of theatrical flair," Alistair chuckled softly. With a sudden, lightning-fast motion, he threw the heavy deadbolt, wrenched the oak door wide open, and yanked the red pull-pin from the military smoke flare, dropping it directly onto the stone patio at the feet of the men standing outside.
A blinding, sulfurous cloud of thick, blood-orange smoke erupted instantly with a deafening roar, blinding the tactical team and filling the entryway with an impenetrable, acrid haze. Shouts of surprise and coughing curses echoed from the stone patio as armed figures stumbled backward in total disorientation.
"Now! Move!" Alistair shouted, turning and diving back into the boathouse as bullets began to ping harmlessly off the heavy stone doorframe.
Dominic grabbed Casey by the hand, dragging her toward the hidden staircase behind the bookshelf, while Julianna sprinted ahead with the encrypted drives tucked securely inside her trench coat. Alistair brought up the rear, coughing slightly from the residual smoke, a triumphant grin lighting up his wrinkled face.
They plunged through the iron cellar door, slamming it shut behind them and throwing the heavy locking bar into place just as heavy boots pounded against the wooden floorboards of the archive above them.
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"This way!" Dominic directed, sweeping his flashlight beam down the damp stone corridor of the Prohibition-era tunnel. "The gravity-fed rail cart is fifty yards ahead!"
They sprinted through the dark, echoing passage, their footsteps splashing through puddles of stagnant river water as the distant shouts of their pursuers faded behind them into the damp recesses of the mountain.
