Chapter 19 - The Vault Showdown
I stood perfectly calm in the dim light of the subterranean hallway, my right hand resting casually behind my back.
"Richard Vance," I said smoothly, keeping his eyes locked onto mine. "Former Director of Defense Logistics."
"I should have guessed you were the brain behind Pike's cheap medical knockoff operation."
"You stole forty million dollars from military health budgets while soldiers bled out with defective gear."
Vance laughed bitterly, adjusting his grip on the silenced weapon as his two tactical operatives moved to flank me.
"Soldiers die every day in war, Colonel," Vance sneered coldly. "We just monetized the inevitable."
"Now hand over the master decryption drive from Pike's office, or I'll leave your body right next to these guards."
I let out a soft, low breath, dropping my center of gravity into a combat stance that I had perfected during twenty-one years of special operations service.
"You made two massive mistakes tonight, Vance," I said softly, my voice cold as absolute ice.
"First, you brought three men to fight a Task Force 17-Charlie veteran."
"And second... you assumed I was going to wait for permission to shoot."
Before Vance could react, I swept my right arm forward, drawing my sidearm and firing three rapid rounds into the darkness.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The two tactical operatives dropped instantly as my shots hit their shoulder joints, disarming them before they could raise their weapons.
May you like
Vance gasped in sheer terror, dropping his gun onto the concrete floor as I closed the distance in a fraction of a second.
I slammed him against the vault door, pressing the warm barrel of my pistol directly under his chin.
