Chapter 16 - The Fire in the Dark
The tunnel erupted into blinding white light and choking phosphorus smoke.
The lead guard shrieked, clutching his face as the blinding thermal blast scorched his eyes and jacket. Sophia whipped around, kicking the second guard violently in the groin as he stumbled backward on the slick railroad ballast.
"Kill the flare!" Arthur bellowed, coughing as the thick white smoke filled the narrow subterranean vault. "Don't shoot her, you idiots! I need her blood intact!"
Sophia sprinted back toward the service exit tunnel, her boots splashing through pools of oily drainage water. Behind her, heavy boots echoed in pursuit. A gunshot cracked through the cavernous space, the slug ricocheting off a cast-iron steam pipe inches from her ear with an ear-splitting *ping*.
She reached the iron ladder leading up to the street-level ventilation shaft, her fingers gripping the freezing rungs. As she hauled herself upward, a heavy hand grabbed her ankle, pulling her downward with crushing force.
Sophia kicked down savagely with her right heel, striking the second guard directly across the bridge of his nose. She felt bone crunch beneath her boot. The guard cursed in agony, his grip slipping away.
She surged up the ladder, slammed her shoulder against the emergency iron grate, and tumbled out into the cold, rainy air of an alleyway off 44th Street.
A black armored SUV screeched to a halt at the mouth of the alley. The passenger door flew open.
"Get in!" Marcus Bennett yelled, leaning across the console with a drawn Glock 19.
Sophia scrambled into the vehicle, slamming the door just as two of Arthur Vance’s operatives burst out of the alleyway grate. Marcus threw the SUV into reverse, tires smoking against wet pavement, before violently spinning into the midtown traffic.
Sophia leaned forward, gasping for breath, her hands trembling violently, covered in black industrial grease and soot.
"Are you hit?" Marcus demanded, his eyes darting between the rearview mirrors.
"No," Sophia panted, pressing a hand against her pounding chest. "Arthur... Arthur is alive, Marcus. He’s here. In Manhattan."
"I know," Marcus said grimly, handing her a satellite phone from the dash. "And it gets worse. While you were down in that tunnel, someone executed a coordinated raid on the Sterling Tower."
Sophia’s head snapped toward him. "Vanessa?"
"Vanessa was taken thirty minutes ago," Marcus said, his voice flat and ominous. "Security cameras were looped. The guards on duty were neutralized with paralytic darts. Arthur Vance didn't just come back for your father's patent, Sophia."
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Marcus turned a corner sharply toward the West Side Highway. "He took Vanessa to force your surrender. You have six hours before he puts her on a private freighter leaving Brooklyn Harbor."
***
