Chapter 8
The engine roared to life as Sterling hotwired the ignition cables under the plastic steering column.
He slammed the transmission into drive, smashing the utility van through a plastic barrier gate toward the exit ramp.
Bullets peppered the rear doors of the van, shattering the back window into a web of cracked glass.
The van burst out of the subterranean garage into the pouring midnight rain of the suburban Maryland streets.
Sterling navigated the wet asphalt with master skill, turning off the headlights to evade pursuing vehicles.
In the passenger seat, Chloe pressed her hand firmly against her bleeding leg wound, gasping for air.
"Where are we going?" she managed to ask over the roar of the pouring rain against the roof.
"To a safehouse in West Virginia," Sterling replied, his eyes fixed on the dark, winding mountain highway ahead.
"An old Cold War bunker built beneath a private farm owned by your late father."
Chloe looked at him in total shock, her mind racing to connect the dots of her past.
"My father?" she stammered. "He was a civilian engineer who died in a car accident fifteen years ago!"
Sterling glanced at her, his expression filled with profound, heavy solemnity.
May you like
"Your father was the chief architect of Project Cerberus, Chloe," Sterling revealed softly.
"And he didn't die in an accident... he was assassinated by the same men working for Ryan."
