Chapter 11 - Heavy gunfire shatters the mountain silence as a desperate firefight erupts outside the rustic woodland safe house tonight.
The front windows of the mountain lodge shattered into a thousand glittering pieces under a hail of gunfire.
Julian dropped to one knee behind a heavy oak pillar, returning fire with calculated, tactical efficiency.
Muzzle flashes illuminated the rustic interior in strobing bursts of orange and yellow light.
Outside, shouting mercenaries attempted to breach the reinforced iron front door with a heavy hydraulic ram.
"You can't hold out against a full tactical squad, Julian! Surrender now!" a voice boomed over a bullhorn.
Julian recognized the voice of Arthur Sterling’s ruthless head of security, a man named Viktor Vance.
"Tell Viktor he can come inside and try to take me himself!" Julian shouted back, firing another accurate burst.
Glass and splintered wood rained down across the room as heavy caliber rounds chewed through the walls.
Down in the underground shelter, Elena held trembling little Lily tightly against her beating chest.
"Is daddy going to be okay?" Lily whispered tearfully into the dark, echoing concrete space.
"Your uncle Julian is protecting us, Lily; he won't let anything bad happen to us," Elena comforted her softly.
Back upstairs, Julian checked his ammunition magazine; he was down to his last two clips of heavy rounds.
He needed a tactical distraction to draw the mercenaries away from the shelter entrance beneath the desk.
Grabbing a tactical smoke grenade from his tactical vest, Julian pulled the pin with his teeth.
He lobbed the canister through the shattered front window directly into the middle of the porch landing.
A thick, blinding cloud of chemical smoke erupted instantly, choking the mercenaries outside in confusion.
"Flank the rear! Flush him out!" Viktor Vance screamed through his gas mask over the chaos.
Julian used the smoke cover to sprint toward the rear exit door leading into the dense pine forest.
He slipped out into the freezing mountain night like a ghost, blending seamlessly into the dark timberland.
The mercenaries breached the front door seconds later, charging into the smoke-filled lodge with weapons raised.
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Little did they know, they had just walked directly into the deadliest trap Julian could have possibly laid.
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