Chapter 12 - MERCENARIES IN THE DARK
Elena and Daniel descended three levels beneath the streets of Manhattan on a heavy iron freight elevator. The air grew cold and damp, smelling of old paper, polished steel, and heavy concrete.
They stood before a massive circular vault door, six feet thick, crafted from solid titanium and secured with three separate biometric keypads. Elena placed her palm onto the glass scanner, followed by a retinal scan that hummed with green light.
The heavy titanium bolts retracted with a deep, mechanical thud that shook the concrete floor beneath their feet. The vault door slowly swung open, revealing a dimly lit room filled with rows of brass safety deposit boxes and ancient filing cabinets.
"There it is," Elena whispered, pointing toward a reinforced black steel box resting on a pedestal in the center of the room.
Before they could take another step, the heavy iron elevator behind them crashed down with violent force. The metallic mesh doors were blown inward by a blast of breaching explosives, filling the corridor with thick black smoke.
Five heavily armed mercenaries dressed in unmarked tactical gear charged out of the elevator, their red laser sights cutting through the smoke. They opened fire instantly, pinning Daniel and Elena behind the thick vault door.
"Hand over the black box, Miss Vance!" the mercenary captain shouted through his tactical mask. "Or we collapse this entire shaft and bury you eighty feet beneath Wall Street!"
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Daniel fired two quick shots around the heavy frame of the vault door, dropping the lead mercenary before ducking back under a hail of heavy automatic gunfire. Sparks flew off the titanium hinges as bullets ricocheted wildly across the hallway.
"Elena, get inside the vault and lock the secondary security door!" Daniel yelled over the deafening noise of the shootout. "I will hold them off here until the federal tactical unit arrives!"
