Chapter 7 - FIRE AND FURY
Before Hector’s men could raise their weapons, Vance yelled, "Execute!"
The suppressed thwip-thwip-thwip of sniper fire echoed from the cranes. In seconds, four of Hector’s heavily armed guards dropped instantly to the concrete. Total chaos erupted.
Vance tackled Clare behind the steel barrier of a shipping container just as a hail of automatic gunfire shredded the space where they had been standing. The deafening roar of assault rifles filled the shipyard.
"Suppressing fire!" Vance barked into his comms.
Clare didn't cower. She drew the Glock from her holster, her hands remarkably steady. She peered around the edge of the rusted metal. Hector was dragging Marie behind a forklift, using her as a human shield while he fired wildly toward Clare’s convoy.
"He's trying to get her to a boat!" Clare yelled over the noise. She could see a sleek, dark speedboat idling at the edge of the dock. If Hector got Marie on that boat, she would disappear forever.
"Stay here!" Vance ordered, laying down a barrage of covering fire.
But Clare was a mother who had lost her child once. She would not lose her again.
Ignoring Vance’s orders, Clare broke from cover. She sprinted across the open tarmac, bullets pinging against the concrete around her feet. Her Kevlar vest felt heavy, but adrenaline made her faster than she had been in years.
She dove behind a stack of wooden pallets just ten yards from Hector.
"You stupid bitch!" Hector screamed, realizing Clare had flanked him. He pressed his gun directly to Marie’s temple. "Drop the gun, Clare! Drop it, or I paint the dock with her brains!"
Marie squeezed her eyes shut. "Don't do it, Mom! Just shoot him! Take care of my babies!"
Clare stared at the man holding her daughter. She saw the madness in his eyes, the absolute certainty that he was in control. But Hector Reyes didn't understand the physics of a mother's love. It was a force of nature, violent and absolute.
"Hector," Clare said loudly, lowering her gun slightly. "Look at the briefcase."
Hector instinctively glanced down at the silver case his dead men had dropped during the initial firefight. Its digital lock was blinking rapidly. Red. Red. Red.
"It's not a hard drive," Clare lied with perfect, chilling conviction. "It's C-4. And my thumb is on the detonator."
Hector froze, pure terror flashing in his eyes for a fraction of a second.
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It was all the time Clare needed.
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