Chapter 11 - THE FALL INTO THE DARK
I screamed as I fell backward into the pitch-black elevator shaft.
But I didn't fall far.
Jack's hand shot out like a vise, gripping my wrist with bone-crushing force. He hauled me up, pulling me over the edge and back onto the solid floor just as another bullet shattered the glass wall behind us.
"Move!" Jack roared, shoving me behind a heavy marble pillar.
Three men in dark suits advanced down the hallway, suppressed weapons raised. Vincent's elite hit squad.
Jack returned fire, his shots precise and deadly. Two of the men dropped. The third dove into a side office, pinning us down.
"We can't stay here," I gasped, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest.
"The structural blueprints," Jack said, his eyes scanning the corridor. "If Vincent planted C4, he put it on the main load-bearing pillars on the 48th floor. We have to disarm them."
"I don't know how to disarm a bomb!" I cried.
"I do," Jack said grimly.
He laid down cover fire, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the emergency stairwell. He shot the electronic lock, kicking the heavy steel door open.
We sprinted down two flights of stairs, our footsteps echoing loudly.
We burst onto the 48th floor. It was a massive, open-plan construction zone.
Standing in the center of the room, holding a detonator, was Vincent.
He was an older man, impeccably dressed, with a cold, dead smile.
"Punctual, as always, Jack," Vincent sneered.
Wired to the concrete pillars around him were blocks of plastic explosives, all connected to a digital timer counting down from three minutes.
"Let it go, Vincent," Jack commanded, his gun trained on the man's chest. "Silas is in federal prison. The syndicate is dead."
"The syndicate is evolving," Vincent corrected. "And I don't leave loose ends."
He raised his thumb over the detonator button.
"I'll see you in hell, Jack."
Vincent pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
Vincent frowned, pressing it again.
I looked at Jack, completely bewildered.
Jack didn't smile, but a dark satisfaction settled over his features.
"You're not the only one who plans ahead, Vincent," Jack said softly.
He stepped aside.
From the shadows behind us stepped a man holding a pair of wire cutters.
It was Leo.
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And he was holding the severed main receiver wire for the bombs.
TITLE: THE FINAL PROMISE
