Chapter 14 - Siege of Mount Vernon Street
I scrambled along the upper gallery, keeping low against the baseboard. Two men left inside the house, and likely another two covering the rear exits in the alley.
I needed to eliminate them before they realized the library vault was already exposed. If they found Pendelton's underground shaft, they would drop thermite down the ladder and incinerate the historical records of the bedrock vault forever.
I pulled a flashbang canister from the load-bearing vest I had thrown over my shirt. I pulled the pin with my teeth, waited one second, and banked it off the far wall so it bounced down the central stairwell.
The detonation was blinding, an ear-splitting crack of concussive force that shook the glass pendants of the surviving wall sconces.
Even through my high-decibel earplugs, the ringing in my ears was deafening.
I vaulted the railing and slid down the mahogany bannister, dropping into the foyer just as the smoke reached its thickest concentration.
The third contractor was disoriented, swaying on his feet near the base of the stairs, blinking against the white blindness of the flashbang. I stepped into his blind spot, grabbed the barrel of his carbine, twisted it downward, and drove the butt of my Glock into his cheekbone. He staggered. I drove a knee into his solar plexus, spun him around, and snapped his neck with a swift, merciless torque of his helmet.
The fourth operative—the team leader—stepped out from the shadow of the library doorway.
He didn't hesitate. He raised his sidearm directly toward my chest.
Before he could pull the trigger, the front door of the mansion swung inward with a sickening screech of twisted metal.
A massive, armored black Suburban reversed directly into the foyer, smashing through the remaining doorframe and pinning the team leader against the load-bearing column with the deafening crunch of crushing sheet metal and bone.
The driver’s side door flew open.
Samuel Vance stepped out, a modified Remington 870 shotgun resting on his hip. He didn't even look at the pinned operative. He looked directly at me through the settling dust.
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"You took too long, Gabriel," Vance said calmly, lowering the shotgun. "The children are safe in Miller's personal quarters at the Navy Yard. But Hayes knows."
***
