Chapter 9 - The Siege
"Shut it down!" Adam roared.
Chloe slammed the laptop lid closed, but it was already too late.
From the woods surrounding the farmhouse, the low, mechanical drone of approaching rotors tore through the winter silence.
"Marcus!" Adam shouted.
"I hear them, sir! Black Hawk, civilian conversion, two miles out and closing fast!" Marcus sprinted toward the gun cabinet hidden behind the pantry, throwing open the false wall to reveal a rack of tactical rifles and body armor. "We have three minutes before they deploy ropes!"
"They tracked the Mercedes?" Adam asked, his mind racing through every move he had made. "We took the bakery van!"
"The blue bag," Chloe said, her eyes wide with mounting panic. "The silver photo frame. The pennies. The sock. Did anyone scan the bag itself?"
Adam cursed under his breath. In his rush to get Maya warm, in his shock at seeing David's face, he hadn't swept the frame for a passive transponder. The frame itself was the beacon.
"Chloe, take Maya down to the fruit cellar under the kitchen floor," Adam ordered, stripping off his heavy sweater and pulling a Kevlar tactical vest over his chest. "There's an iron grate behind the shelving that leads to an old drainage culvert. If the house falls, you crawl through that culvert toward the state highway. Do not stop. Do not look back."
"Adam, you can't fight a private military contractor!" Chloe shouted over the rising thrum of the helicopter blades. "They'll wipe this house off the map!"
"I am not letting Julian Vance touch this child," Adam snarled. He racked the charging handle of an AR-15 Marcus thrust into his hands. "Marcus, take the second floor. Create crossfire from the upper gables. Force them to breach through the front door."
"Understood, sir," Marcus replied without hesitation, taking the stairs three at a time.
Maya appeared at the kitchen threshold. She didn't cry. Her eyes were impossibly wide, staring at the weapons, then at Adam.
"Uncle Adam?" she whispered.
Adam dropped to one knee, tossing his rifle aside for a brief second to gather her in his arms. He kissed her forehead, feeling the lingering warmth of her fever against his lips.
"Listen to me, Maya," he said, holding her gaze with iron certainty. "You are very brave. You survived the cold, and you survived the park. Now I need you to go with Chloe and hide in the secret room. Can you do that for me?"
She nodded slowly, her tiny jaw setting into the exact same stubborn line David's used to when they were boys facing impossible odds. "I won't make a sound."
"Good girl."
May you like
Adam passed her to Chloe, who pulled up the heavy wooden trapdoor in the pantry floor and vanished into the darkness below, pulling the rug back into place above them.
Seconds later, the first concussion grenade shattered the front bay windows, blowing heavy shards of glass across the great room.
