Chapter 5 - The Siege of 24th Street
They didn't make it to the alley.
Before Rosa could turn toward the stairs leading to her apartment, the heavy plate-glass front window of the Elmwood Diner exploded inward in a shower of lethal glass shards!
FLASH-BANG!
A blinding white light and a deafening concussion blast tore through the dining room! The acoustic jammer on the booth table shattered, and paper menus burst into flames as two heavy tear-gas canisters bounced across the linoleum floor, spewing thick, white chemical smoke.
“DOWN!” Mason roared.
He grabbed Rosa around the waist, throwing her body behind the heavy concrete-and-steel foundation of the diner counter just as a hail of automatic gunfire tore through the room!
TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Glass pie cases exploded! Wood paneling splintered into toothpicks! The chrome napkin dispensers were shredded by high-velocity 9mm rounds!
Above the roar of the gunfire, terrible shrieks of terror erupted from the second-floor apartment!
“MOMMY!” Lily’s voice shrieked from upstairs. “MOMMY!”
Rosa tried to scramble to her feet, wild with panic, but Mason pinned her down with a heavy, muscular arm.
“Stay down!” Mason commanded, pulling a black Sig Sauer P226 pistol from his shoulder holster.
Dominic, crouching behind the overturned jukebox near the entrance, raised his suppressed weapon and fired four precise shots into the dark street outside. Two muffled grunts echoed from the sidewalk as two Russian hitmen collapsed onto the wet pavement.
“Boss!” Dominic yelled over the sound of shatter glass and alarms. “There are three vehicles! At least eight shooters! They’re breaching through the kitchen!”
BANG!
The heavy rear steel door of the kitchen was blown off its hinges by a breaching charge!
Two massive men in tactical vests, wearing night-vision goggles and holding submachine guns, charged into the smoke-filled kitchen.
Mason didn't wait for them to enter the dining room.
He stood up, raised his Sig Sauer, and fired three rounds in rapid succession.
THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!
The first Russian soldier took two rounds to the chest armor and one to the throat, collapsing backward into the dishwashing station. The second soldier swung his weapon toward Mason, but Mason rushed forward, grabbed the barrel of the man’s submachine gun, twisted it upward, and drove a vicious elbow straight into the soldier’s jaw!
The man’s head snapped back with a sickening crunch. Mason snatched a combat knife from the soldier’s vest, spun him around, and shoved him hard into the kitchen corridor, using his body as a shield as more bullets ripped through the wall from the alley.
“Dominic! Cover the stairs!” Mason roared, his face covered in soot, his eyes burning through the chemical smoke.
Mason bolted up the narrow wooden staircase leading to the second-floor apartment.
The apartment door had been kicked open. Inside the dimly lit hallway, a tall Russian hitman with a scarred face was dragging nine-year-old Lily out of the bedroom by her arm while seven-year-old Mia tried frantically to hit him with a plastic desk lamp!
Sophie and Khloe were huddled under the bed, screaming hysterically.
“Let her go,” Mason said.
The Russian soldier turned, raising his suppressed pistol—
Mason didn't shoot. He closed the distance in half a second, driving his heavy leather boot straight into the soldier’s knee!
CRACK!
The soldier let out a agonizing shriek as his leg folded sideways. Before he could hit the floor, Mason caught him by the throat, slammed him backward against the hallway wall, and drove his fist twice into the man’s ribs. The soldier collapsed onto the carpet, unconscious and bleeding.
Lily stumbled backward, gasping for air, her dark eyes wide with terror.
Mason instantly dropped to one knee, putting himself between the girls and the doorway. He pulled his coat wide.
“In,” Mason ordered, his voice iron and absolute. “All of you. Now.”
Lily didn't ask questions. She reached under the bed, hauled Sophie and Khloe out by their hands, grabbed Mia, and shoved all three of her sisters against Mason’s chest.
Mason wrapped his heavy wool coat around the four little girls, lifting Sophie and Khloe in his arms while Lily and Mia clung tightly to his waist.
He stood up, carrying all four children as if they weighed nothing, and marched down the smoke-filled hallway.
Rosa ran up the stairs, her face streaked with tears and soot. When she saw her four daughters safe in Mason’s arms, she let out a broken, watery sob.
“Got 'em,” Mason said grimly. “Dominic! We move to the alley NOW!”
Downstairs, Dominic thrown two smoke grenades toward the front entrance, creating an impenetrable wall of grey fog that blinded the remaining attackers on the street.
Mason, carrying the children, escorted Rosa down the back fire escape into the dark alley behind the diner. A massive, armored black SUV was waiting, its engine idling loudly, its bulletproof rear doors thrown open.
Paul, Mason’s second bodyguard, stood at the rear of the vehicle, firing heavy 12-gauge shotgun rounds down the alleyway to suppress the remaining Russian shooters.
“GET IN!” Paul yelled.
Mason shoved Rosa into the back seat, lifted all four girls inside after her, and slammed the heavy armored door shut just as three automatic rounds slammed uselessly against the reinforced bulletproof glass.
Mason and Dominic dove into the front seats.
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“GO!” Mason barked at the driver.
The heavy armored SUV slammed into reverse, tires screaming against wet brick, roared out of the alley, and sped away into the stormy Chicago night.
