Chapter 8 - Escape from the Inferno
The chemical refinery was collapsing into a roaring sea of fire. Rusted iron girders twisted like dry twigs under the extreme heat, and toxic fumes filled the upper control room, blinding Marco as he scrambled to his feet.
He snatched the silver briefcase holding the antidote, securing it inside his heavy leather coat.
"Cassian!" Marco yelled into his shoulder radio, coughing through the thick smoke. "Status!"
"The lower level is collapsing, Boss!" Cassian’s voice crackled through heavy static. "We breached the rear exit, but the whole building is going down! You need to get out now!"
"The estate is under attack!" Marco shouted back, kicking out the reinforced glass window of the control room. "Julian sent his main force to take Sophia! Get the team to the vehicles!"
Marco looked down from the fourth-story window. Below him lay a high pile of grain sacks stored on a flatbed trailer parked beside the building. Without hesitation, Marco leaped out into the open night air.
He hit the canvas trailer with a bone-shattering thud, the impact knocking the wind from his lungs and sending a sharp, white-hot pain through his ribs. He rolled off the side, landing on his feet in the muddy alleyway, clutching his side as blood soaked through his shirt from a shrapnel wound.
Cassian and four surviving soldiers rushed around the corner, pulling him up. "Boss! You’re hit!"
"Drive," Marco snarled, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he produced the silver briefcase unharmed. "We have twenty minutes before they breach the safe room."
They piled into the armored SUV. Cassian slammed his foot onto the accelerator, sending the heavy vehicle crashing through the dock gates, its tires screaming against the wet asphalt as they sped back toward the city at over a hundred miles an hour.
Marco pulled out his cell phone and dialed the secure line to the mansion’s internal library.
The phone rang four times. Five times.
Finally, a weak, trembling voice answered. "Mr... Mr. Benadetti?"
It was Maria. Behind her voice, Marco could hear the deafening sound of heavy automatic gunfire hammering against the solid oak doors of the second floor.
"Maria! Listen to me!" Marco yelled over the engine roar. "Is Sophia safe?"
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"We... we are in the panic room behind the bookshelf, sir!" Maria sobbed, her voice barely audible over the impacts. "But they brought thermite charges! They're burning through the iron lock! They're inside the house!"
"Hold the door, Maria!" Marco commanded, his eyes burning with absolute, terrifying authority. "I am five minutes away!"
