Chapter 9 - The Siege of the Burning Tower and the Final Stand
The air was pure fire and pulverized drywall.
The screech of the building's emergency alarms pierced through the ringing in my
ears, accompanied by the hiss of ruptured sprinkler lines spraying black, oily
water from the ceiling.
"Noah!" I screamed, coughing through the thick smoke, trying to crawl across the
debris-covered carpet.
Kieran was already on his feet. Blood was streaming down the left side of his
face from a deep laceration above his temple, but his movements were
terrifyingly fast. He scooped me up off the floor, throwing me behind the
reinforced steel desk, and drew his weapon.
"Stay down!" he commanded.
Through the shattered living room windows, grappling hooks clamped onto the
steel framework of the terrace. Four men dressed in heavy body armor, armed with
automatic shotguns and suppressed submachine guns, dropped onto the burning
floor.
Leading them through the smoke was Garrett Voss.
Garrett’s sling was gone. In his hands was a tactical assault rifle, his face
twisted into a maniacal, desperate sneer.
"Kieran!" Garrett’s voice echoed over the roar of the fire. "Give me the
corporate encryption drives and the girl, and I'll let you walk out of here
alive!"
From behind the desk, Kieran didn't hesitate. He leaned out and fired three
rapid shots through the smoke.
One of Garrett’s mercenaries dropped instantly, clutching his throat.
"Lev! North stairwell, now!" Kieran barked into his tactical radio.
From the hallway, the sound of heavy automatic gunfire erupted as Kieran’s
remaining loyalists engaged the breach team. The hallway was a corridor of
muzzle flashes and ricocheting lead.
Kieran grabbed my arm, pulling me low beneath the smoke line toward Noah's
bedroom.
The door was blown off its hinges, but inside, huddled in the reinforced steel
closet beneath a pile of heavy winter coats, Noah was sobbing hysterically, his
little hands clamped over his ears.
"Mommy! Mommy!"
I dove into the closet, wrapping my entire body around Noah, shielding him with
my back as rounds chewed through the drywall above our heads, sending plaster
raining down like white snow.
"I've got you, baby," I sobbed against his hair. "Mommy's got you, you're safe,
you're safe..."
Kieran stepped into the bedroom doorway, emptying his magazine into the hallway
to suppress the advancing shooters. He slammed a fresh magazine into his pistol,
his breathing heavy and ragged.
"Lev is holding the private service elevator on floor 47," Kieran said, kneeling
beside the closet. He reached in, his bloody hand gently touching Noah's
trembling cheek. "Noah, look at me, buddy."
Noah peeked out from under my arm, his big brown eyes filled with absolute
terror.
"You're the bravest boy in this city," Kieran said softly, his voice cutting
through the gunfire like an anchor in a storm. "I need you to hold your mom's
hand and run with Lev. Can you do that for me?"
Noah nodded rapidly, sniffing back his tears.
Kieran looked up at me. His gray eyes were burning with a fierce, eternal
devotion that tore my heart out of my chest.
"There is an armored transport in the basement," Kieran said. "Lev will take you
to a private airstrip in Waukegan. A jet is waiting. It will take you to my
estate in Maine. Nobody knows about it."
"No!" I grabbed the lapel of his torn jacket, pulling him down. "You're coming
with us! Kieran, you can't stay here alone!"
"Garrett brought Thorne’s entire strike force," Kieran whispered, leaning down
and kissing me hard on the lips, tasting of copper and smoke. "If I get in that
elevator, they will track the vehicle with heavy ordinance. I have to stay here
and trigger the building lockdown from the central security hub on 46. I have to
cut the head off the snake."
"Kieran, please—"
"I love you, Mila," he said.
The words stopped the world.
He had never said them before. Not during the quiet dinners, not in the hospital
room, not in the dark of his study. He said them now, surrounded by fire and
falling concrete, with the finality of a man stepping onto a battlefield from
which he had no intention of returning.
"Now run!" he roared.
Lev appeared in the shattered doorway, submachine gun smoking in his hands.
"Sir, we have a clear path to the stairwell!"
"Take them!" Kieran ordered.
Lev grabbed Noah, tucking him under one massive arm, and pulled me by the wrist
out into the smoke-filled corridor.
I looked back over my shoulder as the heavy fire doors began to slide shut.
Kieran Voss was standing alone in the center of the burning corridor, two
weapons drawn, advancing directly into the wall of gunfire with the unstoppable
fury of a fallen god protecting his family.
May you like
Then the fire door slammed shut with a heavy, final CLANG.
Lev dragged us down the emergency stairs. We burst into the underground garage
just as the entire 48th floor above us erupted into a massive, secondary
explosion of orange flame that shattered the night sky.
