Chapter 5 - The Tactical Retreat
“He’s going to burn the house down,” Julian whispered, his face turning pale in the dark. “Thermite will consume this place in less than three minutes. The smoke alone will suffocate Evelyn and Lily before they can get out.”
“He’s bluffing about the time to force us into a panic,” I said, keeping my composure. “Marcus wants that drive intact. Thermite would destroy the digital media on the drive, which means he won't use fire until he’s completely sure he can't get the data through force.”
“So what’s the move?” Julian asked.
“We don't stay here to be trapped,” I said. “We use the hidden storm shelter under the garage.”
When I bought this house six years ago, I discovered an old, reinforced root cellar beneath the concrete floor of the detached garage, built during the Cold War era. Over the years, I had quietly upgraded it into a secure, air-filtered storage bunker for emergency equipment, accessible via a hidden floor hatch inside the utility closet.
“Go upstairs and get Evelyn and Lily,” I told Julian. “Bring them down through the kitchen utility hallway. I’ll clear the side yard.”
Julian nodded and hurried up the stairs.
I tiptoed toward the side garage door, checking my phone’s security feed. There was a third mercenary patrolling the dark breezeway between the house and the garage, holding an assault rifle.
I cracked the side door open an inch. The rain had started to fall, drumming steadily against the pavement, muffling sounds.
I raised the suppressed handgun, lined up the sights through the crack in the door, and squeezed the trigger twice.
The shots sounded like soft pops in the rain. The operative stumbled back, hit in the body armor, and dropped his weapon. Before he could recover, I sprinted across the dark courtyard, slammed him against the garage wall, and delivered a devastating right hook to his temple. He went limp.
I dragged his body into the garage, snatched his rifle and tactical radio, and unlocked the heavy steel hatch in the garage floor.
A moment later, Julian appeared in the doorway, guiding Evelyn and a terrified Lily through the dark yard under the cover of the heavy downpour.
“Inside! Quick!” I whispered, guiding them down the steel ladder into the concrete bunker below.
Once everyone was inside, I pulled the heavy steel hatch shut, engaged the thick internal locking bars, and turned on the battery-powered LED overhead strip lights.
The concrete room was dry, cool, and completely soundproof.
Lily ran into my arms, hugging my neck tightly, sobbing into my wet jacket. “Daddy, are the bad men gone?”
“They can't hurt us down here, sweetie,” I reassured her, holding her close and smoothing her wet hair. “No one can get through that steel door.”
Evelyn sank against the concrete wall, sliding down to the floor, her energy completely spent. She stared at me with an expression of profound remorse and exhaustion.
“David,” she choked out. “I’m so sorry... I brought this nightmare into your life.”
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I sat down across from her, keeping one arm wrapped around Lily.
“We are alive,” I said, looking Evelyn dead in the eye. “That’s all that matters right now. But once this night is over, Evelyn... we have a reckoning to face.”
