Chapter 70 - The Echo of Family Sins
Jared didn't hesitate.
He rounded the edge of the limestone outcropping, leveled the Remington, and fired through the smoke-filled doorway of the bunker. The heavy 00-buckshot caught the lead operative in the center of his chest plate, the kinetic energy lifting him off his feet and throwing him backward against the interior concrete wall with a sickening crunch.
Before the second man could bring his short-barreled carbine to bear, Jared racked the slide and fired again, catching the mercenary in the thigh and spinning him into the frozen snow. Jared closed the distance in two strides, drawing the Colt and placing the muzzle directly against the fallen soldier’s temple.
"Drop it or bleed," Jared snarled.
The man’s hands flew open, letting the carbine drop into the slush. Blood poured from his shredded leg, steaming in the freezing air.
Jared swept the weapon aside with his boot, keeping his sidearm pinned to the man’s head while he scanned the interior of the pump house.
In the dim glow of chemical light sticks, Melissa was strapped to the rusted iron framework of the massive hydraulic valve wheel. Her face was bruised, her designer coat torn to shreds, and her eyes were wild with shock. Her fingers were raw and bleeding where she had tried to tear free from the heavy plastic zip-ties binding her wrists to the frozen steel.
"Jared!" she screamed, her voice cracking into a ragged sob. "Jared, help me! They're going to blow it!"
"Shut up," Jared said coldly, not taking his eyes off the wounded operative. "Who are you working for? Who gave you the coordinates for Sub-Level Seven?"
The wounded man coughed, a red spray hitting the snow, but his lips peeled back in a mocking sneer. "It... does not matter, mechanic. The clock was started sixty-two years ago. Your grandfather... he didn't hide a weapon down there. He hid a vault. And the key isn't in a safe. It's in the blood."
The man reached down toward his tactical vest with his left hand.
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Jared didn't wait to see if it was a grenade. He pulled the trigger.
The gunshot echoed deafeningly inside the stone clearing, the report swallowed by the surrounding pine forest. The operative slumped lifeless into the snow.
