Chapter 16 - Trial by Fire
"Vance, leave him!" Chen shouted over the deafening roar of the siren. "We have the drives! We need to get out of here now!"
Down on the lower floor of the foundry, small white flashes of light erupted along the massive iron support beams. A second later, roaring blinding jets of white-hot thermite fire ignited, instantly melting through the solid steel structures. The temperature inside the cavernous warehouse spiked dramatically within seconds, filling the air with suffocating heat and thick, chemical smoke.
"Go! Out the north exit!" Vance yelled, grabbing one of the heavy hard drives and shoving it into his tactical vest.
The team sprinted down the rusted catwalk as support beams beneath them groaned and buckled under the extreme heat. Sparks rained down like fireworks from the roof as the corrugated iron panels began to warp and shatter.
Halfway down the spiral staircase, a section of the iron steps melted away, collapsing into the raging inferno below with a deafening crash.
"We're cut off!" an operator shouted, shielding his face from the intense heat.
"This way!" Vance yelled, pointing toward an old industrial crane hook dangling over a secondary lower catwalk thirty feet away.
Vance unclipped a heavy tactical carabiner from his belt, hooked it onto the thick steel cable of the crane, grabbed the cable with both gloved hands, and swung himself out into the open air above the flames.
He landed hard on the far catwalk, his boots slamming against the iron floor. He turned instantly, holding his arms out. "Jump! I've got you!"
Chen didn't hesitate. She lunged across the burning gap, Vance catching her by her tactical vest and pulling her forcefully onto the platform. The two federal operators followed in rapid succession, landing safely just as the main staircase collapsed completely into the sea of fire below.
They sprinted down the final ramp, bursting through the double steel loading doors into the cool, pouring rain outside just as the main roof of the foundry buckled inward, sending a massive geyser of sparks and orange flames three hundred feet into the night sky.
They fell onto the wet grass, gasping for air, their faces covered in soot, their uniforms singed by the heat.
Vance sat up, coughing heavily, looking back at the roaring inferno that consumed the old iron foundry.
Through the rain and smoke, a dark figure stumbled out of a drainage pipe at the edge of the river bank fifty yards away. It was Judge Sterling—his suit torn, his face severely burned, clutching his broken leg as he dragged himself toward a black boat docked at the water's edge.
Vance pulled himself up off the ground. He drew his Glock, his eyes focused entirely on the fleeing criminal.
"Vance, wait!" Chen called out, pulling herself up. "Let SWAT handle it!"
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"He doesn't get away," Vance said simply.
He walked calmly through the torrential rain, his boots cutting through the deep mud, closing the distance between himself and the man who had ordered the destruction of so many lives.
