Chapter 7 - Fire in the Snow
"Ambush! Move!" Marcus roared, drawing his weapon and tackling Grant to the ground just as the sound of suppressed automatic rifle fire shattered the alpine silence.
Bullets tore through the side of the SUV, shattering the glass. Emma instantly pushed Lily flat onto the floorboard of the back seat, shielding the child’s body with her own.
"Return fire!" Marcus screamed into his comms, as three white snowmobiles carrying armed operatives crested the ridge, weapons raised.
Grant scrambled up from the snow, grabbing a submachine gun from the SUV's trunk storage. He aimed through the blinding snowstorm and fired a burst, catching the lead snowmobile rider in the chest. The vehicle flipped violently, skidding across the ice.
"Emma! Take Lily into the tree line!" Grant ordered, covering their retreat with sustained fire.
Emma didn't hesitate. She scooped Lily into her arms and sprinted down the steep pine-covered slope, diving behind a cluster of granite boulders as bullets chewed through the bark of the trees above them.
"Grant!" Emma yelled back over the deafening roar of engine fire. "The tunnel access is half a mile down this ravine! If we can reach the hatch, we can lock them out!"
"Marcus, lay down a smoke screen!" Grant commanded.
Marcus pulled two thermal smoke canisters from his belt, pulled the pins, and hurled them into the snowy clearing. Thick gray smoke erupted instantly, blinding the thermal optics of the approaching operatives and the overhead drone.
Using the cover, Grant and Marcus retreated down the slope, firing controlled bursts to keep the remaining mercenaries at bay. They reached the rock formation where Emma and Lily were tucked away.
Lily was crying silently, her tiny hands clutching Emma’s jacket. Grant knelt beside her, wiping a flake of snow from her cheek. "I’ve got you, baby. Stay close to Emma."
They rushed through the deep snow down the ravine, arriving at a heavy steel door embedded directly into the mountainside. The hatch was locked with a heavy electronic keypad.
"The code!" Grant shouted over the rising wind. "Emma, what’s the code?"
"Clara said it was a date," Emma said frantically, her fingers hovering over the frozen keypad. "The date Lily was born!"
May you like
She slammed the numbers into the pad: 0-5-1-2.
The red light on the panel flickered... and turned green. The heavy hydraulic locks hissed, and the steel door slowly swung open into the dark, echoing depths of the mountain.
