Chapter 4 - Ambush at the Gates
The sound of shattering glass and heavy gunfire echoed through the rain night.
"Get down!" Mitchell screamed, tackling Gavin to the muddy floor of the trench as a barrage of high-caliber rounds shredded the wooden rim of the excavation pit.
The two federal marshals drew their sidearms, returning fire up into the darkness toward the cemetery tree line. Muzzle flashes illuminated the downpour in violent bursts of orange and yellow.
"Miller and Vance sent a clean-up crew!" Mitchell shouted over the deafening noise, reaching for his tactical radio. "Mayday! Mayday! This is Warden Mitchell at Oakridge Cemetery! We are under heavy fire by an unidentified mercenary element! Send tactical backup immediately!"
From behind a nearby mausoleum, three tactical operatives dressed in dark civilian gear advanced on the pit, holding suppressed rifles. Their goal was clear: eradicate every witness and destroy the cedar chest before the media or federal authorities could secure it.
"Gavin, take this!" Mitchell barked, unholstering his backup snub-nosed revolver and slapping it into Gavin’s hand despite his handcuffed wrists. "Can you shoot?"
"I was an infantry instructor before I was an architect," Gavin said, his eyes turning cold as ice. He leveled the weapon over the mud wall.
Gavin fired three calculated shots. A mercenary stumbled backwards, hit in the chest plate, dropping his tactical torch onto the wet grass. The beam shone directly onto the side of one of the black SUVs, revealing a painted emblem: Vance Real Estate Security Services.
"They brought their own men!" Gavin yelled. "They didn't even bother hiring contractors!"
Just as the mercenaries prepared to breach the edge of the pit with incendiary grenades, the thunderous roar of helicopter blades shattered the sky overhead.
Blinding white spotlights cut down from the clouds, illuminating the entire cemetery like a stadium at noon. Horns wailed from the main road as a convoy of over twenty State Trooper cruisers and Federal Bureau of Investigation vehicles smashed through the cemetery gates, blocking every exit.
"THIS IS THE FBI!" a booming voice yelled from the helicopter’s loudspeaker. "DROP YOUR WEAPONS IMMEDIATELY! YOU ARE SURROUNDED!"
The mercenaries dropped their weapons into the mud, raising their hands as dozens of federal agents poured out of armored vehicles, securing the perimeter within seconds.
A tall woman in a dark trench coat walked briskly to the edge of the pit, looking down at Mitchell and Gavin. It was Special Agent In Charge Sarah Reyes from the FBI's Public Corruption Task Force.
"Warden Mitchell!" Reyes called down. "We received an encrypted live-stream transmission of this site thirty minutes ago from a secure terminal in Huntsville. Is the prisoner safe?"
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Mitchell blinked in surprise, turning to Gavin. "Live-stream? Who sent a live-stream?"
Gavin smiled through his mud-smeared face, his eyes shining with profound pride. "Chloe. The social worker who brought her to the prison... she was my wife’s sister."
