Chapter 3 - THE Siege OF REVENGE
The thunder of rotor blades shook the heavy glass skylights of the Vance Estate as the unmarked black Sikorsky helicopter hovered low over the courtyard.
Tension wire snaps echoed through the night air as six heavy tactical operators descended down fast-ropes, landing silently on the wet stone terrace. They were clad in matte-black armor, wearing night-vision visors, carrying suppressed automatic rifles stamped with the silver crest of Vanguard Bio-Tech.
Inside the dark library, Nikolai stood near the window, his broad frame blending completely into the shadows.
He didn't fire immediately. He waited.
He watched the squad leader—a tall, scarred mercenary known in the dark web as Viper—motion for his men to breach the heavy glass doors leading into the conservatory.
“Target is inside,” Viper grunted into his comms. “Primary directive: eradicate the Whitmore woman and the child. Retrieve the micro-dampener. Eliminate Vance if possible.”
The first mercenary raised a heavy breaching shotgun, aiming it at the door lock.
THWACK.
A single suppressed round pierced the heavy reinforced glass, striking the breacher cleanly through the helmet visor. He dropped to the stone floor without making a sound.
“Sniper! Down!” Viper screamed, diving behind a stone pillar as his men opened fire, spraying automatic rounds into the dark library.
Glass shattered into golden rain. Books rained down from the high shelves.
Inside the hidden reinforced bunker ten feet beneath the library floor, Vanessa sat on a leather sofa, holding Layla tight against her chest while Mia sat beside them, calmly monitoring the estate’s thermal security feed on an iPad.
The muted thud-thud-thud of heavy gunfire rattled the concrete ceiling above them.
Vanessa’s heart was pounding so violently she could barely breathe. “Is... is the door strong enough, Mia?”
Mia didn't even look up from her screen. “The door is reinforced four-inch titanium, Mrs. Whitmore. A missile couldn't break it. Plus, Daddy is up there.”
“He’s fighting six armed mercenaries alone!” Vanessa said, her maternal instincts screaming at her to protect everyone in the room.
“Daddy fought eighty insurgents in the mountains of Kandahar when his squad was ambushed,” Mia said with cool confidence, pointing at a thermal camera feed. “Look.”
Vanessa leaned over to look at the screen.
On the thermal display, Nikolai was a bright white figure moving through the dark hallway like a phantom. He didn't use brute force; he used the estate’s layout like a deadly maze.
A mercenary stepped into the grand corridor, sweeping his rifle left to right.
From the ceiling shadow directly above him, Nikolai dropped down. His heavy combat knife flashed once in the dark. The mercenary went limp instantly, his weapon caught smoothly by Nikolai before it could hit the floor.
Nikolai spun, using the fallen guard’s body as a human shield as two more mercenaries rounded the corner, spraying bullets.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Nikolai’s sidearm barked with terrifying rhythm. Both mercenaries dropped instantly, their thermal signatures fading into darkness.
Within four minutes, five of the six Vanguard operatives were dead on the marble floors.
Out on the rain-swept terrace, Viper retreated frantically toward the hovering helicopter, grabbing the fast-rope to signal the pilot for an immediate emergency extraction.
“PULL UP! PULL UP NOW!” Viper screamed into his radio, his face pale with sheer horror. “VANCE IS A DEMON! THE CONTRACT IS COMPROMISED!”
The helicopter pilot pulled hard on the collective, the heavy aircraft surging upward into the stormy night sky.
Viper swung twenty feet above the ground, clinging to the rope for dear life—
CRASH!
Nikolai burst through the shattered glass of the balcony, sprinting at full speed across the stone terrace. He didn't stop at the edge. He jumped.
He launched his broad frame into the open night air, his large hands catching Viper’s tactical vest in mid-air!
The sheer force of Nikolai’s momentum yanked Viper clean off the rope. Both men plummeted twenty feet down into the deep, cold waters of the estate’s swimming pool below with a massive splash!
Below the surface, Viper fought frantically, pulling a combat dagger from his vest.
Nikolai gripped Viper’s throat with one hand, ignoring the blade slicing across his shoulder, and smashed the mercenary’s head against the concrete pool wall once, twice, until the man went completely limp.
Nikolai dragged Viper’s unconscious body up to the edge of the pool, hauling himself out of the water like a dripping leviathan.
He stood on the wet stone floor, blood running from the shallow slice on his shoulder, his chest rising and falling in steady, rhythmic breaths.
The black helicopter banked hard into the clouds, fleeing into the storm.
Elena ran out onto the terrace, holding a tactical medical kit and a towel. “Boss! You’re bleeding!”
“It’s a scratch,” Nikolai growled, pushing the towel against his shoulder. He looked down at Viper, who was coughing up water on the pool tiles.
Nikolai kneeled beside the mercenary, grabbing him by his wet tactical collar and pulling his face inches from his own.
“Who ordered the strike, Viper?” Nikolai asked, his voice low enough to freeze water.
Viper coughed up blood, grinning weakly through broken teeth. “You... you think you're safe, Vance? Dr. Victor Sterling... runs Vanguard... he already bought the entire Whitmore board... by tomorrow morning... Vanessa Whitmore will be framed for her husband’s murder...”
Nikolai’s eyes didn't even flicker.
He tightened his grip on Viper’s throat until the man’s eyes rolled back.
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“Elena,” Nikolai commanded calmly, standing up. “Clean up the terrace. Send a signal to our units in Zurich. It’s time to dismantle Vanguard Bio-Tech.”
He turned and walked back into the warmth of his fortress, his eyes fixed on the entrance to the library bunker.
