Chapter 13 - The Underground Extraction
The freight elevator shaft was pitch black, dripping with industrial condensation and echoing with the distant hum of the hospital’s auxiliary diesel generators. I climbed down the rusted iron rungs one-handed, holding my sidearm ready with the other, descending deep into the subterranean underbelly of Mercy General Hospital.
As my boots hit the concrete floor of the basement loading dock, the heavy metal security shutters began to lift with a grinding screech.
A sleek, matte-black armored SUV idled quietly near the exit ramp, its engine purring like a caged predator. The rear passenger door swung open smoothly, revealing Major Bishop’s top regional field operative, a scarred veteran named Miller, holding a tactical data-pad.
“Get in, Commander,” Miller urged sharply, ducking his head as distant sirens wailed closer from the street above. “We’ve intercepted a secure communication from Arthur Caldwell’s private estate in the Blue Ridge Mountains. They’re evacuating the core leadership of The Meridian Group to a private airstrip tonight. If we don’t strike their command center now, they’ll scrub every server and disappear into international waters by morning.”
I slid into the back seat, slamming the armored door shut behind me. “Is Nora secure?”
May you like
“Safehouse Delta is locked down with an unmapped tier-one security detail,” Miller confirmed, handing me an encrypted tactical display showing real-time satellite telemetry of the Blue Ridge compound. “No one gets in or out without our clearance.”
I looked down at the tactical screen, watching the flashing red coordinates of the syndicate’s mountain stronghold. The time for hiding behind corporate proxy leaks and digital warfare was over. It was time for the Phantom Commander to finish what he started nineteen years ago.
