Chapter 11 - FIREWORKS ON FINANCIAL ROW
At precisely 8:47 AM, the quiet financial district erupted into absolute chaos.
A heavy utility truck, rigged with a remote accelerator and loaded with industrial road flares, plowed through the police barricade at the corner of 4th and Main, slamming directly into Captain Reyes’s blacked-out surveillance van!
BOOM!
The collision shattered the morning mist as thick white smoke and blinding red magnesium flare fire engulfed the street. Alarm sirens screamed across three blocks. Plainclothes officers drew their sidearms, shouting over the din, while SWAT snipers on the parking structure frantically swung their rifles toward the burning wreckage.
In the midst of the confusion, Julian emerged from a side alley clad in a dark grease-stained jumpsuit. He tossed two heavy smoke canisters into the middle of the intersection, creating a dense curtain of gray fog that blinded the security cameras monitoring the bank’s side entrances.
"Sniper team, respond! We have an IED on the intersection!" a tactical radio blared into Reyes’s earpiece as the captain scrambled out of his smoking van, coughing and drawing his weapon.
"It’s a diversion!" Reyes roared into his headset, his face contorted in rage. "Do not break perimeter on the bank! I repeat, keep your eyes on the doors!"
But it was already too late.
Exploiting the ten seconds of blind panic, Clara and Lily slipped past the side alley gate, rushed down the concrete stairwell of the adjacent office building, and slipped into the subterranean boiler room unnoticed.
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Inside the roaring, humid basement, Clara locked the reinforced door behind them. Her heart hammered against her bruised ribs as she pulled the architectural blue-print from her jacket. Near the ceiling behind a bank of copper steam pipes sat the narrow intake duct—an rusted iron grate held in place by four heavy bolts.
"This is it, Lily," Clara whispered, pulling a crowbar from her backpack. "Help Mommy clear the vent."
