Chapter 15 - Fire in the Canyon
Before Vance could even finish his sentence, the first volley of high-caliber armor-piercing rounds slammed into the cabin’s thick concrete exterior, chipping away showers of gray dust and stone with deafening, concussive blasts. They weren’t sending negotiators or warning shots anymore. They were here to execute a total, bloody erasure of everyone inside.
“Vance, cover the western ridge window with the heavy machine gun!” I ordered, instantly grabbing a semi-automatic tactical rifle from the wall rack and slamming a fresh magazine home. “I’ll hold the main blast door!”
I positioned myself beside a narrow, reinforced viewing slit, waiting as shadowy, featureless figures clad in matte-black tactical gear materialized ghost-like through the moonlit desert brush outside. When the lead operative reached the threshold and raised a heavy breaching charge toward our hinges, I squeezed the trigger. The brutal recoil slammed hard into my shoulder as the assailant dropped instantly, his body rolling backward down the rocky incline.
Outside, a harsh, mechanical voice suddenly boomed through a heavy megaphone, echoing mockingly off the steep canyon walls:
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“Colonel Wentworth! This is your final warning! Hand over the titanium drive and your wife, and your pathetic lives will be spared! Resist, and you will be buried in this canyon forever, forgotten by history!
It was the unmistakable voice of The Architect—transmitted directly through a tactical command relay linked to the hovering assault choppers above.
