Chapter 6: The Breach
"Get under the bench! Now!" Jack roared, tossing the teddy bear to the far corner of the room.
Lily scrambled beneath the heavy steel workbench, curling into a tight ball.
The garage doors were torn off their hinges as the SUV reversed, allowing four tactical operators in heavy Kevlar to flood into the space. They were moving in a standard diamond formation, sweeping their assault rifles with lethal efficiency.
Jack was already in motion. He vaulted over the hood of a rusted-out 1967 Mustang, using the heavy engine block as cover just as a hail of 5.56mm rounds chewed through the car’s rusted frame.
He needed to level the playing field. Fast.
Jack grabbed a heavy steel wrench from a tool tray and hurled it across the room. It shattered a suspended halogen work lamp. Sparks rained down, plunging the garage into near-total darkness, illuminated only by the sweeping flashlight beams of the operatives.
Moving with silent, predatory grace, Jack flanked the squad. He emerged from the shadows behind the rear guard. He clamped a hand over the man's mouth, drove a combat knife upward into the soft gap beneath the Kevlar helmet, and lowered the body silently to the floor, taking the man's suppressed submachine gun.
"Man down! Sector four!" one of the operatives yelled, pivoting blindly.
Jack opened fire, a controlled three-round burst dropping the second operative. The remaining two opened up with suppressing fire, tearing the garage apart, shattering glass, and shredding tires.
Jack dove beneath a hydraulic lift, sliding across the grease-slicked floor. He spotted an old, pressurized acetylene tank near the wall. Aiming carefully, he fired a single round into the tank’s valve, then followed it with a tracer round from his newly acquired weapon.
The tank erupted in a massive fireball, blowing the remaining two operatives off their feet and blowing out the rest of the garage's windows.
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Jack stood up, breathing heavily, the flames casting dancing shadows across his battered face. He walked over to the workbench and pulled Lily out. She was shaking but unharmed.
"Time to go, kid," he said. "They know we're here."
