Chapter 26 - The vault deception
Marcus didn't back away from the blade. He stepped inside the arc of the slash, catching the commando’s forearm on the bone of his wrist. The impact made a dull thud. Marcus pivoted his hips, driving an open palm directly into the commando’s throat guard, breaking the man’s forward momentum.
The operative gasped, air cut off, but his training was immaculate. He dropped the knife into his left hand, slashing downward toward Marcus’s thigh.
Marcus anticipated the transfer. He trapped the operative’s wrist against his own hip, twisted the arm in a vicious joint lock, and drove his knee straight into the man's elbow. The sickening crack of snapping bone echoed through the empty gym. The knife clattered harmlessly to the floor.
Marcus slammed the commando face-first onto the wooden floorboards, planting a heavy boot across the back of his neck. With a swift yank, Marcus tore off the operative’s ballistic helmet and mask.
The man beneath was barely thirty, his face covered in sweat, eyes wide with pain and disbelief. On the inside of the commando’s tactical vest, a digital tactical pad flashed with an active operational loop.
Marcus bent down, tearing the tablet free with his left hand while keeping his full weight on the operative’s spine. The screen displayed a live GPS tracker. A blinking red cursor was moving at high speed along the access road leading from the Oak Ridge quarry toward the gym.
Above the map, a text prompt showed a priority task list:
1. Liquidate Target: Viktor Kresh.
2. Liquidate Target: Marcus Graves.
3. Secure Asset: Subject Tessa.
Marcus felt an icy rage replace the adrenaline in his blood. They weren't just here to kill him. They were here to take his daughter.
Behind the weight bench, Viktor hauled himself up against the wall, panting heavily. "I told you... Vance doesn't want revenge. He wants the biological sequence. You didn't just walk away from Chimera with codes, did you? You took something else."
Marcus ignored Viktor. He tapped the operative’s tablet, bypassing the biometric lock with an administrative override sequence he had memorized ten years ago. The encrypted folder opened instantly, revealing the true contents of the town vault Viktor’s men had breached earlier that night.
It wasn't financial ledgers. It wasn't Mayor Henderson's bribes.
It was an international transfer manifest bearing the signature of United States Senator Hayes—the very politician who had sponsored Marcus’s transition into civilian life three years ago. The entire town of Oak Ridge hadn't been a safe haven. It had been an open-air quarantine zone. Marcus had been placed here under constant surveillance, waiting for the moment he lowered his guard.
"Tessa," Marcus whispered under his breath.
A sudden, sharp thud came from the reception counter across the room. The trapdoor to the crawlspace had been shifted from the inside.
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Tessa's small, frightened voice drifted through the dusty air: "Daddy? There's another helicopter landing behind the garage."
Marcus turned his head toward the back bay doors. Two bright xenon spotlights sliced through the dirty windows, blinding him with white light.
