Chapter 24 - The descent in shadows
Gunfire spat in short, suppressed bursts through the blackness, sparks ricocheting off the reinforced steel shutters. Garrett didn't hesitate. Grabbing Maya by the wrist and pulling Margaret close with his other arm, he dragged them through the broken doorway of the judge's private chambers.
"Marcus!" Garrett shouted over the crackle of burning insulation.
"Move down the maintenance shaft!" Marcus’s voice echoed back from behind an overturned mahogany conference table. "I’ll seal the blast door from this side! Get them to the harbor terminal!"
Maya didn't look back. She gripped her mother’s hand, feeling Margaret's frail pulse racing against her palm. "Hold onto me, Mom. Don't let go."
Margaret looked at Maya through the gloom, tears cutting clean lines through the soot on her cheeks. Hearing that word—Mom—seemed to pour sudden strength into the older woman's veins. Margaret nodded firmly. "I won't. Never again."
They navigated the narrow spiral stairs behind the courtroom, descending through utility tunnels that smelled of damp earth and electrical ozone. The roar of police sirens outside was growing, but Garrett knew that local law enforcement could not be trusted; Arthur’s political reach had subsidized half the metropolitan judicial council for three decades.
When they kicked open the rusty ground-level exit into the rain-slicked alley behind the municipal building, a black unmarked sedan idle by the dumpster surged forward, its headlights cutting through the drizzle.
Garrett shoved Maya and Margaret behind a concrete pillar, reaching for the weapon tucked into his waistband.
The driver’s side window slid down smoothly. A familiar face appeared behind the glass—Dr. Evelyn Vance, Julian Vance’s estranged daughter, who had testified against Harlan hours earlier.
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"Get in," Evelyn said flatly, unlocking the rear passenger doors. "Before Uncle Arthur’s sweep team sanitizes this entire block."
👉 Garrett hesitated for a split second, eyeing the scalpel-sharp glint in Evelyn Vance's eyes as she tapped the steering wheel.
