Chapter 36 - The Beast in the Blizzard
The radio went dead on the other end, followed immediately by Arthur’s frantic screaming over the tactical channel. *"All units! Converge on Rail Sector Three! Kill him! Kill him now!"*
Red laser sights crisscrossed through the snow-choked dark as twelve mercenaries sprinted toward Gabriel’s position. Gabriel didn't stay to fight in the open. He slipped inside the belly of a three-story grain silo overlooking the main depot tracks, hauling himself up the frozen iron ladder rung by rung.
Below him, the contractors breached the doors, weapons blazing, tearing the empty coal car behind him to scrap metal.
"Clear!" one mercenary yelled. "He’s not here!"
From the shadows of the high catwalk above, Gabriel pulled the pins on two fragmentation grenades and dropped them straight into the center of the search team.
*BOOM.*
The blast echoed inside the steel cavern like a roaring cannon. Shrapnel tore through the lower catwalks, setting off secondary explosions among old fuel drums stored along the depot walls. The rail yard erupted into a towering wall of orange fire, illuminating the frozen night as bright as day.
Arthur Ashford stood beside his armored SUV, his face illuminated by the fire, horror finally cracking through his aristocratic arrogance. "Fall back! Form a perimeter around the vehicles!"
Gabriel didn't wait for the smoke to clear. He sprinted along the overhead conveyor belt structure, dropping twenty feet down onto the hood of Arthur’s secondary support vehicle. The glass shattered under his boots. Gabriel fired three heavy shotgun rounds through the windshield, neutralizing the driver, then rolled off into the deep snow as a hail of bullets ripped through the vehicle’s chassis.
Through the blizzard, half a mile toward the border ridge, a green emergency flare shot into the sky.
It was Sarah’s signal. Nora had reached the perimeter of the Eagle Pass Border Station. They were safe. The cryptographic data was within minutes of transmission.
Gabriel exhaled a cloud of white mist, feeling the crushing weight of his injuries finally catching up to him. His left lung burned with every breath; his vision blurred at the edges. But his mission was not finished.
Arthur Ashford saw the green flare as well. He knew what it meant.
"No... no!" Arthur screamed, shoving his remaining bodyguard into the snow as he scrambled into the driver’s seat of the final armored SUV. "I will not rot in a cage!"
Arthur slammed the vehicle into gear, tires spinning wildly against the ice before biting into the frozen gravel. The massive black SUV surged forward, aiming directly toward the road leading to the border post—determined to run down Sarah and Nora before the transmission could finish.
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Gabriel stood in the center of the frozen road, right in the vehicle’s path.
He didn't move an inch. He raised the Barrett .50-caliber rifle he had salvaged from the crash site, planting his boots into the blood-stained snow.
