Chapter 153: Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Three

Dante's POV

The assault started at zero-three-hundred. Dark. Quiet. Perfect for what we needed to do.

Grey was in position on the hilltop. Beck's breach team was ready. Evelyn stayed with me despite my protests. I'd given up trying to keep her safe by keeping her away. She was safest beside me where I could protect her.

"All teams check in," I said softly into the comms.

"Team One ready."

"Team Two ready."

"Overwatch in position," Grey reported. "I have visual on external guards. Eight targets."

"On my mark, take them quietly."

"Copy."

We approached the facility from the south. Industrial complex. No windows on the lower floors. Security cameras every twenty feet.

Marcus had hacked their system, feeding them a loop. We had ten minutes before they noticed the glitch.

"Breach in three," Beck whispered. "Two. One."

The door exploded inward. Flash grenades went off. Beck's team poured through the opening, weapons up.

I heard suppressed gunfire. Shouting. Then Beck's voice: "First floor clear. Moving up."

Evelyn and I followed with Team Two. The facility was sterile. White walls. Fluorescent lights. It smelled like disinfectant and fear.

Second floor. Empty offices. Research labs. Equipment I didn't recognize. We passed them all, heading for the stairs.

"Third floor," Beck reported. "Contact front. Multiple hostiles."

Gunfire erupted above us. Not suppressed anymore. Stealth was over.

"All teams engage! Get to those hostages!" I took the stairs three at a time.

Third floor was chaos. Beck's team was pinned down by heavy fire. The Restoration had fortified the hallway leading to the hostages.

"We need to flank them," Evelyn said.

"How? There's only one hallway."

She pointed to the ceiling. "Maintenance access. We go over them."

"That's insane."

"You have a better idea?"

I didn't. "Beck, cover us. We're going through the ceiling."

"Copy that."

Evelyn and I climbed into the crawlspace above. It was tight. Dark. I could barely see her ahead of me.

We crawled over the firefight. I heard bullets impacting below us. Heard someone scream. Couldn't tell if it was ours or theirs.

"There," Evelyn whispered. "Opening ahead."

We dropped through a vent into a room behind the Restoration's position. Five guards turning in surprise.

We fired simultaneously. Three went down immediately. The fourth got a shot off. Missed. Evelyn put him down. The fifth tried to run. I tackled him, drove my weapon into his face until he stopped moving.

"Door's breached!" Beck called. "We're through!"

We ran to the hostage room. The door was reinforced steel. Electronic lock. No time for hacking.

"Grey, we need the lock blown," I said.

"Can't get a clear shot from here."

"Then we do it the old way." I pulled C4 from my pack. "Everyone back!"

The explosion was controlled but deafening. The door blew inward.

Inside, fifteen people huddled against the far wall. Terrified. Bruised. But alive.

"Emma!" Sarah's voice came over the comms. "Is Emma there?"

I scanned faces. Found her. "She's here. They're all here."

"Thank god."

"We need to move. Now. This place will be crawling with reinforcements."

Beck's team started evacuating the hostages. Emma was crying. So was an older man I didn't recognize. Others were numb, shocked.

"Can you walk?" I asked Emma.

She nodded.

"Then move. Fast."

We got them down to the second floor when all hell broke loose. Reinforcements arrived from both directions. Heavy weapons. Body armor. They weren't taking chances anymore.

"We're cut off!" Beck shouted.

"Grey, we need an exit!" I returned fire, dropping two operatives.

"West wall. There's a loading dock. Fifty yards from your position."

"That's through their main force!"

"Then you better be convincing."

I looked at Evelyn. At the fifteen terrified hostages. At my team, already exhausted from constant fighting.

We weren't going to make it through conventional means.

Time for unconventional.

"Everyone listen!" I grabbed a hostage—young man, early twenties. "I'm sorry for this."

I put my weapon to his head.

"Everybody stops firing or he dies!" I shouted to the Restoration operatives.

They hesitated. Weapons still up but fingers off triggers.

"We're leaving. With all fifteen. You try to stop us, they all die. You let us go, they live. Your choice."

An operative stepped forward. Officer rank, probably. "You're bluffing. You wouldn't kill innocent people."

"Try me." I pressed the weapon harder. The hostage whimpered.

Evelyn caught on. She grabbed Emma, mimicked my position. "He's not bluffing. Neither am I."

The standoff stretched. Seconds feeling like hours.

Then the officer lowered his weapon. "Let them through."

"Sir—" one of his men protested.

"I said let them through! We're not executing civilians!"

The Restoration parted. Weapons down but watching us with pure hatred.

We walked through them slowly. Weapons trained on hostages who I knew we'd never hurt. They didn't know that.

"Keep moving," I whispered to our group. "Don't run. Don't look back."

We reached the loading dock. Our vehicles were there, Marcus having driven them around.

"Everyone in! Go, go, go!"

The hostages piled into the vans. Beck's team covered the retreat. Evelyn and I were last.

As we pulled away, I released the hostage I'd been threatening. "Sorry about that."

He just nodded, too scared to speak.

"That was risky," Evelyn said as we drove.

"It worked."

"This time."

"This time's all that matters."

Behind us, the Restoration facility fell into the distance. We'd done it. All fifteen hostages recovered. Zero casualties on our side.

But I saw the look on that officer's face. The hatred. The determination.

This war wasn't over. We'd just escalated it again.