Chapter 13 - Undercover at the Docks
Before Adrian could signal the team, Marcone’s voice echoed across the asphalt through a megaphone.
“You can come out, Adrian! We know you’re behind container forty-four!”
Adrian stiffened. Julian’s voice crackled through the earpiece: *“Ambush! North crane has two snipers! We’re pinned down!”*
Gunfire erupted instantly from above.
Bullets chewed into the metal container beside us, sparking violently in the dark. Adrian shoved me to the ground, shielding my body with his own as high-velocity rounds perforated the steel inches above our heads.
“Stay behind this crate!” Adrian shouted over the deafening roar of automatic weapons. “Do not move!”
“Adrian, you can’t take twenty men alone!” I screamed, grabbing his arm.
“I have no choice!” he roared, breaking free and rolling across the asphalt to return fire, dropping one of Marcone’s gunmen with two center-mass shots.
I crouched behind the steel container, terror constricting my throat. I looked up. Above the clearing, twenty feet in the air, the massive industrial crane was suspended, holding a multi-ton shipping container directly over the clearing where Marcone’s vehicles were idling.
Beside my hiding spot was the control panel for the gantry crane’s emergency cable release.
A bright red lever labeled *EMERGENCY OVERRIDE - DROP HAZARD*.
Nobody was watching the side panel. All eyes were on Adrian, who was pinned down behind a forklift, trading shots with four shooters closing in on his flank. He was out of ammunition in his primary weapon, switching to his sidearm.
In ten seconds, they would flank him.
I didn't think about being a cleaner. I didn't think about dying.
I stood up, sprinted across five yards of exposed pavement, and threw my entire body weight onto the red emergency lever.
The lever groaned. The gears shrieked.
*CLANG.*
The heavy steel cable snapped with the force of a thunderclap.
The multi-ton shipping container suspended in the air plummeted straight down, crashing directly onto the engine blocks of Marcone’s two escort sedans with an earth-shattering explosion of metal, glass, and fire.
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The shockwave knocked every man in the clearing off his feet.
***