Chapter 10 - Fire in the Night
Muzzle flashes ripped through the darkness like strobes of lightning. The foreign buyer bolted into a waiting sedan, tires screeching as the car tore across the gravel and smashed through the perimeter gate, abandoning Marcus entirely.
Marcus didn't hesitate. He pulled an automatic pistol from beneath his coat and returned fire, driving Miller behind a rusted steel beam.
Seeing Miller pinned down and knowing Marcus could slip into the maze of train cars and vanish forever, something inside me snapped. The rage of a protective father overtook every instinct of self-preservation.
I threw open the cruiser door, staying low behind the heavy tires, and grabbed the heavy iron tire iron from the cruiser's floorboard.
I circled around the rear of warehouse twelve, using the roar of the rain and the echo of gunshots to mask my footsteps. Through the cracked corrugated metal siding, I saw Marcus sprinting toward a secondary exit, clutching a black leather messenger bag containing the stolen blueprints and flash drives.
He burst through the side door, breathing heavily, looking wildly around the empty alleyway.
He never saw me coming.
I slammed into him with the full weight of my body, tackling him to the wet asphalt. His gun clattered across the stones, sliding into the darkness.
We rolled through the mud, Marcus clawing at my face with manic fury. "You pathetic bastard!" he snarled, throwing a heavy fist that caught me across the cheekbone. Pain exploded in my vision, but I didn't care.
I pinned his arm to the ground, driving my elbow down into his ribs with everything I had. He gasped, the wind knocked out of him.
"You touched my daughter!" I roared, grabbing him by the lapels and slamming him against the concrete wall. "You poisoned her! You terrified her!"
Marcus choked, blood trickling from his split lip, but a twisted grin spread across his face.
"You're too late, David..." he wheezed, his eyes wild with malice.
"Shut up!" I shoved my forearm against his throat.
"You think... you think I came here alone?" Marcus gasped, laughing through the pain. "The buyer... wasn't here for the blueprints. The blueprints were already sold this afternoon."
My heart stopped. "What are you talking about?"
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"The money was a diversion," Marcus whispered, his eyes gleaming with triumphant venom. "While you followed the trail to the playhouse... while Miller brought you here... my men were already dispatched to the corporate apartment downtown."
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