Chapter 11 - The Trap at the Old Warehouse Ruins
BOOM!
The heavy blast tore through the wooden railing of the catwalk.
Frank Delaney moved faster than any sixty-three-year-old man should have been able to move.
He lunged forward, tackling Vanessa to the floorboards just as the shotgun pellets ripped through the space where her chest had been a fraction of a second earlier.
Wood splinters sprayed across Frank’s back, shredding his coat.
Vanessa hit the floor with a heavy thud, staring up at Frank Delaney with wide, horrified eyes.
The man she had tried to kick out of the restaurant two hours ago had just taken a blast to save her life.
“Frank!” I screamed, scrambling across the floor toward them.
Luca emerged from behind the concrete vault, his eyes blazing with fury.
He fired three rapid shots at the catwalk ceiling.
The heavy iron chandelier suspended above the slipway broke free from its rusted mounting, crashing down directly onto the upper platform.
The impact smashed through the timber walkway, sending Salvatore Bellini tumbling ten feet down into the empty dry dock below.
Salvatore hit the concrete basin with a sickening crack, his shotgun clattering across the floor.
Matteo eliminated the last of Vance’s security guards, while Deputy Commissioner Vance fell to his knees, his hands in the air, his face pale as a sheet.
“Don’t shoot! I surrender! I’m a city official!” Vance stammered.
Matteo stepped forward and smashed the butt of his rifle across Vance’s jaw, knocking him out cold.
Luca sprinted over to Frank and Vanessa.
“Frank! Are you hit?” Luca demanded, kneeling beside him.
Frank groaned, pushing himself up on his elbows.
His thick canvas backpack had taken the bulk of the shotgun pellets, though several pellets had grazed his shoulder.
“I’ve had worse,” Frank grunted, his face pale but grinning through the pain. “My coat is ruined, though. Luca, you owe me a new coat.”
Luca let out a ragged, trembling laugh of pure relief.
“I’ll buy you ten coats, Frank.”
Vanessa lay on the timber floor, staring at Frank’s bleeding shoulder, her chest heaving with silent, racking sobs.
She reached out with a trembling hand and pushed the micro-cassette into Luca’s palm.
“Take it,” she whispered. “Take it and put him away forever.”
From the dry dock basin below, the sound of dragging footsteps echoed through the silence.
Salvatore Bellini was still alive.
He had dragged himself out of the basin, clutching a red emergency flare in his left hand and a remote detonator in his right.
May you like
His leg was broken, dragging behind him at an unnatural angle, blood pouring from a deep gash on his forehead.
“You haven't won, Luca!” Salvatore rasped, his voice wild with madness. “The charges are armed! We all go into the lake together!”
