"I returned from eight weeks undercover expecting my daughter to run into my arms—then I found a stranger’s stiletto pressing against her tiny hand. "

The heavy steel hatch at the top of the spiral stairs shuddered under the violent impact of a thermite breaching charge. Sparks rained down into the stairwell as the metal began to melt away under two thousand degrees of blinding heat.

Ethan stood at the base of the stairs, holding a tactical assault rifle retrieved from the vault’s emergency armory. He had equipped Victoria with a submachine gun and secured Lily inside a reinforced shelter room located behind the main server racks.

"Stay inside until I open this door, Lily," Ethan had instructed her, kissing her forehead one last time. "No matter what you hear outside."

"I'm brave, Daddy," she had whispered back, holding her doll against her chest. "Like Mommy."

Now, standing in the bright fluorescent light of the subterranean hall, Ethan watched the steel hatch give way. The heavy plate collapsed inward with a loud crash, falling down the spiral stairs in a shower of molten iron.

Smoke poured down the shaft, followed immediately by three flashbang grenades.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Concussive shockwaves rattled the concrete walls, but Ethan and Victoria were already positioned behind reinforced steel pillars, their eyes protected by tactical visors.

As the first four Vanguard Prime operators dropped down the spiral staircase, Ethan opened fire.

Controlled, precise bursts swept through the narrow stairwell. The leading operators were thrown backward by the impact, falling down the steps and blocking the advance of the men behind them.

"Suppressing fire!" Victoria shouted, stepping out from her pillar to lay down a stream of lead across the upper landing, keeping the mercenaries pinned behind the melted hatch frame.

"Daniel!" Ethan’s voice boomed up the shaft, cutting through the gunfire and smoke. "I know you can hear me! You brought Vanguard Prime to our home! You betrayed Sarah, you betrayed our family, and you put your hands on my daughter!"

From above, Daniel’s voice echoed down, strained and hysterical. "You don't understand, Ethan! They were going to kill me three years ago if I didn't give them access to our shipping routes! Sarah was going to expose everything—she left me no choice!"

"You always had a choice, brother!" Ethan yelled back, reloading his rifle with a crisp metallic click. "You chose money over blood!"

"I chose survival!" Daniel screamed. "Give us the hard drives, Ethan! General Vance isn't going to leave this property until every trace of the Blackthorn Archive is incinerated! You can't win this!"

"General Vance?" Ethan repeated, his eyes narrowing as he recognized the name. Vance was the rogue three-star general who had been secretly directing Vanguard Prime’s operations from within the Pentagon.

Ethan looked at Victoria, signaling toward a secondary ventilation shaft behind the server racks. "They're going to drop gas down this shaft in two minutes. We need to move."