Chapter 6 - The Freight Line
The hallway was a slaughterhouse of shadows and muzzle flashes.
Two mercenaries in black tactical gear were standing near the elevator bank when Titan burst through the door. Before the first shooter could swing his silenced carbine around, Titan hit him full-force in the chest.
One hundred and fifty pounds of momentum slammed the man back against the wall with a sickening crunch. The gun flew from his hands, clattering across the linoleum, as Titan’s jaws locked around the shooter’s armored shoulder, thrashing him like a ragdoll.
"Target left! Target left!" the second shooter screamed, panicking, spraying a burst of automatic fire down the hall.
The bullets chewed into the plaster wall inches above Elena’s head as she ducked out of the room.
Marcus moved with terrifying speed for a gray-haired man. He had Adrian draped over his left shoulder like a sack of grain, his right hand firing his heavy Sig Sauer down the corridor.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The muzzle flashes illuminated the hallway in bright, strobe-like bursts. The second shooter snapped backward, his chest collapsing as Marcus’s heavy rounds hit him, and crashed onto the floor.
"Move! To the freight doors!" Marcus yelled, his breath coming in ragged gasps under Adrian’s weight.
Elena ran behind him, her eyes wide, the snub-nosed revolver held in two shaking hands.
Titan released the first shooter, who was lying unconscious and bloody on the floor, and sprinted ahead, his black coat blending into the dark, clearing the corner leading to the freight elevator.
A third man stepped out from the stairwell door, raising a shotgun.
"Titan! DOWN!" Elena shrieked.
The dog instinctively dropped flat to his belly, sliding three feet across the slick floorboards.
Elena didn't think. She raised the heavy snub-nosed revolver with both hands, closed her eyes for a microsecond, and pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The recoil slammed up her wrists, nearly knocking the small gun from her grip.
The bullet struck the third shooter in the thigh. The man yelled out in pain, dropping his shotgun and stumbling backward into the stairwell frame.
Titan leaped from his belly, slamming into the man’s chest, sending both of them tumbling down the concrete stairs in a chaotic tangle of boots, teeth, and metal.
"Freight elevator! Now!" Marcus barked, slapping his palm against the heavy iron manual release lever of the industrial elevator.
The heavy steel mesh gate groaned open.
Marcus threw Adrian onto the wooden floorboards of the freight car. Elena scrambled inside, spinning around to face the dark hallway.
"TITAN!" she screamed into the pitch-black stairwell. "TITAN! HERE!"
From the dark stairwell came the sound of heavy paws scrambling against concrete, followed by a low whimper.
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Titan burst through the door, blood dripping from his muzzle—none of it his own—and leaped into the freight elevator just as Marcus slammed the heavy iron mesh gate shut and yanked the mechanical lever downward.
With a deep, grinding roar of ancient gears, the freight elevator dropped into the dark shaft, escaping the penthouse floor just as Julian’s remaining men reached the hall, spraying a useless hail of bullets against the heavy steel floorboards above them.
