Chapter 7 - THE MOUNTAIN BLACK SITE
The Montana wilderness was a desolate wasteland of snow-covered pines and jagged granite peaks.
Our helicopter touched down in a clearing two miles from the coordinates Thorne had provided under the gentle persuasion of a pistol grip.
We moved through the snow in total darkness,
wearing thermal gear that masked our body heat from any perimeter sensors.
Ahead of us stood an abandoned Cold War-era radar station,
reinforced with steel plating and surrounded by high-voltage barbed wire.
Guards patrolled the perimeter with assault rifles and night-vision goggles.
Four men,
Nico whispered,
signaling me with hand gestures.
Take them down silently,
I ordered.
No alarms.
We moved like ghosts through the freezing night.
Before the guards even realized we were there,
Nico and the tactical team had neutralized them with suppressed sidearms,
dragging their bodies into the deep snowdrifts.
We breached the heavy steel blast door using a thermite charge that burned through the locking mechanism in three seconds flat.
The door swung inward with a heavy thud.
The interior of the bunker smelled of rust,
damp concrete,
and old disinfectant.
We cleared the corridors room by room,
kicking doors open and checking corners with ruthless efficiency.
Empty.
Empty.
Storage.
Armory.
Then we reached the lowest sublevel.
A heavy iron door with a digital keypad and a small reinforced observation window.
Nico planted a breaching charge on the lock while I peered through the glass.
Inside the dimly lit cell sat a cot,
a small wooden table,
and a woman.
Her hair was long and streaked with gray,
her face thin and pale from years without sunlight,
but her eyes—those unmistakable,
fierce gray-blue eyes—looked up toward the door as the thermite charge blew.
The iron door blasted inward,
clattering onto the concrete floor.
I stepped through the smoke,
my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
Alina looked up,
shielding her eyes from the sudden glare of our tactical flashlights.
She didn't scream.
She didn't run.
She just stared at me as if I were a ghost haunting her dreams.
Marco,
she whispered,
her voice raspy from disuse.
You came.
I dropped to my knees beside her cot,
pulling her broken,
shivering body into my arms.
I found you,
my love,
I choked out,
tears finally breaking free from my eyes.
May you like
I found you.
And I am going to burn this entire world to ash to make them pay.
