Chapter 15
Before Vincent could pull the trigger, the massive corrugated metal doors at the eastern side of the depot exploded inward with a deafening crash.
"Police! Drop your weapon! Drop your weapon!"
A wave of tactical officers clad in black body armor burst into the building, their weapons raised, tactical flashlights cutting through the gloom like laser beams.
Vincent panicked. He spun around, firing two wild shots down toward the advancing officers. The heavy, muffled thud-thud of his silenced weapon echoed through the rafters. One bullet struck a tactical shield with a loud metallic clang.
"Return fire! Take out the shooter!" a commander shouted.
Laura didn't hesitate. The moment the distraction occurred, she lunged forward, throwing herself flat against the cold concrete floor, covering her head as gunfire erupted above her. The sound was deafening inside the enclosed metal structure. Bullets whipped through the air, punching holes into the corrugated metal walls, letting in bright shafts of afternoon light.
On the catwalk, Vincent was trapped. He used the heavy metal chair containing Caleb’s mother as a partial shield, backing away toward the emergency exit stairs at the rear of the platform. He fired blindly, desperately trying to keep the police pinned down below.
"Don't shoot the hostage! Hold your fire!" Harlan’s voice boomed over the chaos. He burst through a side door, his weapon raised, his eyes tracking Vincent's movement along the elevated platform.
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Vincent reached the end of the catwalk, his face contorted in a mask of pure fury. Realizing he couldn't escape down the stairs with the police advancing, he grabbed the ropes binding Caleb’s mother, tipping the heavy metal chair over completely.
The chair crashed against the railing, and with a horrific screech of metal, the woman was thrown over the edge, dangling precariously forty feet above the concrete floor, held only by a single rope caught on the catwalk support beam.
