Chapter 42 - The Shattered Cage

Naomi struck the Cleaner’s weapon upward with her left forearm, deflecting a three-round burst into the shattered skylight. In the same fluid movement, her right palm drove upward into the base of his ballistic visor. The impact cracked the polycarbonate plate, snapping the operative’s head back.

Before he could recover, Naomi spun behind him, wrapped an arm around his neck, and used his armored torso as a human shield against the incoming hail of fire from the gunship hovering outside.

Bullets ripped through the dying operative’s tactical vest with heavy, wet thuds. Naomi absorbed the kinetic recoil through her bent knees, feeling every impact. Reaching down to the dead man's thigh rig, she smoothly unholstered an MP7, thumbed the safety to full auto, and fired through the broken window at the gunship's cockpit.

The specialized tungsten rounds starred the armored glass of the aircraft, forcing the pilot to bank hard away from the oil rig's superstructure.

"Clara!" Ethan shouted, breaking from cover and sprinting toward the glass cage.

He slammed his shoulder against the cracked acrylic door, but the electronic mag-lock was still engaged, glowing a defiant amber. Inside, Clara looked at him with wide, terrified eyes, coughing as sulfurous smoke began to pour from the ceiling vents.

Naomi discarded the spent body shield and sprinted across the blood-slick floor. "Step back, Ethan!"

She didn't look for a keycard or a bypass panel. Planting her boot firmly on the industrial floor, Naomi drove the heel of her heavy service shoe directly into the spider-webbed focal point of the glass door.

With a deafening crack, the tempered glass gave way, collapsing into thousands of blunt cubes. Ethan reached inside, pulling his little sister out of the wreckage and into his arms.

"I’ve got you," Ethan breathed, holding Clara tight against his chest. "I’ve got you, Clara."

"The platform is falling apart," Clara gasped, pointing up at the buckling steel girders overhead. "The computer... it said forty seconds!"

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Across the room, Vanessa saw the cage open and lunged toward them, her face twisted in manic desperation. "Take me with you! Ethan, you loved me once! You can't leave me here to burn!"

Ethan turned cold eyes upon her. "You held a gun to my sister's head, Vanessa. Whatever you get today, you built it yourself."