Chapter 6 - Blood on the Beach
""Ambush! Take cover!"" Marco roared, returning fire through the shattered wooden windows of the boathouse as splintered timber exploded into the damp air.
Lorenzo instantly shielded Sophie with his entire body, pressing her down into the fortified concrete trench beneath the floorboards. The child cried out, gripping his collar with white-knuckled desperation. ""Daddy! The bad men are back!""
""I have you, Sophie! Look at me!"" Lorenzo commanded, his voice a calm, powerful anchor amid the chaos of barking gunfire and ricocheting lead. ""Look at my eyes. I will never let anyone take you. Keep your head down and stay right here.""
Peering through the tactical sight of his sidearm, Lorenzo identified the attackers. They were not common street thugs; they were Victor’s private elite mercenary unit, outfitted in tactical gear and moving with coordinated military precision. Victor himself stood safely behind an armored truck on the access road, a megaphone pressed to his lips.
""Give up the child and the footlocker, Lorenzo!"" Victor’s amplified voice boomed over the roar of the surf. ""You are outmanned and cut off from Boston! Surrender them, and I will let you take an exile ship to Europe! Refuse, and you die on the rocks just like your foolish brother!""
Lorenzo didn't bother to answer. Instead, he pulled out his encrypted satellite phone and hit speed dial one. ""Gianna, execute Protocol Zero. Release every financial record on the cloud server to the Federal District Attorney and the Five Families Commission simultaneously. Burn Victor's name from every ledger in North America.""
On the other end of the line, his chief intelligence officer confirmed instantly: ""Executed, Boss. In five minutes, Victor Moretti will be the most wanted fugitive in the United States.""
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Lorenzo signaled Marco. ""They are concentrating fire on the front entrance. We use the boathouse launch tunnel. Matteo built a high-speed zodiac into the sea cave below for an emergency maritime exit. We hit the water, circle around the headland to the rendezvous point, and cut Victor off from his transport.""
With suppressed precision, Lorenzo’s team laid down a blinding smoke barrage. Grabbing the waterproof ledger and lifting Sophie securely against his chest with his left arm, Lorenzo fired his weapon with deadly accuracy using his right, clearing a path through the collapsing rear platform toward the subterranean sea tunnel.
