Chapter 34 - Blood on the Iron Pier
The clash was instantaneous, explosive, and terrifying.
Julian surged forward with frightening speed, his blade slicing through the damp air in a deadly arc aimed at Michael’s jugular. Michael ducked underneath the trajectory, his left forearm deflecting Julian’s wrist with bone-jarring force while his right fist struck Julian’s sternum. The impact sounded like an iron sledge hitting wood.
Julian staggered back half a pace, his eyes widening in shock before twisting into feral amusement. "Not bad, Major. But you’ve spent five years bending decorative iron. I’ve spent fifteen years hunting warlords in the black sectors of the world!"
Julian lunged again, a flurry of vicious strikes that severed the fabric of Michael’s combat vest, opening shallow red gashes across his shoulder and chest. Michael retreated methodically, evaluating the rhythm of his brother’s attacks, using the tight corridors between the steel shipping containers to neutralize Julian’s reach.
While they fought, my fingers flew across the keyboard of my tactical tablet. I wasn't going to stand by as a helpless spectator. I jacked into the port’s closed-circuit industrial network via an unprotected junction box on the container wall. The mercenaries were watching the blood duel with professional indifference, their attention fixed on their commander.
*Access granted,* the green terminal text flashed.
Julian had wired the Cerberus containers directly into the port’s high-voltage electrical grid to power the refrigeration units keeping the chemical compounds stable. If those units were compromised, the fail-safe would vent the gas directly into the atmospheric marine layer, sweeping over Los Angeles by dawn.
"Michael!" I screamed over the clash of steel and flesh. "The pressure valves on the main container! He’s set the vents on a synchronized timer! We have less than eight minutes before the entire bay is saturated!"
Julian landed a vicious roundhouse kick across Michael’s jaw, sending my husband crashing hard into the corrugated steel wall of a blue container, leaving a dent in the metal. Blood leaked from the corner of Michael's mouth.
Julian turned toward me with a chilling sneer. "Smart girl. Too smart for her own good. Mercenaries, eliminate the civilian."
Two armored contractors raised their rifles toward me.
Before their fingers could touch the triggers, Michael let out a guttural, primal roar that shook the very foundations of the pier. Ignoring the agony of his bruised ribs, he launched himself off the container wall like a coiled spring, throwing his entire body into the lead contractor, shattering the man’s rifle and sending him flying ten feet into the freezing harbor water below.
The second contractor tried to pivot, but Michael snatched the fallen assault rifle from the air, sweeping the stock across the man’s temple with blinding precision.
Julian watched in cold fury as Michael turned back to face him, breathing hard, his chest heaving, his blue eyes burning with an unholy fire.
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"You touch her," Michael whispered, his voice vibrating with lethal certainty, "and I won't just kill you, Julian. I’ll erase every trace that you ever walked this earth."
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