Chapter 8 - The Enforcer’s Dilemma
At 11:30 PM, rain poured down in sheets over Pier 14. Giant industrial cranes stood like rusting skeletons against the pitch-black sky, their steel cables groaning in the gale-force Atlantic wind.
Inside a darkened black SUV parked two hundred yards from the main shipping container yard, Julian, Marcus, and two senior enforcers checked their weapons. In the specially modified rear compartment sat Maisie, wearing a heavy yellow raincoat, with Cyrus resting his head in her lap.
"The Moretti men are inside Warehouse 3," Marcus whispered, looking through night-vision binoculars. "Looks like twenty guys. All armed."
"They aren't in Warehouse 3," Maisie whispered from the backseat, her eyes closed, her head tilted toward the slightly open window.
Julian turned his head around. "What do you hear, Maisie?"
"The rain on the roof of Warehouse 3 is heavy," Maisie explained quietly. " Tap-tap-tap-tap. But Warehouse 2 is quiet inside. The rain isn't hitting the floor because there are people standing on the upper catwalks under the tin roof. I can hear their boots shifting on the steel girders."
Marcus adjusted his binoculars, shifting his gaze from Warehouse 3 to the darker, seemingly abandoned structure of Warehouse 2. He zoomed in on the high clerestory windows near the roofline.
"She’s right," Marcus breathed, a chill running down his spine. "Thermal signatures on the upper gantries. It's an ambush. If we had walked into Warehouse 3, they would have caught us in a crossfire from the elevated catwalks of Warehouse 2."
Julian’s jaw tightened. The Morettis had anticipated the raid, setting up an elevated sniper box that would have decimated Julian's entire breach team within seconds.
"Cyrus," Maisie whispered, leaning down to the dog's ear. "Find the quiet path."
The German Shepherd gave a single, silent nod of his head, his dark eyes shining with intense intelligence in the dim cabin light.
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Julian looked at his men, then at the child who had just saved his life for the second time in twenty-four hours.
"Marcus," Julian commanded softly. "Flank the east wall of Warehouse 2. We use the lower drainage tunnels to bypass the catwalk line of sight. And keep the girl and the dog right behind me."
