Chapter 186 - Blood Across the River
A blast of freezing winter air struck Emma and Vincent as they kicked open a storm maintenance grate near the south bank of the Chicago River.
Snow was falling heavily now, large, wet flakes tumbling out of an ink-black sky to coat the steel spans of the Wabash Avenue Bridge. The river below churned sluggishly, dark and thick with slabs of floating ice.
"The bridge is going up!" Emma shouted over the wail of maritime warning sirens.
Across the water, the massive counterweights of the drawbridge groaned as the twin steel leaves began to rise into the sky, cutting off vehicle and foot traffic between downtown and the north side. Victoria’s armored convoy was visible on the opposite bank, its headlights cutting through the swirling snow like predatory eyes.
"She’s trying to isolate the district," Vincent said. He sprinted toward the bridge control tower, his boots gripping the slick iron plates of the walkway.
Suddenly, the night air cracked with the unmistakable sound of high-caliber sniper fire.
A bullet punched through the metal handrail two inches from Vincent’s ribs, sending jagged splinters of steel flying into the night. On the roof of an adjacent parking structure, a mercenary was sighting them with a suppressed thermal rifle.
"Down!" Vincent shoved Emma behind the concrete foundation of the bridge tender's booth just as a second round obliterated the glass window above their heads.
"How many?" Emma asked, pulling the slide back on her sidearm, her pulse steadying into a calm, ice-cold rhythm.
"Three on the north tower, two on the elevated platform," Vincent replied, peering around the corner through the blizzard. "They hold the high ground. If we try to cross the lower walkway, they’ll chew us to pieces."
"Then we don't cross the walkway," Emma said, her eyes tracing the heavy suspension cables stretching up toward the apex of the rising bridge leaf. "The counterweight mechanism. If we trigger the manual override on this side, the south leaf will drop while the north stays elevated. It’ll create a ramp."
Vincent looked at her, a razor-thin grin cutting through his grim expression. "It's a sixty-foot drop into frozen water if the hydraulics seize midway."
"Better than a bullet between the eyes," she replied. "Cover me."
Vincent stepped out from behind the concrete pillar, firing three controlled, rapid bursts from his submachine gun into the upper catwalk of the parking structure. The mercenary sniper flinched, his thermal scope shattered by the suppressing fire.
Emma bolted across the open bridge deck. Snow whipped across her face, stinging her eyes, but her gaze never left the rusted hydraulic release valve positioned near the bridge’s pivot gear.
Bullets chased her heels, sparking against the steel grid below her feet. She reached the valve, slammed her combat knife into the rusted cotter pin, and hauled the heavy steel lever backward with all the weight of her body.
With a thunderous, mechanical shriek that echoed across the river basin, the hydraulic lines burst. The multi-ton leaf of the bridge shuddered violently, then dropped like a stone, slamming down onto its concrete footing with an earth-shaking crash that threw Victoria’s lead vehicle into a wild spin on the opposite bank.
"Now!" Emma screamed.
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Vincent was already at her side. Grabbing her by the tactical harness, he pulled her across the violently vibrating deck just as Victoria’s convoy opened fire with heavy machine guns, shredding the bridge tender's booth into kindling.
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