Chapter 9 - THE SILENT SIGNAL
Rain and fog shrouded the concrete pedestrian tunnel beneath the interstate highway.
Khloe ran as fast as her legs could carry her, carrying forty pounds of terrified child, her lungs burning like ice. Behind her, heavy boots echoed against the wet concrete—two of Moretti’s men had broken off from the main shootout and were pursuing them down the tunnel.
"Stop running, girl!" one of the gunmen shouted, his voice echoing off the curved walls. "We just want the Costello kid! Leave him and you get to walk!"
Khloe reached the end of the tunnel. A heavy steel security door blocked the exit—the entrance to Silas’s urban safehouse complex.
She slammed the keycard against the electronic scanner. The light blinked red.
Invalid Code.
"No, no, no!" Khloe gasped, her hands shaking violently as she swiped it again. Red light.
Behind her, the footsteps were getting closer—fifty yards away, then thirty.
Mateo looked over Khloe’s shoulder. Seeing the armed men approaching through the dim tunnel lights, he suddenly reached out and grabbed Khloe’s face, turning her eyes toward the security keypad.
The boy pointed to a small, hidden camera mounted above the door lintel.
Mateo knew the camera was connected to an internal security monitor inside the safehouse—a system his father had shown him months ago. But the child couldn't shout for help.
Mateo raised his hands directly in front of the camera lens.
With incredible speed and clarity, the four-year-old deaf boy executed a sequence of signs directly into the camera lens: Papa. Mateo here. Bad men behind. Open door now.
Inside the safehouse command room, Silas Costello—who had just arrived from the riverport raid—was staring at the security monitors, preparing to launch a search team after losing contact with Victor's convoy.
Suddenly, monitor three flashed.
Silas froze. On the screen, he saw his small son’s hands moving frantically in front of the lens, forming the exact signs Khloe had taught him.
"Mateo!" Silas roared.
Silas hit the master override button, grabbed a tactical shotgun from the wall rack, and kicked the heavy steel security door open himself!
The door swung open just as Moretti’s lead gunman raised his rifle toward Khloe.
Silas stepped through the doorway like an angry god, racking the shotgun with a deafening metallic roar!
He fired twice. The two pursuers were thrown back onto the wet concrete of the tunnel, neutralized instantly.
Silas dropped the weapon, lunging forward, and pulled Khloe and Mateo into the safehouse, slamming the heavy steel door shut and locking the triple deadbolts.
"Silas!" Khloe collapsed against his chest, sob-wracked and exhausted.
May you like
Silas wrapped his powerful arms around both of them, holding them so tight he could feel their racing heartbeats against his own ribcage.
"I saw him," Silas wept openly, his tears soaking into Khloe’s wet hair as he kissed his son's forehead over and over again. "I saw his hands on the screen. He saved you both. My boy saved you."
