The Sins Of The Father

Chapter 5

The steel barrel of the twelve gauge weapon looked like a tunnel leading straight to hell in the ambient emergency lighting. Dante stared into the black void of the muzzle while the relentless music continued to vibrate through the concrete floor beneath his boots. He felt no fear of death after surviving a decade in a cage but he refused to let his best friend pull the trigger by mistake.

"You do not want to shoot the only ghost who came back to save you," Dante said with a voice rough from years of forced silence. He raised his bare hands in a gesture of peace and stepped forward away from the shadows of the fallen assassins bleeding on the floor. The glow from the surviving computer monitors washed over his face and exposed the brutal truth of his prolonged incarceration.

The blue light illuminated the improper set of his fractured jaw and the thick scar tissue covering his entire neck. Kwame kept the stock of the weapon pressed tight against his shoulder while his terrified eyes scanned the face of the intruder. The young quartermaster stopped breathing as the recognizable features of his former mentor broke through the hardened mask of a prison survivor.

The shotgun slipped from his trembling fingers and crashed onto the concrete floor with a loud metallic clatter that pierced the music. Kwame fell to his knees in the dust and covered his face with his hands in a state of pure shock. "They told the streets you died in a riot five years ago," Kwame whispered over the bass echoing in the ruined room.

Dante stepped over the discarded weapon and hauled his friend up from the floor with a grip forged from pure desperation. He pulled Kwame into a fierce embrace that carried the weight of ten lost years and thousands of unspoken regrets. The young man clung to the enforcer and let out a broken sob that cut through the noise of the underground bunker.

"Victor lied to everyone to secure his claim on the throne and erase my legacy from the streets," Dante explained while he released his grip and checked the perimeter. "He let me rot in isolation so he could steal my empire and marry the woman I swore to protect with my life." The harsh truth hung in the air between them like a physical poison infecting the sanctuary.

Kwame wiped the tears from his face and stared at the corpses of the killers sent to end his life. "He ordered my execution tonight because I was getting too close to uncovering the shell companies he uses to hide his stolen wealth," the quartermaster stated with venom in his tone. "I knew the ledgers did not make sense but I never imagined he orchestrated your death to take Elena for himself."

Dante felt his blood burn at the mention of her name but he forced his mind to focus on the immediate war. He could not afford the luxury of grief when his enemy possessed infinite resources and a child who shared his own bloodline. "We will make him bleed for every single lie he told this city but I cannot fight a war as a dead man," Dante commanded.

The memory of Elena stepping out of the luxury car with Victor fueled the rage building inside his chest. He needed a foundation to launch his crusade because punching a few low level guards would never topple a king. Dante paced across the bloodstained floor and assessed the surviving electronics scattered across the workbenches.

"I spent ten years locked in a box while the world moved forward and left me behind in the dirt," Dante confessed with a raw edge to his voice. "I do not understand the surveillance grid and I cannot navigate the security checkpoints Victor installed across the districts. I need a ghost identity that will let me walk through this city without triggering alarms in the syndicate headquarters."

Kwame nodded his head and moved toward a secondary terminal that survived the chaotic brawl. The young genius typed a rapid sequence of commands to lock down his remaining servers from external intrusion. "I can fabricate a digital ghost and encrypt our communications before the sun rises over the skyline," Kwame promised while the screen reflected in his eyes.

"I need untraceable phones and a secure network to monitor the movements of the elite captains who betrayed me," Dante continued while he retrieved the burner phone he took from the alley. He tossed the device onto the desk near the keyboard. "Break the encryption on this phone and find out where Victor keeps his loose cash."

The quartermaster picked up the device and connected it to his terminal with a frayed cord. He tapped the screen and watched a cascade of code override the basic biometric security the guard had utilized. "This is child's play for me but we have a much bigger problem than cracking passwords right now," Kwame warned.

The quartermaster paused and looked around the compromised bunker with a look of pure disgust. "We cannot stay here because the cleanup crew will arrive within the hour to burn this place to the ground," he explained. "Victor demands proof of death and his silence will trigger an alarm."

Dante crossed his arms and waited for the street smart genius to formulate a viable extraction plan. They needed a fortress that the syndicate forgot about when they expanded their territory into the upper echelon of the city. "Do you know a place that can withstand a siege from Victor and his corrupt police force?" Dante asked with a hard stare.

"I know a subterranean transit hub buried beneath the industrial zone that possesses reinforced steel blast doors," Kwame replied while he gathered his essential drives. "It has independent power lines and a water supply that run off the grid away from prying eyes." He shoved the hardware into a canvas bag and slung it over his shoulder.

The prospect of an impenetrable bunker provided a sliver of hope in the overwhelming darkness of his crusade. Dante needed a place to sleep where he would not have to sleep with one eye open waiting for an assassin. He picked up a discarded pistol from the floor and checked the magazine with practiced efficiency.

"Pack whatever you can carry and destroy the rest of the servers before we leave," Dante ordered. "We cannot let Victor find anything that might lead his soldiers to our new sanctuary." He watched Kwame smash the remaining hard drives with a steel hammer to protect their secrets.

The destruction of the bunker symbolized the end of hiding and the beginning of a war that would consume the entire city. Dante felt the familiar rush of combat adrenaline pumping through his veins as he prepared to step back into the storm. "Take us to this transit hub right now," Dante said while he aimed the stolen pistol at the reinforced door.

Kwame hesitated near the doorway and looked at Dante with a grim expression that promised absolute violence. He adjusted the strap of his canvas bag and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "The bunker is perfect but we cannot just walk inside and claim the keys to the kingdom without a fight," Kwame warned with a low voice.

The hesitation in his friend meant the location harbored a threat severe enough to make a brave man pause. Dante lowered the pistol a fraction of an inch and waited for the inevitable complication to reveal itself. "Tell me what stands between us and our fortress," Dante demanded.

"The hub is occupied by a dozen armed squatters who kill anyone who steps foot in their territory," Kwame revealed as he pointed toward the exit. "They do not negotiate and they will shoot us the second we cross their threshold."