Chapter 6 - The Unlocked Cellar
Jax drew his black 9mm pistol from his inner vest holster. Knox pulled a long, heavy hunting blade from his boot. They moved down the hall without making a sound, their boots hovering inches over the floorboards before setting down weightlessly.
The cellar door stood half an inch open. A warm, brilliant shaft of LED white light spilled up the wooden steps from the basement below. Jax kicked the door back against the wall with his heel, raising his weapon. "Don't move!"
Knox slipped down the stairs behind him, his knife turned upward.
The basement was clean, dry, and cold. The old dirt walls had been reinforced with poured concrete. Illuminated by two heavy fluorescent work lights was Eleanor Vance.
She was not wearing her grey shawl or her beige blazer. She was dressed in a dark tactical jumpsuit, her hair pulled back into a tight bun. On a steel folding table in front of her rested a high-end satellite encryption terminal, two open military-grade laptops, and a hard-sided case containing four suppressed automatic pistols.
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Her hands were steady. Her shoulders were set. She didn't startle. She slowly turned around, holding a high-definition document scanner in one gloved hand.
"Lower the iron, Sergeant Vance," she said, her voice dropping all trace of age, fear, or tremor. "You're pointing a loaded weapon at your commanding officer's aunt."
