Moreno's men, blinded and deafened by the stun grenades, instantly panicked. Two of them dropped their rifles and threw their hands in the air. Realizing they were vastly outgunned, the other two foolishly raised their weapons to fire blindly into the dark. Arthur did not hesitate. He squeezed the trigger of his MP5, firing two rapid suppressed bursts.
The rubber non-lethal kinetic rounds struck the armed men squarely in the chest plates of their body armor, knocking them flat onto their backs with bonejarring force. Down on the floor, Moreno proved why he was Russo's top enforcer. Instead of panicking, he bolted toward a heavy steel maintenance door on the eastern wall, moving with terrifying speed. "Target is moving east." "I have him!"
Arthur shouted, rapidly descending the metal staircase from the catwalk, his boots clanging loudly against the grated steps. Moreno smashed through the maintenance door, disappearing into a labyrinth of narrow, rusting corridors that connected the old shipping offices. Arthur hit the floor running, sprinting after the enforcer, knowing that if Moreno escaped into the city grid, Dominic Russo would vanish before mourning. Arthur kicked open the maintenance door, raising his weapon as he entered the dark, narrow hallway. The air here was incredibly thick with dust.
He checked his corners meticulously, refusing to let adrenaline override his extensive tactical training. Suddenly, Moreno lunged from the shadows of an adjacent doorway, slamming a heavy steel pipe directly into Arthur's shoulder. The impact sent a shockwave of pain down Arthur's arm, forcing him to drop his submachine gun. Moreno tackled Arthur to the ground, pulling a serrated combat knife from his boot. "You feds think you're so smart."
Moreno snarled, driving the blade down toward Arthur's chest. Arthur grabbed Moreno's wrist with both hands, using every ounce of his strength to hold back the lethal strike. The knife tip hovered inches from his tactical vest. "You lost, Vincent," Arthur grunted, twisting his hips and using his legs to sweep Moreno's balance, flipping the heavier man over his shoulder. Moreno crashed hard into the rusted steel wall, dropping the knife.
Before the enforcer could recover, Arthur was on top of him, drawing his backup Sig Sau pistol and pressing the cold steel barrel directly against Moreno's forehead. Move a single muscle, and I will end this right here." Arthur breathed heavily, his dark eyes burning with absolute intensity. Moreno stared up at the barrel of the gun, panting, realizing he was entirely trapped. "Russo is going to kill you for this."
"Russo," Arthur replied, pulling handcuffs from his tactical vest, "is going to be sharing a cell block with you and Officer Stanton by sunrise. Dawn crept across the freezing waters of Lake Michigan, casting a harsh, pale light over a city that was about to experience a seismic shift in its criminal underworld. Inside the heavily armored mobile command center parked 2 mi from the docks. The atmosphere was suffocatingly tense. Vincent Moreno sat securely handcuffed to a steel bolted chair, a compression bandage wrapped tightly around his bleeding shoulder.
He glared at the floor. The realization of his complete and utter defeat finally sinking in. Special Agent Arthur Pendleton, now stripped of his heavy tactical gear, but still wearing his Kevlar vest, stood shoulderto-shoulder with special agent in charge, Jonathan Weaver. They were not offering Moreno a deal. They were offering him a choice between bad and catastrophic.