Chapter 6 - The Ultimate Failsafe
The figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing a tall man dressed entirely in tactical black.
He held a suppressed pistol aimed directly at Arthur’s chest.
Maya pushed Arthur roughly behind a heavy marble pillar.
A silenced bullet shattered the mirrored wall exactly where Arthur had been standing a second earlier.
Glass rained down on the thick carpet like glittering snow.
Maya drew her concealed weapon in one fluid, practiced motion.
"Marcus never leaves anything to chance," the assassin sneered in a gravelly voice.
"He paid me a small fortune to be his ultimate failsafe."
Maya did not waste her breath exchanging clever banter with a hired gun.
She calculated the angles of the dimly lit room with cold precision.
The assassin advanced slowly, keeping his weapon leveled toward the pillar.
He clearly expected Maya to cower and wait for emergency backup.
Instead, she dropped to the floor and slid aggressively across the polished hardwood section of the entryway.
She fired two rapid shots toward the intruder's center of mass.
The man cursed loudly as one of the bullets grazed his right shoulder.
He stumbled backward, firing blindly into the surrounding darkness.
Maya used his momentary panic to close the remaining distance between them.
She kicked the suppressed pistol out of his hand with a brutal, ascending strike.
The heavy gun skittered uselessly across the floor and under a leather sofa.
Before the assassin could recover, Maya drove her elbow sharply into his sternum.
He collapsed to his knees, gasping violently for air.
Maya swiftly restrained his arms behind his back with industrial zip-ties from her tactical belt.
The immediate threat was finally neutralized.
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Arthur stepped out from behind the marble pillar, his face pale but remarkably composed.
"I definitely need to renegotiate your salary, Maya," Arthur said with a heavy sigh.
