Chapter 16 - The Ambush on the Rhine
Before Damien could seize Klaus by the throat, the Baron reached into his pocket and triggered a concealed transmitter.
Instantly, the chandelier overhead flickered out. The music halted with a screech of violins, and women screamed as the ballroom was plunged into sudden darkness.
"Kill him!" Klaus roared into the chaos.
Flashlights snapped on across the balconies as private security teams in dark blazers drew handguns. Damien reacted with primal instinct. He shattered his champagne glass against the jaw of an advancing bodyguard, drew his concealed Beretta, and grabbed Baron von Klaus by the collar, dragging him backward toward the banquet hall's service entrance.
"Marco, exit plan Bravo! Now!" Damien bellowed into his comms.
Gunfire ripped through the ballroom. Antique mirrors shattered into glittering rain as Damien returned fire with lethal accuracy, dropping two gunmen blocking the service corridor.
Klaus struggled fiercely, but Damien’s grip was an iron shackle. He dragged the older man down the stone steps into the underground wine cellars, kicking open the reinforced metal door that led out to the chateau’s lower service courtyard.
Tires screeched on the snowy asphalt. Marco pulled up in an armored black Audi RS6, slamming the passenger door open.
"Get in!" Marco shouted over the roar of the twin-turbo engine.
Damien threw Klaus violently into the back seat and vaulted inside beside him, slamming the heavy door shut just as bullets pinged harmlessly against the reinforced ballistic glass. Marco stomped on the accelerator, and the Audi blasted through the iron rear gates of the estate, fishtailing onto the winding Alpine road that ran parallel to the Rhine river.
Behind them, three black SUVs with high-beam searchlights erupted from the chateau's gates, pursuing them at breakneck speed.
"They’ve got heavy weaponry!" Marco shouted, glancing in the rearview mirror as muzzle flashes lit up the pursuing vehicles.
"Keep her straight," Damien ordered. He turned to Klaus, who was clutching a bruised shoulder against the leather seat. Damien pulled a heavy silver data key from Klaus’s inner coat pocket—the master key to the chateau’s archives.
Damien leaned out of the Audi's lowered window, bracing his heavy-caliber handgun against the door frame. Despite the blizzard and the high speed, he fired three calculated shots at the lead SUV's front left tire.
The tire blew violently. The heavy SUV swerved out of control on the icy asphalt, clipped the concrete barrier, and flipped over the guardrail, plunging into the freezing waters of the gorge below.
Marco engaged the Audi's rear smoke-screen countermeasures, blinding the remaining two vehicles before taking an evasive drift down a concealed logging trail.
Within minutes, the pursuers vanished into the whiteout of the Alpine storm.
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Damien rolled up the window, turned to the trembling Baron, and pressed the cold steel barrel beneath the man's chin.
"Start talking about Clara," Damien said softly. "Or you join your men at the bottom of the Rhine."
