Chapter 48 - THE GLASS CAGE IN MID-AIR
The tram car groaned as it swayed violently in the freezing crosswinds, dangling 250 feet above the black, icy current of the East River.
"Daniel!" Clara screamed as the tram abruptly ground to a halt midway across the span, suspended in dead space between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island.
High above the roof of the tram car, the thumping roar of twin helicopter blades tore the blizzard apart. A black Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk materialized out of the snow, hovering barely thirty feet over the steel haul cables.
Spotlights flooded the glass cabin, turning it into a blinding, inescapable terrarium.
Noah shrieked, clamping his hands over his ears against the deafening downwash of the rotors. The glass windows vibrated with such violent intensity that tiny spiderweb fractures began creeping across the edges.
"Clara! Behind the center console!" Daniel shouted, pulling Noah down and shoving him behind the heavy steel electrical locker in the center of the car.
From the open side door of the hovering helicopter, four grappling lines were dropped. Four operators dressed in black urban tactical armor slid down the ropes, landing with heavy, synchronized thuds onto the metal roof directly above their heads.
The metal ceiling groaned and dented under their weight.
A second later, the sharp hiss of a thermal cutting torch began slicing through the steel emergency hatch above them. Drops of molten, white-hot metal hissed as they splashed onto the rubberized floor.
"They're breaching!" Clara cried, aiming the four-round Glock upward with shaking hands.
"Don't shoot the ceiling!" Daniel warned, grabbing her wrist. "You hit the pneumatic suspension lines and this entire car drops into the river! We won't survive a 250-foot fall onto water—it’s like hitting concrete!"
The roof hatch gave way with a violent crash.
A flashbang grenade tumbled through the opening.
"NOAH, CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Daniel roared, throwing his entire body over the boy and Clara.
*BANG!*
A blinding, disorienting white sun exploded inside the glass carriage, accompanied by a concussive shockwave that shattered half the panoramic windows into a million diamonds. The freezing wind roared through the cabin, howling like a pack of wolves.
Through the smoke, an operative dropped into the cabin, his boots hitting the glass-strewn floor. He raised a taser rifle aimed at Noah.
Clara didn't hesitate. Through the ringing in her ears and the blinding white spots dancing in her vision, she raised her pistol and fired.
Two shots. Double-tap to the center mass.
The operative’s armor absorbed the kinetic force, but the impact threw him backward through the shattered window. He caught the aluminum frame with one gloved hand, dangling over the abyss, screaming as his fingers lost their grip. He plunged into the pitch-black river below, his body disappearing into the foam.
"Daniel, there's another one!" Clara gasped, turning.
Another operative dropped through the roof hatch, tackling Daniel to the floor. The man drove a combat knife toward Daniel’s throat. Daniel caught the man’s wrists with both hands, muscles tearing as he fought against the downward plunge of the cold steel blade, inches from his jugular.
"Mommy!" Noah screamed.
The boy, fueled by pure, unadulterated terror, grabbed the heavy iron pry bar off the floor with both hands and swung it with all his six-year-old might, smashing it squarely across the operative’s knee.
The man grunted in agony, his balance shifting. Daniel capitalized instantly, driving his forehead into the man’s nose with a sickening crunch, wrapping his legs around the operative's neck, and executing a lethal scissor sweep. The man fell limp.
Daniel rolled over, gasping for breath, blood pouring from his reopened wound. "Clara... the server box... rip it out! We have to blow the cable!"
"What?!" Clara yelled over the howling storm.
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"The helicopter is lining up to winch this car into the air and carry it to their compound!" Daniel pointed through the shattered roof. "Elizabeth doesn't want the boy rescued! She wants the whole tram!"
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