Chapter 8 - The Falling Cage
The mercenaries, realizing they were completely outmatched and targeted by elite snipers, hesitated. One of them began to lower his rifle, but Victoria, completely consumed by her manic desire for vengeance, screamed in fury.
"No! We end this now!"
She slammed her thumb down on the remote control.
The winch of the crane groaned violently, and the rusted blue shipping container began to plummet toward the dark, churning river below.
"NO!" Jasmine screamed.
With lightning-fast reflexes, Jackson didn't run toward Victoria; he ran toward the crane's base control station. He threw his body over the guardrails, dodging a stray bullet from a panicking mercenary, and leaped onto the operator’s platform.
He slammed his hand onto the emergency manual brake lever, pulling it back with all his immense strength.
The metal cables of the crane shrieked, throwing sparks into the dark night air as the brake pad clamped down. The shipping container halted with a violent, bone-jarring jerk, dangling a mere three feet above the freezing, black surface of the river.
At the same moment, the snipers opened fire. The four mercenaries were neutralized instantly, falling to the concrete deck.
Victoria, realizing her plan had utterly failed, backed away toward the edge of the catwalk, her eyes wide with terror as she looked down at Jasmine, who was running toward the edge of the pier, and Marcus, who was moving up the crane stairs to apprehend her.
"It’s over, Victoria!" Marcus yelled. "Step away from the edge!"
But Victoria looked at the ruined empire behind her, the prison cell waiting for her, and the absolute defeat she had suffered at the hands of the Ford family. With a final, bitter curse, she took a step backward, falling off the high catwalk into the dark, freezing depths of the river below.
Jackson didn't even look back at her fall. He scrambled down from the crane controls, running alongside Jasmine to the edge of the pier where the container hung.
Utilizing the crane's secondary manual controls, Marcus slowly lowered the container onto the solid concrete of the dock.
Jackson and Marcus threw their weight against the heavy steel locking bars of the container, pulling them open with a loud, metallic screech.
Inside, curled up in a corner under a warm blanket, was Harper. She was shivering and crying, but she was entirely unharmed.
"Mommy! Daddy!" Harper sobbed, running into their arms.
May you like
Jasmine collapsed onto the floor of the container, wrapping her arms around her daughter, sobbing tears of pure, overwhelming joy, kissing her face, her hair, her hands. Jackson wrapped his massive arms around both of them, burying his face in his daughter's shoulder, his entire body shaking with a profound, silent relief.
They were safe. The storm had finally, truly been broken.
