A Gunnery Sergeant shoved a female patron to the floor twice, completely unaware she was a former Navy SEAL task force commander.

The two perimeter guards stationed behind the central container reacted instantly, bringing their automatic weapons to bear on Alexis’s position on the elevated catwalk.

Alexis dropped flat against the steel grating just as a hail of 7.62mm rounds ripped through the air above her, tearing into the corrugated bulkheads and showering her with sparks and sheared metal.

She rolled sideways off the catwalk, dropping ten feet down onto the top of a blue shipping container below, absorbing the landing impact through bent knees before driving forward into cover behind the container's steel ribs.

"Cover the hatch!" Vancev screamed through the smoke. "Arm the detonator! Do it now!"

Alexis didn't hesitate. She knew that every second she spent pinned down brought the timer closer to zero. She leaned out from the corner of the container, sighting on the first mercenary who was attempting to flank her position across the open floor.

*Pfft. Pfft.*

The double-tap took the guard squarely in the upper chest, dropping him instantly to the steel deck.

The second guard opened fire blindly, spraying automatic fire across the container’s corner. Alexis anticipated his reload cycle; the instant the gunfire hitched on an empty magazine, she broke cover, closing the fifteen-foot gap between them before he could clear the fresh magazine from his vest.

She drove her shoulder into his ribs, slamming him against the container wall, then brought the heavy butt of her suppressed pistol down hard across the bridge of his nose. The man collapsed, unconscious before he hit the deck.

The technicians in the white containment suits screamed, scrambling away from the central diagnostic console and throwing their hands in the air.

"Step away from the console!" Alexis bellowed, her voice commanding, echoing through the cavernous bay like thunder.

Vancev, however, was not an amateur. As Alexis neutralized the guards, he had drawn a small, silver-plated derringer from his coat pocket and leveled it directly at the chest of the lead technician, pulling the man backward as a human shield while his other hand reached into his breast pocket for a remote radio detonator.

"Stay back, Commander Harper!" Vancev shouted, a manic grin stretching across his sweat-streaked face. "Yes, I know who you are! The butcher of Task Force Wolverine! Tariq told me you would come if we tripped the sensors!"

Alexis kept her pistol trained dead center on Vancev’s forehead, utilizing the small gap between the trembling technician’s ear and Vancev's cheek.

"Drop the detonator, Julian," Alexis said, her tone level, unyielding, and utterly devoid of panic. "Your network is finished. JSOC has the perimeter locked down. You have nowhere to go."

"I don't need to go anywhere!" Vancev snarled, his thumb hovering over the red armed toggle of the radio remote. "The package isn't meant for the base! It was always meant for this port! A demonstration of power that will bring your entire empire to its knees!"

"You won't live to see it," Alexis warned.