The Mafia's Undoing-Chapter 101: The Escape

The next fifteen minutes are chaos.

Jackson moves through the prison during the riot, rallying his Marines. Men who’ve been waiting for a reason to fight back.

Twenty former soldiers. All trained, angry, and ready to fight.

We fight our way to the prison garage. Jackson and his men overwhelmed the guards, non-lethal but brutal.

Commandeer a prison transport van and reinforce it with stolen riot gear.

Katherine refuses to leave my side. "We’re partners. I’m not waiting somewhere safe."

"Katherine-"

"Don’t." Her jaw sets. "Susan’s my best friend. I’m coming."

Timothy’s coordinating with Lisa remotely. Bella’s driving, apparently, she races cars as a hobby.

We crash through the prison gates with the Guards shooting and the Police responding, but we’re already gone, weaving through Queens traffic at dangerous speeds.

Twenty-two former Marines plus Katherine, Bella, Timothy, and me. All wanted fugitives were now heading toward a trap to save Susan.

"Your injuries," Katherine says quietly. She’s putting pressure on my side; the knife wound was bleeding again.

"I’m fine."

"You’re coughing blood, that’s not fine."

"I’ll be fine after we get Susan."

"Tony-" Her voice breaks. "What if you’re not?"

I took her hand and squeezed it. "Then you keep going. You save Susan, you take down Morrison. You live."

"We both live. That’s the deal."

"Katherine-"

"We both live." She’s not negotiating. "Together or not at all. That’s always been the deal."

I want to argue. Want to make her promise to survive even if I don’t, but I know that look. That stubborn, fierce, determined look.

She’s not backing down.

So I just nod. "Together."

The warehouse looms ahead. Industrial and isolated, a perfect place for an ambush.

Morrison’s guards are visible. At least fifteen of them are heavily armed.

"We’re outgunned," one of Jackson’s Marines observes.

"But they’re not expecting us." Jackson’s grin is feral. "Military precision versus criminal muscle. We’ve got this."

Katherine checks her weapon. "I’m coming in."

"Katherine-" I start.

"Susan’s my best friend. I’m not waiting in the van." She meets my eyes. "We’re partners."

I know better than to argue. "Then stay behind me."

"Of course."

Jackson gives hand signals. His Marines move into position, flanking, surrounding, and being professional.

"On my mark," Jackson says quietly. "Three, Two, One. Go!"

We breach from multiple points simultaneously - overwhelming force, military tactics against street thugs.

It’s brutal, efficient, and over in under three minutes.

Morrison’s guards didn’t expect a coordinated military assault. They expected a desperate fugitive.

They were wrong.

Katherine and I fight side by side despite my injuries, moving together like we always do.

We find Susan in the central room. Tied to a chair, beaten but still alive.

"Susan!" Katherine’s cutting her free.

"Katherine." Susan’s crying with relief. "You came. I told you not to, but you came."

"Of course I came. You’re my sister." Katherine holds her. "I’ve got you. You’re safe."

"Katherine, it’s a trap. Morrison’s not here. He-"

The building shakes.

It was not an earthquake but an explosion. It was controlled and deliberate.

Morrison’s voice booms through a PA system: "Did you really think I’d be here personally? This was always about eliminating all of you at once."

The screens throughout the warehouse light up. Showing Morrison in what looked like a luxury office. Smiling.

"Goodbye, Anthony. Give my regards to your father in hell."

A countdown timer appears on every screen.

60 seconds

"MOVE!" Jackson’s already running. "Everyone out! NOW!"

We’re running. Twenty-six people were wounded. Katherine supporting Susan, and Timothy helping me because my ribs were screaming.

45 seconds

We’re not going to make it. There are too many people, and the exits are too far away.

Bella stops running.

"I can disarm it." She’s already turning back. "I’m an engineer. I can interrupt the circuit."

"No time!" Timothy grabs for her.

She dodges. "I don’t need time. I just need the right wire."

She’s running back into the building.

"Bella!" I try to follow, but I collapse because I was too injured.

Katherine’s torn between helping me and helping Bella.

"Get him out!" Bella screams. "I’ve got this!"

30 seconds

Katherine chooses. Grabs me, drags me toward the exit, and both of us watch Bella disappear back into the warehouse.

15 seconds

We’re outside. Everyone’s outside except Bella.

Katherine’s screaming her name. I’m trying to get up, get back in-

10 seconds

Through the windows, we see Bella at the bomb, pulling wires.

5 seconds

She cuts one. The timer freezes.

00:02

Silence.

The building doesn’t explode.

Bella walks out. Calm and covered in sweat, holding a wire.

"Found the right one." She’s shaking now that it’s over. "Guess those MIT engineering classes paid off."

Katherine hugs her. "You could have died!"

"But I didn’t." Bella hugs back. Stiff, unused to physical affection. "We’re family. That’s what family does."

We’re all alive.

Twenty-six people who should be dead.

Then Lisa’s call comes through. Timothy answers, and his face goes white.

"What?" Jackson asks.

"News in all channels. We’re on every station."

He turns his phone around.

Alexander Morrison at a press podium. Looking devastated and concerned. Every inch the philanthropist.

"Today, dangerous fugitives led by Anthony Marvin broke out of Rikers Island. They killed guards, attacked law enforcement, and took my colleague’s daughter, Susan Jenkins, hostage. I’m offering fifty million dollars for information leading to their capture. Dead or alive."

A reporter asks: "Mr. Morrison, weren’t you friends with Thomas Marvin?"

"I thought I was." Morrison’s face shows perfect grief. "Before I learned his son was a terrorist and a murderer. Now I’m dedicating my considerable fortune to stopping him. To protect innocent people from this monster."

Katherine’s staring at the screen in horror. "Fifty million dollars."

"Every criminal in the city will be hunting us," Timothy says.

"Every bounty hunter," Susan adds. "Every desperate person who needs money."

"Where do we go?" Katherine’s voice is small. "There’s nowhere left to hide."

"Wrong." Jackson’s voice cuts through. "I know a place. Where Marines go when the world turns against them. It’s underground... literally."

We all turned to look at him.

"There’s a network," he explains. "Beneath the city, old subway tunnels, abandoned stations, and Cold War bunkers. It’s a whole city under the city where people like us survive."

"People like us?" I ask.

"Veterans. fugitives... people the system abandoned." His face is grim. "It’s not pretty, but it’s safe. And Morrison won’t find us there."

I look at Katherine, Bella, Susan, and the twenty Marines who just threw away their lives to help strangers. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Then that’s where we go." I try to stand but collapse again.

Jackson catches me. "I’ve got you, brother. We take care of our own."

As they load me into the van, sirens already approaching, I take one last look at Manhattan.

Somewhere up there, Alexander Morrison is turning us into the most wanted fugitives in America.

Making us hunted, desperate, and isolated.

But he made one mistake.

He left us alive.

And now we have nothing to lose.

Which makes us the most dangerous thing he’ll ever face.

The van pulls away. Heading underground, into the darkness beneath the city.

Together.

All of us.

Running toward the only sanctuary left.

And planning how to burn Morrison’s empire to the ground.