Chapter 10 - Infiltrating the Crypt
The undertow of the rocky cove had nearly ripped Elena’s remaining strength away, but Jonathan held her firmly by the utility belt, dragging her onto the jagged black stones beneath the cliffside.
Jonathan adjusted the night-vision goggles resting against his forehead. He wore black tactical gear, stripped of any insignia, moving with the precision of someone who had prepared for this war for half a decade.
""The sea tunnel,"" Jonathan said quietly, pointing to an iron drainage culvert half-submerged in the tide. ""It leads to the sub-basement beneath the wine cellar. When I built the manor's storm defenses, I installed an unregistered manual bypass.""
Elena wrung the salt water from her torn clothes, ignoring the burning agony in her ribs. ""We don't just extract Leo, Jonathan. She will hunt us to the ends of the earth. We take everything from her.""
Jonathan looked down at Elena. In her eyes, he no longer saw the frightened young woman who had begged him to leave his family years ago. He saw a mother who had clawed her way out of the grave.
""Dr. Vance did his part?"" Jonathan asked.
""He injected the network server with the encrypted file from my phone,"" Elena replied, checking the watertight pouch strapped to her chest. ""The moment Marianne logs into the trust management portal tomorrow, the audio confession broadcasts directly to the Department of Justice and the metropolitan press corps.""
""Then tonight is about survival,"" Jonathan said, pulling a suppressed sidearm from his holster and handing it to her. ""Can you pull the trigger if she corners you?""
Elena took the heavy steel weapon, her fingers wrapping effortlessly around the checkered grip.
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""She already killed me once, Jonathan,"" Elena whispered, her voice devoid of fear. ""A ghost has nothing left to lose.""
They breached the culvert grating, disappearing into the subterranean shadows of the house just as the manor’s perimeter alarms began to wail in sudden, chaotic synchronization.
