Chapter 13 - Fire in the Sky
""Private security team,"" Jonathan barked, glancing at the ceiling monitors as feeds showed tactical units retreating toward the roof. ""They aren't here to defend the house. They're scuttling the property.""
Marianne's smile grew wider despite the gun at her head. ""I pay them for total eradication, Jonathan. If the estate falls, nothing survives. Not the files, not the evidence, and not this house.""
Heavy smoke began pouring through the central ventilation grates. The estate's automated fire-suppression system had been sabotaged, replaced by accelerants dumped into the utility shafts.
""Get her on her feet!"" Elena yelled over the roar of approaching flames.
Jonathan hauled Marianne up by her collar, forcing her down the smoke-filled corridor toward the fourth-floor tower where the panic room was located. The temperature in the hallway was climbing rapidly; antique paintings blistered and peeled off the burning walls.
They reached the heavy vault door of the reinforced nursery. Through the small, double-paned ballistic window, Elena saw the crib. Leo was awake, crying silently in the oxygen-depleted room, his tiny face red.
""Open it!"" Jonathan shoved Marianne toward the retinal scanner.
Marianne stood motionless, staring at the scanner with dead, victorious eyes. ""If I burn, the Sterling name dies with me. We all go into the dark together.""
Elena didn't hesitate. She grabbed Marianne by the hair—reversing the exact gesture the older woman had used on the marble stairs—and slammed her face forward into the scanner mount. She pried Marianne’s eyelid open with her thumb, forcing the red scanning laser across the woman’s pupil.
The electronic lock beeped twice.
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Access Denied: Pulse anomaly detected.
A wall of fire burst through the south staircase behind them, cutting off their escape route down to the lower floors.
