Chapter 11 - The Rat in the Walls
The terminal screen flashed with a cascade of aggressive red code. Elena scrambled to rip the drive from the port, but Julian’s hand shot across the table, pinning her wrist to the wood.
“Don’t pull it,” Julian ordered, his voice cold, steady, and razor-sharp. “The encryption protocol triggers a hard-drive wipe if interrupted mid-broadcast. Let it run.”
“It’s broadcasting our location!” Elena shouted, panic clawing at her throat. “They know we’re in Lisbon!”
“They know a terminal accessed the file,” Julian corrected, his eyes darting across the street toward the rooftops overlooking their balcony. “The server bounces the relay through three dummy hubs before it reaches Zurich. We have twenty minutes before tactical teams triangulate this apartment.”
Titan stood up, his hackles raised, a low, menacing rattle starting deep in his chest. He turned his face toward the hallway door, sniffing the crack at the base of the wood.
“Julian,” Elena whispered, freezing. “Titan smells someone.”
Julian didn't hesitate. He reached beneath the wicker table, pulling free a suppressed pistol taped to the underside of the glass. He stood up silently, gesturing for Elena to stay behind him.
The knock on the door was light—three rhythmic taps, followed by two quick beats. A code.
Julian lowered his weapon slightly, though the tension didn’t leave his shoulders. He unlocked the latch with his left hand, keeping his firearm aimed center-mass. The door swung open to reveal the elderly Portuguese doctor who had treated them two nights prior.
The doctor stepped inside, his hands trembling violently, clutching a small leather medical bag. “Julian... I had no choice,” the old man wheezed, tears pooling in his weathered eyes. “They took my granddaughter. They were waiting at my clinic.”
Behind the doctor, stepping out of the shadowed hallway with surgical precision, stood a woman in an immaculate charcoal pantsuit, flanked by two armed operatives wearing earpieces.
May you like
She smiled, a venomous, elegant grin that chilled Elena to the bone.
“Hello, little cousin,” the woman said smoothly, her eyes darting from Elena to Julian. “You always were terrible at hiding, Julian. And Marcus was a fool to think a frightened little girl could inherit the Vance Empire.”
