Chapter 3 - The Broken Seal
The glare of the high beams was blinding. A black SUV barreled toward them down the narrow wooden pier, its front bumper reinforced with heavy steel bull bars.
""Get down!"" Arthur shouted, surprisingly spry as he shoved Maddie toward the alcove between two stacked shipping containers.
Maddie ducked, the damp gravel tearing through her stockings as she hit the timber ground. The SUV roared past, missing them by inches, before slamming its brakes and skidding sideways across the slick planks. Its doors flew open, and three burly figures in tactical windbreakers jumped out.
""Take the envelope and run!"" Arthur hissed, thrusting the heavy sealed dossier into Maddie’s hands. ""My driver is stationed at the north gate. Tell him 'Orion'!""
""I won't leave you!"" Maddie yelled, her voice trembling.
""You have to! If you die, Bradley inherits everything by default under the counterfeit clauses!"" Arthur pushed her hard into the dark service alley cutting behind the warehouse. ""Go, girl! Make them bleed!""
Arthur raised his heavy cane just as the first man lunged. Maddie gripped the envelope against her wet chest and sprinted into the labyrinth of dark alleyways. Her bare feet ached against the jagged stones, but the cold pool water that had weighed down her gown was now forgotten, replaced by the blazing heat of pure survival instinct.
Behind her, she heard a sickening thud, a grunt, and then the unmistakable sound of a gunshot ringing into the night sky.
Tears sprang to her eyes, blurring the outlines of the rusty corrugated iron around her. She couldn't stop. She ducked through a broken chain-link fence, tumbling into a narrow drainage culvert that led out toward the commercial boulevard. She scrambled to her feet, panting, her shivering hands gripping the sealed paper.
She looked down under the pale flicker of a streetlamp. The thick red wax seal bore her father's personal signet: a soaring falcon clutching an anchor. Beneath the wax, written in her father's distinct, angular cursive, were words that chilled her marrow:
May you like
To my daughter Maddie: If you are reading this, I was right to fear the vipers at our hearth. Do not trust Bradley. Do not trust my sister. And above all, never open Vault 42 alone.
Headlights swept the alley entrance behind her. A man’s rough voice shouted into a walkie-talkie: ""She went toward the avenue! Box her in!""
