Chapter 5 - Blood on the Crest
""Beatrice, down!"" Julian yelled instinctively.
Despite the woman’s cruelty, centuries of filial instinct took over. But Beatrice was too blinded by venom to understand. She pulled her trigger; the bullet cracked past Julian’s ear, embedding itself in the door frame.
Before she could fire a second round, the mercenary behind her pulled his trigger.
The sound was apocalyptic in the enclosed corridor. Beatrice’s body jolted forward, her eyes widening in disbelief as she crumpled onto the marble tiles. The syndicate she had hired to erase her family had simply eliminated their employer to take complete control of the estate's vast hidden vaults.
""Seal it!"" Frank barked, shoving Julian back into the tunnel.
Julian lunged forward, but Frank slammed the reinforced steel vault door shut. Heavy locking bolts engaged with a series of pneumatic thuds. Through the thick bulletproof viewing slit, Julian watched the mercenary squad step over Beatrice’s body, their weapons raised toward the door.
""She brought them here,"" Julian said, his voice hollow, staring at the steel barrier. ""She signed her own death warrant.""
""And she nearly signed yours,"" Elena said gently, placing a trembling hand on his arm. Baby Leo whimpered, sensing the suffocating terror of the concrete corridor.
Frank tapped his radio. ""Team Bravo, status report.""
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Only static returned. A second later, a voice rasped over the frequency, laced with a foreign accent: ""Your perimeter team is neutralised, Vance. The gates are ours. The tunnels are ours. Deliver the heir, or we flood the ventilation with tear gas.""
Frank swear under his breath and clicked the radio off. He turned to Julian and Elena, his weathered face pale in the dim yellow light. ""They compromised the exit tunnel. The river dock is no longer safe.""
