Chapter 8 - The Shadow in the Floorboards
Beneath the chapel, the darkness was absolute, smelling of wet earth and crawling vermin. Elena moved on her hands and knees, ignoring the jagged rocks and splinters tearing into her skin. The heavy wool of Julian’s overcoat dragged behind her, but she refused to let it go. Up above, the muffled vibration of Julian’s deep voice echoed through the ceiling joists, followed by the cruel, raspy laughter of the old patriarch.
She paused directly beneath the altar. Thin slivers of weak amber light cut through the floorboard gaps. Looking straight up, she saw the scuffed rubber soles of Leo’s yellow sneakers hanging just inches above her head.
A tear slipped silently down her cheek, landing in the damp soil. He was right there.
Elena carefully reached to her hip, pulling Julian’s tactical knife from the pocket where he had tucked it before they breached the perimeter. She stood on her knees, stretching upward until her fingers could touch the underside of the floorboards. The wood was old, soft from decades of mountain humidity and subterranean decay.
Carefully, without making a sound, she probed the edge of the boards. Two planks near the base of the altar had already separated from the joists, held down only by rusted square nails.
“Vance, verify the codes,” Antonio’s voice boomed from above, the sound of paper fluttering.
“Looks legitimate, boss,” Vance answered. “All the Cayman accounts, the dock manifests, the private holding companies.”
“Good,” Antonio said, his tone turning utterly flat. “Kill them all. Start with the boy.”
Panic, pure and primal, surged through Elena’s veins. She didn't hesitate. Driving the steel blade into the seam between the rotting planks, she leveraged her entire body weight against the knife handle.
The floorboard cracked with a sharp, echoing SNAP.
Above her, the world erupted into chaos. Julian had moved the exact microsecond the wood fractured. A concealed ceramic blade slipped from Julian's left sleeve directly into his palm as he lunged forward, slamming into the nearest gunman before the man could bring his barrel up. Julian drove the blade upward beneath the man’s jawline, using his falling body as a human shield as the other three guards opened fire.
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Elena thrust her hands through the gap in the broken floorboards, grabbing Leo by the ankles.
“Leo! It’s Mommy!” she screamed into the gunfire. “Drop down! Fall!”
