Chapter 6 - The Trap in the Library
The jazz music played on, but the air in the ballroom had turned toxic.
Victor engaged Senator Whitmore and two supreme court justices in a high-stakes conversation regarding lakefront zoning laws, expertly drawing all eyes toward the center of the room.
Through her earpiece, Lena heard Dmitri’s voice low and steady: "Clara just exited through the west corridor toward the library. Leon’s phone signal just pinged from the floor directly above her. Move now, Lena."
Lena excused herself smoothly from a group of local councilwomen, taking a slow, measured walk toward the private west wing of the estate. The noise of the party faded behind thick oak paneling and heavy Persian rugs.
She turned the corner into the grand library.
Clara stood by a heavy mahogany desk, frantically typing into an encrypted satellite phone. When the heavy door clicked shut behind Lena, Clara whipped around, pulling a small silver pistol from her evening bag.
"Stay back!" Clara hissed, her knuckles white around the grip. "How are you alive?! Dmitri was supposed to break your neck in the basement!"
Lena stopped ten feet away, showing her hands slowly, keeping her clutch bag held loosely in her right hand.
"Dmitri works for Victor," Lena said quietly. "He doesn't take orders from cheap traitors who buy aconite from back-alley dealers."
"You ruined everything, you stupid little insect!" Clara spat, her eyes wild with rage. "Leon and I had total control! My father was going to take over the Romano territory, and Leon was going to run the freight lanes! We were going to be gods in this city! And it was undone by a laundry maid!"
"You tried to murder a man who trusted you," Lena said, taking a slow step forward. "You tried to put his blood on my hands so my brother would be left alone in the dark."
"I should have shot you in the ballroom!" Clara shrieked, raising the gun toward Lena’s chest.
Through the earpiece, Victor’s voice cut through like a lightning bolt: "Drop now, Lena."
Lena kicked off her high heels and dropped flat onto the thick Oriental rug just as the library’s double doors swung violently inward.
THUD. THUD.
Two suppressed gunshots cut through the air. Clara gasped, dropping the silver pistol as two non-lethal shock rounds struck her shoulder and thigh, knocking her backward onto the leather sofa.
Victor stepped into the room, holding a suppressed pistol, his face devoid of all emotion. Behind him, Dmitri swept the hallway with a short-barreled rifle.
Lena scrambled to her feet, pulled the lipstick scanner from her clutch, and pressed it against the platinum charm bracelet on Clara’s limp wrist.
A green light flashed on the device: ENCRYPTION KEY CLONED.
"Got it," Lena said, her breath coming fast.
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Victor didn't look at Clara, who was weeping in pain on the sofa. He reached out, grabbed Lena’s hand, and pulled her toward the hidden service stairs behind the bookshelf.
"Leon is upstairs," Victor said. "Let’s finish this."
