Chapter 10 - THE THERMITE TRAP
Mercer walked toward the open vault door.
The heavy steel gears inside the door were visible, polished and dripping with machine oil.
In the center of the inner steel hatch were two keyholes.
One gold.
One silver.
Mercer reached out with his key.
"Wait," Councilman Ross said, standing up from the mahogany table.
"Where is the girl?"
Mercer paused, his hand inches from the keyhole.
"The housekeeper?"
"She drowned with Voss."
Ross frowned.
"Her mother made us swear on the ledger ten years ago. The girl’s debt was canceled upon her father's death."
"Her mother is six feet under," Mercer sneered.
"Debts don't die in this family."
He shoved the key into the silver cylinder.
"Don't do it, Daniel," a voice echoed through the vault.
The voice was quiet.
Cold.
It seemed to come from the very stones of the room.
Every man at the table froze.
Mercer spun around, his hand still on the key.
"Who's there?"
The wrought-iron grille at the back of the chamber swung open with a slow, agonizing squeal.
Adrien Voss stepped out into the light.
His clothes were torn and mud-stained.
His hair was matted with dried blood.
The twelve-gauge shotgun rested comfortably across his forearm.
Beside him stood Isabella, her chin lifted, her eyes burning with a fury that silenced the entire room.
Two guards raised their weapons.
"Drop them!" Adrien barked.
He didn't aim at the guards.
He aimed the shotgun directly at the open vault door.
"Shoot, and I blow the timing pins out of that hatch," Adrien said.
"The air seals will close."
"You'll suffocate in this tomb before the street police can drill through the granite."
No one moved.
The guards looked at Mercer.
Mercer's face had flushed purple.
"You're dead," Mercer stammered.
"The car... the bomb..."
"You always were cheap with your contractors, Daniel," Adrien said, taking two slow steps forward.
His boots clicked on the marble floor.
"You hired Silas Vance's boys."
"They talk too much."
"And they die too easily."
Councilman Ross stood up, his hands shaking slightly.
"Adrien... we thought..."
"You thought you could divide my territory before my body went cold," Adrien said, not looking at the old man.
His eyes never left Mercer's face.
"Turn the key, Daniel."
Mercer blinked.
"What?"
"You came here to open Box 001," Adrien said.
"Turn the key."
Mercer looked from Adrien's shotgun to the silver key in the lock.
A frantic, desperate light flared in Mercer's eyes.
"You're bluffing," Mercer spat.
"You want the ledgers for yourself!"
"Turn it," Isabella said from behind Adrien.
Her voice was like ice.
"Turn it and see what my mother left for you."
Mercer gritted his teeth and twisted the silver key hard to the right.
A heavy CLACK echoed deep inside the steel door.
Then came a sound that made every man in the room stop breathing.
A high-pitched, electronic hiss.
A tiny digital readout above the keyhole illuminated in bright crimson:
FAIL-SAFE ACTIVE: UNAUTHORIZED DUPLICATE DETECTED.
THERMITE INCENDIARY COMMENCING IN: 10 SECONDS.
White-hot smoke poured from the seams of the inner hatch.
The duplicates were made of phosphor-bronze.
The original was surgical steel.
His father had set a bomb for anyone who tried to steal his kingdom from the shadows.
"RUN!" Ross screamed.
The councilmen scrambled backward, knocking mahogany chairs across the polished floor.
Mercer tried to rip the key out.
The lock had seized his fingers with an automatic brass clamp.
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"HELP ME!" Mercer shrieked, his skin blistering as the steel hatch turned cherry red.
"ADRIEN! UNLOCK IT!"
