Chapter 5 - Whispers Behind the Vault Door
The silence in the dining room was thicker than the storm outside.
Nobody breathed.
Nobody moved.
“Who said that?!” Marcus screamed into the darkness.
He fired two wild shots into the ceiling.
Plaster rained down onto the mahogany table.
“Show yourself!” he roared, his voice cracking with hysteria.
Emergency red backup lights suddenly flickered to life.
A bloody crimson glow bathed the entire banquet hall.
I wasn't in the fireplace anymore.
I had slipped through the service door behind the pantry.
I stood on the mezzanine landing, looking down at the vipers.
My suppressed pistol rested in my right hand.
My automatic shotgun hung over my shoulder.
My face was half-covered in soot and rain.
Rossi looked up first.
His jaw dropped.
A rough laugh tore from his throat.
“I told you!” Rossi shouted, slamming his fist against the wall.
“I told you the devil doesn't die that easily!”
Caroline turned slowly.
When her eyes met mine, every drop of blood drained from her face.
Her knees buckled.
She had to grip the back of the mahogany chair to keep from collapsing.
“Ethan…” she choked out, her hand flying to her chest.
“You’re… you’re alive…”
“You sound disappointed, Caroline,” I said calmly.
My voice carried effortlessly across the crimson-lit room.
“Didn't you tell Marcus you’d put a bullet in my head yourself?”
Marcus stepped back, his eyes darting toward the heavy oak exit doors.
They were locked.
The heavy magnetic bolts were engaged.
“Ethan, listen to me—” Marcus began, holding his hands up defensively.
“Shut up, Marcus,” I said coldly.
I didn't raise my voice.
I didn't yell.
The deadliest men never scream.
“You sold out my convoy in Chicago,” I continued, walking down the sweeping
grand staircase one step at a time.
Each click of my boot against the marble sounded like a countdown to an
execution.
“You murdered David in the wine cellar,” I said.
“You murdered my guards.”
“And you laid your hands on my fiancée.”
Caroline burst into frantic tears, rushing toward the bottom of the stairs.
“Ethan, please! He forced me!” she sobbed, dropping to her knees on the marble
floor.
“He told me he would kill my family if I didn't play along!”
“He held a gun to my head, Ethan! Look at me! I love you!”
She reached out to touch the hem of my trousers.
I looked down at her with nothing but disgust.
“You shouldn't have left your phone unlocked on my desk, Caroline,” I whispered.
She froze.
Her tears vanished instantly.
“I read the messages,” I lied.
I didn't need to read them.
Her guilty eyes told me everything.
“Take him down!” Marcus screamed to his remaining mercenaries.
Two men raised their assault rifles toward me.
Before they could align their sights, I fired three rapid shots through the
suppressor.
The first man collapsed backward over a serving cart.
The second took two rounds to the chest and crashed into the dining table.
Marcus turned and bolted toward the private library.
He slammed the reinforced security door behind him.
The heavy steel bolt engaged with a loud, mechanical thud.
He had locked himself inside my private panic room.
The remaining four captains scrambled behind the heavy furniture, hands over
their heads.
Rossi pulled a revolver from his waistband and aimed it at the remaining
mercenary near the door.
“Drop it!” Rossi bellowed.
The mercenary threw his weapon to the ground and put his hands on his head.
I stepped over Caroline without looking at her.
She remained on the floor, trembling, staring at the blood pooling around the
dining table.
I walked up to the heavy steel door of the library vault.
Through the reinforced bulletproof glass window, Marcus stared back at me.
He was panting heavily.
He held a detonator in his right hand.
The red LED on the small plastic box was glowing solid green.
He tapped the thick glass with the steel tip of the antenna.
A deranged, manic grin spread across his face.
“You think you won, Ethan?!” Marcus screamed through the two-way intercom
speaker.
“I wired twenty pounds of military C-4 to the foundation pillars!”
“If I press this button, this entire mansion collapses into the ocean!”
“You, Caroline, the captains… all of us die together!”
Behind me, the captains began to shout in terror.
Caroline shrieked, crawling toward the exit doors.
“Open the door, Ethan!” she screamed.
“Let us out! He’s crazy!”
I didn't turn around.
I didn't flinch.
I stood three inches from the bulletproof glass, staring into the wild eyes of
the man who had betrayed me.
I slowly pulled a small black device from my tactical vest.
I held it up against the glass so Marcus could see the digital screen.
It was the master frequency jammer from the auxiliary bunker.
The green light on his detonator suddenly flickered.
Then it died completely.
Marcus looked down at the dead remote in his hand.
The color vanished from his cheeks.
“You forgot who designed the security protocols, Marcus,” I whispered through
the microphone.
May you like
“Now open the door.”
“Or I’ll let Sophie decide what to do with you.”
