Chapter 6 - Battle for the Safe Room
The corridor erupted into chaos. Adrian moved through the shadows of his estate like a phantom, utilizing every secret passage, concealed door, and tactical advantage built into the sixty-acre fortress over three decades.
Two mercenaries fell near the grand staircase before they could even locate the source of the fire. Adrian glided behind a marble pillar, reloading his weapon with practiced, effortless speed.
Meanwhile, down in the lower corridors, Mason Bennett had separated from the main group. Driven by cowardice and greed, he wasn't looking to fight Adrian Moretti; he was looking for Claire and Lily. He knew if he captured the child, he could use her as a human shield to escape with the million-dollar bounty promised by the Falcones.
Mason stumbled through the dark service hallways, his flashlight beam swinging wildly across the wall, until he reached the reinforced steel door of the central safe room.
"Claire!" Mason screamed, slamming his heavy boot against the steel door. "I know you're in there, you bitch! Open the door!"
Inside the vault, Claire froze. Her blood turned to ice as she recognized the coarse, terrifying voice that had haunted her nightmares for years.
"Mason..." she whispered, stepping back, pulling Lily tightly against her chest behind the reinforced desk.
Marcus stood near the door, his handgun raised, his face dark as thunder. "Stay back, Claire. That door is three inches of solid hardened steel. He can't get in."
Outside, Mason pulled a military-grade thermite explosive charge from his backpack—a device Hector had given him to breach secure locks. He slapped it onto the heavy electronic keypad of the safe room door and pulled the pin.
SPARK!
A blinding white flame began burning through the electronic locking mechanism, filling the corridor with acrid smoke.
Inside the vault, the warning sirens began to blare as the locking system began to fail under the extreme heat. The heavy steel door creaked, its primary deadbolts melting away.
"He's burning through!" Marcus shouted. He stepped directly in front of Claire and Lily, taking aim at the center of the door.
Outside, as the smoke cleared, Mason raised his pistol, preparing to kick open the weakened steel door. "You thought you could run from me, Claire? You're coming home, and the kid is coming with me!"
Suddenly, a massive hand reached out from the dark smoke behind Mason, grabbing him by the hair and slamming his face violently into the concrete wall.
Mason screamed as his nose shattered. He fell to the floor, coughing up blood, looking up in sheer terror.
Standing over him, backlit by the flickering emergency lights, was Adrian. His dark jacket was torn, his face smeared with soot and blood, his eyes burning with a terrifying, demonic fury. Behind him in the hallway, Hector and the rest of the mercenaries lay defeated.
"You," Adrian growled, his voice so deep it vibrated through the concrete floor. "You are the coward who laid hands on a mother and her child."
"Wait—please!" Mason shrieked, scrambling backward on his hands and knees. "It was the Falcones! They made me do it! I'm her husband! She's my wife!"
Adrian stepped forward, his heavy boot coming down crushing onto Mason’s knee. A sickening crack echoed down the hall, accompanied by Mason’s blood-curdling scream.
"You were nothing to them," Adrian said, leaning down and grabbing Mason by the front of his jacket, lifting the full weight of the man with one arm. "And you are less than nothing to me."
With a roar of absolute fury, Adrian threw Mason through the heavy wooden banister at the end of the hall, crashing down onto the lower marble floor below, unconscious and broken.
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Adrian turned toward the smoking steel door of the vault. He reached for the manual release wheel, turning it with all his strength.
The heavy door slowly swung open.
