Chapter 4 - Eight Seconds
Marcus threw himself against the door.
Locked.
“Seven seconds!” Cassian shouted.
Elena dropped beside Maria.
The device beneath the chair was wired to a pressure plate.
Marcus reached for it.
“Don’t touch it.”
“Then what?”
Elena scanned the room.
Six seconds.
Old pipes.
Wine shelves.
Drain channel.
Steel shelving.
Five.
She cut Maria’s restraints.
“Stand when I say.”
Maria trembled.
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
Four.
Cassian grabbed Maria under one arm.
Marcus took the other.
Three.
Elena pulled a heavy steel serving cart toward the device.
“What are you doing?” Cassian shouted.
“Replacing the pressure.”
Two.
“Now!”
They lifted Maria.
Elena shoved the loaded cart onto the plate.
One.
Nothing happened.
Everyone stared.
The timer reached zero.
Still nothing.
Marcus exhaled.
Then Elena grabbed Cassian.
“Down!”
A smaller explosive charge blew the door outward.
Not the room.
The door.
Viktor hadn’t built a bomb.
He had built a trap.
Armed men waited outside.
Gunfire erupted.
Marcus returned fire from behind the wall.
Elena pushed Maria behind shelving and picked up a pistol dropped by one of the attackers.
Cassian watched her move.
No wasted motion.
No panic.
She seemed almost more comfortable under fire than she had carrying his coffee.
Together they pushed through the tunnel.
The attackers retreated.
One remained alive.
Marcus dragged him against a wall.
“Who opened the perimeter?”
The man laughed.
Marcus hit him.
“Who?”
The attacker spat blood onto the floor.
“Ask your brother.”
Cassian froze.
“My brother is dead.”
The man smiled.
“That’s what he wanted you to think.”
Cassian grabbed him by the collar.
“My brother died twelve years ago.”
“So did Elena Rostova.”
Cassian slowly looked at her.
Elena’s face had gone completely still.
The attacker laughed again.
“Look at both ghosts.”
A gunshot cracked.
The prisoner’s head snapped backward.
Everyone turned.
Dante stood at the far end of the tunnel, holding a smoking handgun.
Marcus aimed at him.
“You!”
Dante raised his empty hand.
“I just saved you.”
“You killed our only prisoner!”
“He was reaching for a blade.”
“He was tied up.”
Dante looked toward Cassian.
“Boss, listen to me. Viktor’s men are heading for the old chapel.”
Cassian’s blood ran cold.
The chapel wasn’t important.
But what lay beneath it was.
A vault known to only four living people.
Cassian.
Marcus.
Dante.
And the security chief.
Elena watched Cassian’s face.
“What’s under the chapel?”
“Nothing.”
She almost laughed.
“You’re terrible at lying.”
Dante stepped closer.
“We need to move.”
Elena stared at the blood on Dante’s cuff again.
Then at his shoes.
Dust.
White limestone dust.
The chapel floors were dark slate.
Security command had concrete flooring.
But Cassian’s private vault?
French limestone.
Exactly like the office.
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
“Cassian.”
He looked at her.
“Don’t go to the chapel.”
“Why?”
“Because Dante wants you there.”
Dante raised his gun.
May you like
And Marcus realized one second too late that it was pointed directly at Cassian.
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