Chapter 15 - THE CHORUS OF FIRE
Before the snipers on the rafters could pull their triggers, Eleanor threw her entire weight backward into Ethan.
The unexpected impact knocked them both off balance.
They tumbled backward off the narrow entrance platform, falling six feet down onto a lower conveyor belt ramp.
THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!
Heavy suppressed gunfire shredded the air where they had been standing a second before.
Sparks rained down as the high-caliber rounds tore through the metal entrance platform.
Ethan and Eleanor rolled down the rusted metal conveyor belt, crashing hard onto the concrete floor of the lower basement level.
Ethan lost his grip on his pistol as it slid across the dusty floor into the darkness.
Ethan groaned in pain, feeling a sharp ache in his shoulder, but he forced himself back up onto his knees.
Eleanor was lying beside him, her hands still handcuffed behind her back, her breathing ragged and heavy.
“Why did you do that?” Ethan asked, staring at her through the darkness.
“You just saved my life.”
Eleanor looked up at him, her eyes dark and burning with venomous anger.
“I didn't save your life, you idiot,” she hissed, pulling herself up against a concrete pillar.
“Arthur just discarded me like garbage after ten years of service!”
“If I’m going down tonight, I’m taking that old bastard down with me!”
Above them, heavy footsteps echoed across the upper catwalks as Arthur’s mercenaries began descending the steel staircases.
“Find them!” Arthur’s voice boomed over the speakers, no longer sounding calm or polite.
“Bring me the key!”
“Kill Eleanor on sight!”
Ethan looked around the lower basement level frantically.
It was a vast maze of old concrete pillars, heavy machinery, and thick electrical conduit pipes running along the ceiling.
In the center of the basement floor was a massive reinforced steel door set into the concrete wall.
It featured a heavy rotary combination wheel and a keyhole sized precisely for the brass key in Ethan’s pocket.
This was it.
The physical vault.
The master override server for the entire international network.
“Ethan!” Marcus’s weak, pain-filled voice echoed faintly from above.
Ethan looked up through the gaps in the floorboards.
Marcus was still tied to the chair on the catwalk, but one of Arthur’s guards was standing beside him with a pistol drawn.
“Ethan... don't do it!” Marcus coughed out, blood dripping from his chin.
“Don't open the vault!”
“It’s a trap... the override isn't a drive!”
“It’s a—”
BANG!
A gunshot echoed through the factory ceiling.
Marcus’s head snapped back, and his body went completely limp in the chair.
“NO!” Ethan screamed, his voice breaking into an agonizing roar.
His best friend, his brother, was dead right before his eyes.
Arthur walked to the edge of the catwalk, holding a smoking pistol in his hand, looking down into the dark basement.
“You are running out of time, Ethan!” Arthur shouted down into the shadows.
“Give me the key, or I will hunt down your daughter next!”
“I know Viktor took her to the old safe house on Elm Street!”
“My men are already on their way there right now!”
Ethan felt his world shatter into a thousand pieces.
His friend was dead.
His daughter was in immediate danger.
His wife was a traitor.
His uncle was a monster.
He stood in the dark basement, surrounded by enemies, holding a key that contained secrets powerful enough to tear the world apart.
He reached into his jacket pocket, his fingers wrapping tightly around the cold brass key.
He looked at Eleanor, who was staring at the reinforced steel vault door with a terrifying, desperate hunger in her eyes.
“Ethan,” Eleanor whispered, her voice shaking violently.
“Open the door.”
“It’s the only way we survive.”
Ethan took a step toward the vault door, his heart hammering against his ribs like a war drum.
He inserted the brass key into the keyhole and turned it.
May you like
CLANG.
A deep, metallic rumble echoed through the floorboards as ancient gears began to turn inside the wall.
