Chapter 3 - DUST AND CARAT
The underground parking garage was vast, damp, and filled with echoing shadows.
Rows of multimillion-dollar supercars sat under dim overhead lights.
Elena walked down the central concrete aisle, her eyes darting between columns.
She could hear frantic, shallow breathing coming from behind a matte-black Lamborghini.
"Come out, Sofia," Elena said, her voice dropping into a flat, dangerous tone.
"You're making this much worse for yourself."
A muffled sob echoed off the concrete ceiling.
Sofia stepped out from behind the sports car.
She was a pathetic sight.
Her luxurious blue gown was torn down the side seam, exposing her pale hip.
Her expensive hair was wild and tangled.
Her mascara ran down her cheeks in thick black tracks.
In her right hand, she held a sharp, broken glass bottle.
Her hand was shaking so violently the glass rattled.
"Stay back!" Sofia shrieked, pointing the jagged glass at Elena.
"Stay away from me, you fake monster!"
Elena didn't pause her pace.
She kept walking forward with terrifying, rhythmic steps.
"You heard the phone call, didn't you?" Elena asked calmly.
"I... I heard everything!" Sofia yelled, her voice echoing through the garage.
"You're an impostor!"
"That ring is fake!"
"You don't own anything! You're just a glorified servant playing dress-up!"
"My father will destroy you when I tell him!"
Elena stopped three feet away from the jagged glass point.
She didn't even raise her gun.
She just looked at Sofia with deep, cold pity.
"Do you know why my family has survived for three centuries, Sofia?" Elena asked softly.
Sofia tightened her grip on the broken bottle, her knuckles turning white.
"Because we don't rely on expensive rocks to give us power," Elena said.
"We rely on information."
Elena reached into her coat and pulled out a small black remote control.
She pressed the central red button.
The quiet garage suddenly filled with the loud sound of rolling steel shutters downing at every exit.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The heavy blast doors sealed every vehicle and person inside the subterranean level.
The garage lights flickered and switched to dark red emergency illumination.
Sofia panicked, dropping the bottle.
It shattered on the pavement.
"What are you doing?!" Sofia screamed, running toward the sealed exit doors.
She pounded her bare, manicured hands against the thick steel.
"Let me out! Help! Somebody help me!"
"Nobody can hear you through six feet of reinforced concrete," Elena said, approaching her slowly.
"Now, tell me what you saw at the dock."
Sofia slid down the steel door, breaking into hysterical tears.
"I saw a man!" Sofia blubbered, clutching her knees.
"A tall man with a scar across his neck!"
"He killed your guard! He put the letter on his chest!"
"He told me to run and tell the board if I wanted revenge!"
Elena paused.
A scar across his neck?
Marcus didn't have a scar across his neck.
Marcus had a missing left pinky finger from a childhood accident in Switzerland.
The man at the dock wasn't Marcus.
It was an impostor working for someone else.
Someone was using Marcus’s dead name to orchestrate a coup.
Suddenly, a heavy mechanical hum rattled through the concrete ceiling.
The sprinkler system didn't turn on.
Instead, the smell of sweet, metallic gas began pouring from the air vents.
Elena’s eyes widened in realization.
It was high-concentration neurotoxin gas.
"Get up!" Elena barked, grabbing Sofia by her collar and yanking her off the floor.
"Move!"
"What is that smell?!" Sofia coughed, her eyes instantly tearing up.
"It's murder," Elena said coldly.
"Someone wants us both dead in this room so the secret dies with us."
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Elena dragged the hysterical girl toward the private private elevator hidden behind the electric junction box.
The red gas pooled quickly across the ceiling, drifting downward like a crimson fog.
