Chapter 4 - The Hallway Ambush
The oak door didn't yield immediately—it was secured by an electronic deadbolt wired into the estate’s primary security grid. But from the hallway outside, the sound of an electronic bypass tool buzzing against the keyless entry panel vibrated through the wood.
"Get behind the table with Julian," I whispered to Sebastian, grabbing a heavy brass floor lamp from the corner of the room. I unscrewed the glass shade, turning the solid metal pole into an improvised crowbar.
"Not a chance," Sebastian replied smoothly, stepping up right beside me holding a heavy marble bookend shaped like a sailing ship. "I don't leave my security coordinators to fight my security chiefs alone."
"Former security coordinator," I corrected automatically.
"We'll discuss your re-hiring package later," he muttered.
CLICK-CLACK.
The deadbolt retracted. The heavy door swung inward with a low creak.
Two of Marcus's tactical guards burst through the threshold, weapons raised, wearing heavy black ballistic vests and tactical gas masks. They immediately swept the room with their weapon-mounted flashlights, the high-intensity beams cutting through the lingering haze of aerosol mist.
"Clear left!" the first guard shouted, his voice muffled behind his rubber respirator.
"Clear right—" the second began.
I stepped out from behind the doorframe, swinging the heavy brass lamp pole with everything I had.
THWACK!
The brass pole struck the first guard directly across the side of his helmet, shattering his night-vision visor and throwing him off balance. He stumbled sideways, dropping his rifle onto the carpet.
Before the second guard could swing his barrel toward me, Sebastian charged from the darkness, driving the heavy marble bookend straight into the guard's gas mask filter.
The plastic canister cracked, breaking the airtight seal. The guard let out a choked gasp as he inhaled the lingering aerosol mist in the room, dropping his weapon and grabbing at his throat as he fell to his knees.
I lunged forward, grabbing the dropped assault rifle from the floor, racking the bolt, and leveling it directly at the first guard's chest as he tried to scramble back toward the hallway.
"Don't," I growled, my finger light on the trigger. "Unless you want to find out if your body armor stops five-point-five-six rounds at point-blank range."
The guard froze, his hands slowly rising into the air.
"Unclip your radio," Sebastian ordered, stepping up behind him and wrenching the guard's tactical belt off. "And give me your master access keycard."
The guard fumbled with his belt, unhooking the encrypted radio and a blue high-clearance keycard before tossing them onto the floor.
I grabbed the radio, adjusting the frequency dial until I heard Marcus’s cold, mechanical voice cutting through the static:
“Team Two, report. Have you secured the target in the nursery?”
I pressed the transmit button, keeping my voice low and calm. "Team Two is down, Marcus. And your aerosol system just failed."
A heavy silence lingered on the radio channel for three agonising seconds.
“Aaliyah,” Marcus replied, his tone surprisingly unbothered. “You’re remarkably persistent for someone who works for hourly wage. But you’re playing a game you don't understand. Lenora isn't at the estate anymore. She’s already on her way to the regional airport with the core server drives.”
Sebastian snatched the radio from my hand. "Marcus! You pull those drives, and I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life in a federal supermax!"
Marcus let out a dry, chilling chuckle over the speaker. “Check the news, Sebastian. As far as the world is concerned, you died ten minutes ago from a sudden cardiac event caused by severe drug abuse. Dr. Reev just signed the press release. The market opens in twelve hours, and Lenora is taking Vale Renewable Energy public under her new holding company.”
The radio went dead with a loud click.
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"They're taking the core server drives," Sebastian whispered, his eyes wide with horror as he looked at me. "The drives contain the encryption keys for the national clean-energy grid project. If Lenora sells those keys on the black market..."
"She doesn't just crash your company," I finished his sentence, the full scale of the conspiracy settling over me like lead. "She disables the power distribution nodes for forty percent of the East Coast."
