Chapter 3 - The Cold Betrayal
The freezing white smoke cascaded down the walls, filling the nursery with a terrifying fog.
The babies screamed harder as the frigid air bit into their fragile skin.
I grabbed thick wool blankets from the changing station and threw them over the cribs to insulate my children.
"Marco, shoot the electronic lock panel now!" I commanded urgently.
Marco aimed his weapon and fired three deafening shots into the wall console.
Sparks showered the room, and the heavy mahogany doors finally swung open.
We rushed out into the grand hallway, gasping for the clean, unpolluted air of the corridor.
Elena carried Sophie in her arms, coughing violently while the nannies pushed the cribs out on their rolling casters.
The hallway was eerily quiet, the normal bustling sounds of my estate completely silenced.
I looked down the corridor and saw my two stationed hallway guards lying motionless on the marble floor.
Someone had neutralized my elite security detail with surgical precision.
I checked their pulses, finding them unconscious but still miraculously alive.
"Whoever did this has complete access to our security protocols," I whispered to Marco.
I turned around to ensure the doctors were following us to safety.
The world-renowned pediatric neurologist was trembling by the wall, but Dr. Gable was missing.
"Where is Gable?" I demanded, scanning the smoky shadows.
Marco pointed toward the grand staircase at the end of the hall.
We heard the rapid, echoing footsteps of someone running desperately down the marble steps.
I sprinted down the hallway, my gun raised, adrenaline masking the cold fear in my veins.
I leaned over the mahogany banister and spotted the pediatrician fleeing toward the kitchen wing.
He was speaking frantically into a black burner phone.
"The gas failed, but the primary targets are vulnerable in the open," Dr. Gable whispered loudly into the device.
May you like
I took aim, my finger tightening over the cold steel trigger.
Just as I prepared to fire, the lights in the entire mansion abruptly shut off, plunging us into total darkness.
