Chapter 10 - The False Victory
Raphael did not hesitate for a single second as the blinding helicopters descended upon them.
He grabbed Leo with one powerful arm, took Marin’s hand with the other, and sprinted toward a rocky ravine.
He remembered the abandoned coal mine Beckett had mentioned and knew the hidden entrance was nearby.
They slid recklessly down the steep, snowy embankment, dodging a hail of heavy machine-gun fire from above.
Raphael spotted the rusted iron doors of the old mine shaft heavily concealed behind a frozen waterfall.
He kicked the rotting wooden barricade apart and shoved Marin and Leo completely inside the dark tunnel.
He turned back to the entrance, unleashing a massive barrage of suppressive fire to force the helicopters to pull up.
He quickly slipped inside the tunnel and violently pulled a massive steel lever on the rock wall.
A heavy, reinforced blast door slammed completely shut, sealing them safely deep inside the impenetrable mountain.
The deafening noise of the helicopters and the gunfire was instantly replaced by total, absolute silence.
They had miraculously survived the impossible hunt and successfully escaped the deadly ambush.
Raphael dropped his empty weapon and pulled his exhausted family tightly into his arms.
He held his son closely, promising Marin that they would never be separated again.
He assured her that his uncle Vincenzo’s elite hit squad was completely neutralized and locked outside.
He reached into his pocket and proudly pulled out a heavy gold ring he had stripped from a dead mercenary outside.
He told her it was the seal of Vincenzo’s private army, and possessing it proved the old man’s forces were finally broken.
Marin took the heavy gold ring with trembling fingers, finally allowing herself to believe they were totally safe.
She turned the ring over in the dim emergency lighting of the bunker to examine the intricate engraving.
Her heart completely stopped beating as she recognized the tiny, glowing microchip embedded inside the gold band.
It was not a signet ring; it was a military-grade tracking beacon used exclusively by her own father’s security team.
The heavy steel blast doors of the bunker suddenly engaged a series of massive magnetic locks from the outside.
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A sharp, elegant female voice crackled loudly through the old intercom speaker on the wall.
Victoria, Raphael’s supposedly dead first wife, chuckled softly through the static and said, “Thank you so much for gathering the entire family in one easily sealed tomb.”
