Chapter 5 - The Lockdown
The deafening wail of the security alarms echoed endlessly through the dark mansion.
Red emergency lights flickered on, casting an eerie, blood-colored glow across the study walls.
Adrian grabbed his secure satellite phone, only to find that all outgoing signals were completely jammed.
Marcus had isolated the master wing from the rest of the world, cutting off all communication.
The loyal guards stationed outside the perimeter were locked out, completely unaware of the coup happening inside.
Adrian wheeled himself rapidly to the heavy oak doors, pulling Noah along with him.
He pushed the boy into the adjacent panic room where Emma and Lily were already hiding.
Emma grabbed Noah, pulling him into a tight, protective embrace despite the chaos around them.
Adrian handed Emma a loaded pistol, instructing her to shoot anyone who came through the door besides him.
He closed the steel-reinforced door of the panic room, leaving himself exposed in the main study.
Heavy, tactical boots thundered down the hallway as Marcus’s rogue mercenaries approached the master suite.
Adrian knew his wheelchair made him a sitting duck in a close-quarters firefight.
He grabbed a heavy tactical shotgun from his hidden weapon cache behind the bookshelf.
The sound of a heavy battering ram slammed against the study’s double doors.
The thick wood splintered and cracked under the immense, violent pressure of the assault.
Adrian backed his wheelchair into the center of the room, taking a deep, steadying breath.
He listened to the rhythmic pounding, timing his movements with calculated precision.
On the third massive strike, the double doors blew open, and smoke poured into the room.
Three heavily armed mercenaries rushed in, scanning the room with laser sights attached to their rifles.
They immediately aimed their weapons at the man sitting helplessly in the wheelchair.
Adrian did not fire the shotgun from his seated position.
Instead, he gripped the armrests tightly and pushed his body upward with a primal roar.
For the first time in eight agonizing years, the Wolf of the West Coast stood up on his own two feet.
The mercenaries froze in sheer disbelief, their tactical training failing them in the face of the impossible.
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Adrian racked the shotgun with a terrifying, metallic clack that silenced the room.
He looked the lead mercenary dead in the eyes and smiled a cold, ruthless smile.
