Chapter 5 - The First Note
Dante raised his weapon and aimed directly at Victor's head.
"Get on the stage, Elena," Dante ordered without looking back.
"Are you insane?" Elena asked, staring wildly at the armed men.
"They will not shoot you in front of four thousand witnesses with their phones recording," Dante reasoned quickly.
"If you stay back here in the dark with me, we both die."
Victor's men raised their guns to fire.
Elena didn't think anymore; she just ran blindly into the bright stage lights.
The massive crowd stopped screaming for a split second as a barefoot woman in an ivory dress suddenly appeared.
She knelt beside the unconscious maestro and gently took the baton from his limp hand.
She slowly stood up and walked directly to the conductor's podium.
The ninety-six musicians of the orchestra stared at her in utter confusion.
Elena tapped the baton twice against the wooden music stand.
The sharp, distinct sound cut through the panic like a knife.
She raised her arms, taking a deep breath of the dusty theater air.
For the first time in eight years, Elenora gave the silent cue.
She brought her hands down in a powerful, sweeping motion.
The orchestra, trained by pure instinct, immediately played the opening chords of Mozart's Requiem.
The sound was absolutely magnificent, echoing flawlessly through the grand hall.
The panicked crowd completely froze in their tracks, mesmerized by the sudden, haunting music.
Slowly, one by one, the terrified donors in the front row stood up in absolute awe.
Soon, the entire room of four thousand people was standing in complete silence, watching her conduct.
Backstage, Dante used the distraction to quickly eliminate two of Victor's guards.
He was winning the fight, moving with brutal, calculated efficiency.
Then, Elena noticed a small red laser dot moving slowly across the sheet music in front of her.
The dot traveled up her arm, moved across her shoulder, and stopped directly over her heart.
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The assassin had never been aiming for Adrian Bell in the first place.
Before Elena could even scream, the entire opera house plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness.
