Chapter 9 - The Attack
The estate was plunged into total darkness.
Emergency red strobe lights flashed in the hallway.
Adrian pulled Emma behind him as they moved fast.
"Stay exactly behind me," he ordered, his voice dangerously calm.
Gunfire echoed from the grand foyer downstairs.
Glass shattered as heavily armed mercenaries flooded the lower levels.
Emma's heart hammered violently against her ribs.
"Who are they?" she gasped.
"The syndicate," Adrian replied, checking around a corner.
He fired two rapid shots, and a body hit the floor at the end of the hall.
"Tessa must have given them the architectural blueprints," he added.
Emma felt sick to her stomach.
Her own sister had sent a hit squad to murder them.
They navigated through the hidden servant corridors.
Adrian moved with lethal precision, taking down anyone in their path.
His white dress shirt was now stained with blood.
A bullet had grazed his shoulder, but he did not even flinch.
They reached the reinforced steel door of the safe room.
Adrian rapidly punched in a twelve-digit passcode.
The heavy door hissed open.
He shoved Emma inside and turned to lock it.
Before the door could close, a grenade rolled into the corridor.
Adrian slammed the door shut just as the explosion detonated.
The impact threw them both onto the concrete floor.
Dust and debris rained down from the ceiling.
Emma scrambled to her feet, coughing on the smoke.
"Adrian!" she cried out.
He pushed himself up, wincing as he gripped his bleeding shoulder.
"I'm fine," he grunted.
The safe room was a concrete bunker equipped with monitors, weapons, and medical supplies.
They were temporarily safe from the chaos outside.
Emma grabbed a medical kit from the wall.
She rushed over to Adrian to inspect his wound.
Suddenly, her cell phone buzzed in her pocket.
She pulled it out with trembling fingers.
It was a FaceTime call from her mother.
Emma answered it frantically.
"Mom? Are you okay?" Emma cried.
May you like
The video connected, but it was not her mother's face on the screen.
It was Tessa, standing in their parents' living room, pointing her gun at their mother's head.
