Chapter 3 - The Traitor in the Ranks
The hallway was a nightmare of smoke, screaming, and relentless automatic gunfire.
Evelyn pressed herself against the expensive silk wallpaper, coughing as thick gray clouds filled the corridor.
Marco suddenly appeared through the haze, his dark suit covered in white plaster dust.
He grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her toward a concealed door hidden behind a bookshelf.
They tumbled into a dark, narrow servant's staircase just as a hail of bullets shredded the wall where they had been standing.
"Who is attacking us?" Evelyn demanded, struggling to catch her breath.
Marco pushed her down the steep wooden steps in the pitch-black darkness.
"The physician works for the Rossi family, our oldest rivals in Rome," Marco explained breathlessly.
They reached the bottom of the stairs and emerged into the estate's massive underground wine cellar.
Marco pulled out his phone, attempting to secure an extraction team, but the screen displayed zero signal.
"They brought a jammer, which means someone inside the house gave them our exact location," Marco said.
Evelyn thought back to the flight, her mind replaying every single detail of the business-class cabin.
She remembered Antonio's group, the doctor, and the small black medication case.
"The doctor didn't touch the case until after Antonio collapsed," Evelyn realized aloud.
Marco stopped pacing and stared at her, his eyes narrowing in the dim light.
"What are you saying?" Marco asked.
"I am saying the doctor didn't trigger the allergic reaction," Evelyn stated firmly.
She remembered pouring the coffee, but she had briefly stepped away to help a passenger with an overhead bin.
Her co-worker, a flight attendant named Sarah, had handed the coffee cup directly to Antonio.
Evelyn told Marco that Sarah had to be the one who planted the initial poison.
Marco's face turned deathly pale.
"Sarah is not just your co-worker," Marco whispered in absolute horror.
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He revealed that Sarah was secretly engaged to Antonio's younger brother.
Suddenly, the heavy iron doors of the wine cellar were violently kicked open.
