Chapter 4 - The Escape Plan
The chilling threat from the radio echoed in the small, red-lit room.
I immediately looked up at the main ventilation grate located near the ceiling.
I had to act incredibly fast before the lethal gas flooded our confined space.
"Hannah, give me your jacket," I ordered sharply.
She quickly stripped off her uniform jacket and handed it to me with trembling hands.
I dragged a heavy metal supply crate to the center of the room and climbed on top of it.
I shoved the thick fabric of the jacket tightly into the ventilation grate, temporarily blocking the airflow.
It would not hold for long, but it bought us a few precious minutes.
"We cannot stay in here," I told Hannah, jumping back down to the floor.
"There is a secondary escape tunnel beneath the floorboards that leads out to the cliffs."
I knelt down and pulled back the industrial carpet, revealing a heavy iron trapdoor.
I punched my private access code into the digital keypad, and the trapdoor hissed open.
A damp, dark concrete tunnel sloped downward into the absolute unknown.
"Go," I told her, helping her carefully lower the baby into the dark shaft.
"Follow the tunnel until you reach the heavy steel gate at the beach."
"I will be right behind you."
Hannah nodded bravely and began crawling into the darkness with Grace wrapped in her arms.
I turned back to the primary command console and initiated the mansion's self-destruct protocol.
It was a drastic measure designed to completely wipe all of my family's financial servers and burn the estate to the ground.
If Vanguard wanted my empire, they were going to inherit a massive pile of worthless ash.
A computerized female voice announced that the thermal charges would detonate in exactly three minutes.
I climbed down into the escape tunnel and pulled the heavy iron trapdoor securely shut above me.
I turned on my tactical flashlight and sprinted down the damp corridor.
I caught up to Hannah just as she reached the heavy steel gate blocking our exit to the beach.
The crashing sound of the ocean waves echoed loudly against the stone walls.
I grabbed the manual override lever and pulled it down with all my strength.
The rusted metal gears groaned loudly, but the gate slowly lifted open.
We stepped out into the freezing night air, completely hidden by the rocky cliffs below the mansion.
"We need to get to Julian's old safehouse in the city," I said, leading them toward a concealed speedboat hidden under a camouflage tarp.
Suddenly, a massive explosion ripped through the night sky above us.
My beautiful ancestral home erupted into a spectacular ball of bright orange fire.
The shockwave knocked us to the sandy beach, showering the rocks with burning debris.
I shielded Hannah and Grace with my own body as the destruction rained down.
When the chaos finally settled, I looked out toward the dark, freezing waters of the bay.
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Standing on the edge of the pier, blocking our only path to the boat, was Vincent.
He was bleeding heavily from his forehead, and he was aiming a loaded assault rifle directly at my chest.
