Chapter 6 - The Lockdown
The darkness inside the underground server room was absolute and suffocating.
Dorian pulled a tactical flashlight from his belt, casting a sharp beam across the metal walls.
He understood immediately that Silas had seized complete remote control of the mansion's automated security grid.
The estate had been designed to keep violent intruders out during a brutal mob war.
Now, that exact same system was being used to trap the king inside his own castle.
Marin backed away from the locked steel door, her breathing becoming rapid and shallow.
Titan let out a low, menacing growl, sensing the rising panic in the tiny, enclosed space.
"Silas knows we found the microchip," Dorian said quietly, checking the ammunition in his pistol.
He explained that his former friend would not leave them locked in this room to simply starve.
Silas would send his heavily armed death squads to finish the job before the rest of the syndicate found out.
A sudden burst of static crackled loudly from the intercom speaker mounted on the ceiling.
Silas's smooth, arrogant voice echoed through the cold underground room.
"It is nothing personal, Dorian," Silas announced, sounding almost bored by the betrayal.
He claimed that the Chicago empire needed a leader who was willing to expand, not hide in the shadows.
Silas cheerfully thanked Marin for finally delivering the missing ledgers directly to his doorstep.
Dorian did not waste his breath screaming insults at the cowardly traitor through a speaker.
He walked over to a seemingly solid concrete panel on the far wall of the server room.
He pressed his hand against a hidden biometric scanner disguised as a simple electrical outlet.
The heavy concrete wall hissed and slowly slid open, revealing a dark, narrow corridor.
"I built this house, Silas," Dorian whispered into the intercom. "You just dug your own grave."
He grabbed Marin's hand and pulled her into the hidden passage just as the main door violently exploded inward.
Shards of twisted metal and thick smoke filled the room they had just abandoned.
Dorian handed Marin a heavy, loaded revolver and told her to keep her finger off the trigger until necessary.
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They could hear the heavy boots of Silas's mercenaries stomping aggressively through the wreckage behind them.
The hunt for the king of Chicago had officially begun.
