Chapter 2 - The Locked Room
The smoke smelled of sulfur and burning plastic.
Matteo immediately recognized it as a highly toxic chemical suppressant used in industrial raids.
"Get to the floor," he ordered Elena.
He grabbed his bespoke suit jacket and shoved it against the bottom crack of the heavy doors.
Elena dropped to her knees, coughing as the grey cloud rapidly filled the upper half of the room.
"They bypassed the manual override," Matteo said, his eyes watering.
He pulled a customized Glock 19 from a hidden holster beneath his desk.
The fact that his own security system was being used to suffocate him meant the traitor was someone with top-tier access.
"Who else knew you cleaned up that blood?" he asked her.
"No one," Elena gasped, pressing her face against the cold hardwood floor.
"I washed it away and took your shirt from the laundry room because I couldn't walk around in a stained uniform."
Matteo realized she had inadvertently destroyed the only physical evidence of the intruder.
But she was also his only surviving witness.
He walked over to the reinforced bulletproof window overlooking the manicured gardens.
He raised his weapon and fired three consecutive rounds into the center of the glass.
The heavy glass spider-webbed, but it refused to shatter.
"Stand back," Matteo warned her.
He grabbed a heavy bronze statue from his bookshelf and slammed it into the weakened center of the window.
The glass finally gave way, letting a rush of cold night air into the suffocating room.
"Climb out onto the balcony," he instructed.
Elena scrambled through the broken window, her hands shaking but her movements surprisingly agile.
Matteo followed her out just as the study became completely consumed by the toxic smoke.
They stood on the stone balcony, gasping for clean air.
Matteo looked down at the courtyard and expected to see his loyal guards rushing to his aid.
Instead, he saw the bodies of three of his best men lying motionless on the cobblestones.
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Standing over them was Marco Reyes, his trusted head of security for over a decade.
Marco looked up at the balcony and raised a suppressed assault rifle directly at Matteo's chest.
