Chapter 3 - The Traitor's Aim
Matteo threw his body against Elena, tackling her down to the hard stone floor of the balcony.
A barrage of suppressed bullets shattered the stone railing exactly where they had just been standing.
Chips of granite rained down on Matteo's shoulders.
"Marco is the traitor?" Elena whispered in absolute shock.
"It seems my entire life has been a carefully constructed lie," Matteo replied coldly.
He calculated the distance to the edge of the balcony and the nearest trellis.
"We have to climb down the east wall," he told her.
"They will shoot us before we make it halfway," she argued.
"Not if I give them a reason to look the other way," he said.
Matteo reached into his pocket and pulled out a small electronic fob.
It was the master detonator for the mansion's emergency protocol.
He pressed the red button without a second thought.
A massive explosion ripped through the west wing of the estate, sending a fireball high into the night sky.
The shockwave knocked Marco and his men off their feet in the courtyard below.
"Move!" Matteo yelled.
He and Elena scrambled over the remaining stone railing and grabbed the thick ivy vines clinging to the brickwork.
They slid down the wall with frantic speed, tearing their hands on the rough branches.
When their feet hit the wet grass, the entire estate was illuminated by the raging fire.
Sirens began wailing loudly in the distance.
"Where are we going?" Elena asked as they sprinted toward the dense woods bordering the property.
"To a place that doesn't exist on any map," Matteo answered.
They ran through the dark forest for what felt like hours.
Matteo was bleeding from a deep cut on his forehead, but he refused to slow down.
They finally reached an abandoned subway access tunnel hidden beneath an old concrete bridge.
Matteo punched a code into a rusted keypad, and a heavy steel door groaned open.
They stepped inside a fully stocked underground safe house.
Elena collapsed onto a leather couch, exhausted and trembling.
Matteo locked the reinforced door and turned to face her.
"Now you are going to tell me the truth," he said.
May you like
He leveled his gun directly at her head.
"Because regular maids do not know how to evade tactical gunfire without panicking."
