Chapter 7 - The Underground Auction
Leo stared at the bloody message, feeling his stomach drop into a bottomless pit.
Monica checked the medical chart dropped on the floor.
“Julian didn't kill her,” Monica said, her voice shaking.
“He transferred her to the underground syndicate.”
Leo grabbed Monica’s arm tightly.
“What is the underground syndicate?”
“It’s a black-market auction house for the criminal elite,” Monica explained.
“Julian is going to sell Evelyn's biometric access to the highest bidder tonight.”
They drove the stolen van to an abandoned subway station deep beneath the city.
Monica used her old criminal contacts to secure two VIP masquerade masks.
They blended in with billionaires and cartel bosses in a massive underground theater.
The auctioneer stood on a brilliantly lit stage, holding a golden gavel.
“Our final item tonight is the biometric key to the Vance Diamond Mines,” the auctioneer announced.
The crowd went wild, raising paddles worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Bring out the prize!” the auctioneer shouted.
Two heavily armed guards dragged a figure onto the stage with a black bag over their head.
Leo reached into his jacket, preparing to draw the gun he took from the asylum guard.
The auctioneer ripped the black bag off the hostage's head.
Leo froze, his blood turning to absolute ice.
The woman on the stage was not an elderly grandmother in a wheelchair.
It was a woman in her late forties with familiar, terrifyingly sad eyes.
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It was Leo’s mother, Sarah.
She was still alive.
