Chapter 7 - Breathless
The air inside the fortified executive office began to thin rapidly, causing an immediate sense of suffocating panic.
Mia started coughing violently, her small hands clutching her chest as she struggled to pull in oxygen.
Silvio knew the reinforced bulletproof glass windows could withstand a direct blast from a rocket launcher.
He desperately searched the room for anything that could break the hermetic seal of the heavy oak doors.
He grabbed a heavy bronze statue from Grant’s desk and smashed it repeatedly against the electronic keypad.
The keypad shattered into pieces, but the heavy magnetic locks deep inside the door frame remained stubbornly engaged.
Ethan slumped against the wall, his face turning dangerously pale as the lack of oxygen took its toll.
Silvio’s own vision began to blur at the edges, his lungs burning with every desperate, shallow breath.
He remembered a minor detail from the original architectural blueprints of the corporate tower.
The private executive bathroom had a small, dedicated water drainage pipe that bypassed the main ventilation system.
Silvio rushed into the attached bathroom, pulling a heavy tactical knife from his boot.
He violently pried the metal drain cover off the floor, exposing a narrow, dark pipe leading down.
He instructed Ethan to point the stolen pistol directly at the thick PVC pipe and pull the trigger.
Ethan braced himself and fired three suppressed rounds, shattering the tough plastic and creating a jagged hole.
A rush of foul, stale air blasted up from the plumbing system, providing just enough oxygen to keep them conscious.
Silvio ripped off his jacket and shoved it against the bottom of the main door to block the vacuum effect.
They huddled around the shattered drain, taking deep, greedy breaths of the terrible-smelling air.
Just as their heart rates began to stabilize, they heard the heavy magnetic locks on the main door click open.
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Silvio stood up, gripping his tactical knife tightly as the heavy oak door slowly creaked inward.
Standing in the doorway was not Grant, but a heavily bruised Lucinda, holding a detonator in her trembling hand.
