Chapter 4 - The Hostage Negotiation
Vanessa smiled a wicked, triumphant smile as she pushed Arthur further into his own study.
Arthur’s expensive shirt was torn, and dark blood trickled from a nasty cut above his left eyebrow.
“Did you really think you could hide in my house, Clara?” Vanessa mocked loudly.
Clara instinctively pushed Ethan behind her own body, shielding the boy from the deranged woman.
“Let Arthur go, Vanessa, you have already lost everything,” Clara said, trying to keep her voice steady.
Vanessa laughed, a cold and chilling sound that echoed off the high ceiling of the study.
“I have not lost anything, because Arthur is going to sign his entire empire over to me tonight,” she stated firmly.
She ordered Clara to hand over the child, promising that Ethan would be sent to a quiet boarding school far away.
Clara knew that if she surrendered the boy, Vanessa would inevitably have all three of them killed to silence the truth.
She frantically scanned the dark room, desperate for any possible advantage against the armed killer.
Clara’s eyes darted toward the heavy bronze statue of a rearing horse resting on the edge of the desk.
“You will never get away with this murder,” Clara shouted, intentionally raising her voice to draw Vanessa’s attention.
As Vanessa turned her gun slightly toward Clara, Arthur seized the momentary distraction.
He violently slammed his elbow backward into Vanessa’s ribs, knocking the wind completely out of her lungs.
Clara simultaneously hurled the heavy bronze statue directly at the armed security guard standing in the doorway.
The metal statue struck the guard squarely in the chest, sending him crashing backward into the hallway.
Arthur lunged forward, grabbing Clara and Ethan by their hands.
“The panic room is behind the painting,” Arthur yelled over the chaotic scrambling.
He ripped a large oil painting off the wall, revealing a thick steel door equipped with a digital keypad.
Arthur quickly punched in the emergency code, and the heavy metal door hissed open.
He shoved Clara and his son inside the fortified bunker before diving in after them.
Arthur slammed his hand onto the internal lockdown button just as a bullet ricocheted off the closing steel frame.
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They were safely sealed inside the impenetrable vault, breathing heavily in the sudden, echoing silence.
But their momentary relief vanished when a computerized voice coldly announced that the external ventilation system had just been disabled.
