Chapter 4 - The Deadly Countdown
The toxic yellow gas filled the safe house with terrifying, suffocating speed.
My throat immediately began to burn, and my eyes watered so heavily I could barely see the walls around me.
Margaret collapsed onto her knees, coughing violently as she desperately covered her mouth with her leather briefcase.
Daniel shouted for everyone to get down on the floor where the clean oxygen might last a few seconds longer.
Luis pulled a heavy tactical knife from his belt and sprinted toward the reinforced glass of the living room window.
He swung the heavy steel handle against the glass with all his remaining strength, but the impact did not leave a single scratch.
The safe house had been brilliantly designed to withstand a massive external assault, making it a perfect death trap.
I crawled across the carpet, my lungs screaming in agony as the poisonous fog settled lower into the room.
Daniel noticed a small, rusted maintenance hatch located near the ceiling above the fireplace.
He instructed Luis to give him a boost, completely ignoring the toxic fumes filling his own lungs.
Luis lifted Daniel into the thickest part of the gas cloud, sacrificing his own air for our survival.
Daniel raised his pistol and fired three deafening shots directly into the heavy hinges of the metal hatch.
The metal grate violently blew outward, allowing a massive gust of freezing, fresh air to rush into the room.
Daniel pulled himself through the narrow opening and immediately reached back down to grab my hand.
He hauled me up through the hatch, and we both tumbled out onto the wet, muddy grass of the backyard.
Margaret and Luis barely managed to climb out behind us before the entire safe house was completely consumed by the gas.
We lay in the freezing rain, gasping desperately for oxygen and coughing up thick, dark fluid.
Margaret forced herself to stand, her professional composure entirely replaced by pure survival instinct.
She realized that Elaine had intentionally lured us to this specific location just to permanently eliminate us.
Elaine needed my official death certificate to legally authorize the final transfer of the massive Pierce fortune into her offshore accounts.
Daniel pulled the burner phone from his pocket, noting that the device was somehow completely untouched by the gas.
He checked the GPS coordinates Elaine had provided, wondering if the location of Aunt Rebecca was also a deadly trap.
Luis argued that we could not risk ignoring the coordinates because Rebecca was the only innocent family member I had left.
We stole a rusted pickup truck from a nearby farm and drove recklessly toward the industrial district.
We arrived at an abandoned, decaying shipyard located right on the edge of the dark, crashing ocean.
We silently infiltrated the largest warehouse, navigating through endless rows of empty shipping containers.
We finally found Aunt Rebecca tied securely to a metal chair in the center of the completely empty room.
She was badly beaten, unconscious, and completely unaware of the terrifying reality surrounding her.
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Strapped tightly across Rebecca's chest was a massive, highly complex explosive device with a glowing digital timer.
The red numbers were rapidly counting down, and we had exactly sixty seconds left to save her life.
