Chapter 5 - The Siege of Lake Forest
By Thursday night, the Lake Forest estate had been transformed into an impenetrable fortress.
High-voltage security fences groaned under thousands of volts. Infrared motion sensors swept every inch of the twelve-acre estate, and thirty heavily armed guards patrolled the stone walls with Belgian Malinois attack dogs.
Inside the house, however, I had moved Elena, Sophie, and the triplets down to the subterranean shelter—a reinforced steel bunker located twenty feet beneath the wine cellar, built during the Cold War and updated with modern medical equipment, air filtration systems, and independent power generators.
I sat at the steel monitoring console inside the bunker, watching sixteen high-definition camera feeds showing the rainy grounds above.
Sophie was lying on a plush carpet nearby, fast asleep with her ragged cloth doll tucked under her arm. Elena sat in a armchair, softly rocking Theo, while Miles and Nora slept peacefully in two portable travel cribs.
"It feels strange down here," Elena said quietly, looking at the thick blast doors. "Like we're hiding from the world."
"We aren't hiding, Elena," I said, adjusting the tactical knife strapped to my chest. "We are baiting a trap."
Suddenly, the screen in the upper left corner of my console flickered violently with red static.
An alarm chime sounded—soft, low, and persistent.
"Boss," Marco’s voice came through the bunker intercom. "Sensors four through eight just went dark. They cut the main power line at the street transformer. Emergency generators are running, but we have multiple heat signatures breaching the northern perimeter wall!"
I stood up instantly, checking the action on my custom assault rifle.
"How many?" I asked.
"At least twenty-five operators," Marco reported, gunfire already echoing faintly in the background through the speaker. "They’re using night-vision gear and suppressed automatic weapons! Lorenzo sent his entire mercenary force!"
"Hold the foyer and the main staircase," I ordered. "Do not let them reach the basement stairs under any circumstances. I am coming up."
I turned to Elena. Her face was pale, but her eyes were steady.
"Lock the blast door behind me," I instructed her, holding her gaze. "Do not open it for anyone except me or Marco. If anyone else tries to breach this door, hit the red override switch on the wall—it will seal the hydraulic locks permanently."
Elena nodded firmly, taking my hand for a brief, electric second. "Be careful, Adrien. Please... come back to us."
I looked down at sleeping Sophie, then at my three beautiful babies.
"I will," I promised.
May you like
The heavy steel blast door hissed open, and I stepped out into the concrete corridor leading up to the wine cellar. As the steel doors sealed shut behind me, the muffled thunder of automatic gunfire and exploding grenades shook the foundation of the house above.
The siege of the Moretti estate had begun.
