Chapter 4 - Surrounded
The roaring thunder of helicopter blades shook the glass windows of the estate. Bright floodlights cut through the darkness of the Maine forest, illuminating the heavy rain cascading over the roof.
“Lucas, get her to the subterranean bunker!” Arthur shouted over the deafening noise, reaching into a hidden wall safe and pulling out a compact firearm with practiced ease despite his age.
“Dad, no! I’m not leaving you!” Elena cried, clutching her father’s arm.
“Elena, listen to me!” Arthur commanded, grabbing her shoulders, his scarred face intense. “You are carrying the future of our family! Everything I fought for eleven years ago lives inside you and that child! You must survive!”
Outside, heavy gunfire erupted.
The sound of automatic rifles shattered the night. Lucas’s tactical team engaged Daniel’s Vanguard mercenaries in the courtyard. Glass shattered in the front foyer as heavy boots kicked through the main doors.
“Move! Now!” Lucas barked, grabbing Elena by the hand and pulling her down a narrow service corridor behind the fireplace.
They descended a steep set of stone stairs into a concrete bunker beneath the estate. The heavy steel door locked automatically behind them with a deep pneumatic thud.
Inside the bunker, banks of security monitors displayed the chaos above.
On the main camera feed, Elena watched in horror as six heavily armed mercenaries in dark tactical gear overwhelmed her father’s guards.
Through the front entrance walked Daniel.
He wore a dark raincoat over his blood-stained suit. Beside him walked Sophie, looking pale and terrified, clutching a designer bag to her chest.
“Search the house!” Daniel roared on the security audio feed. “Find my wife! And bring me Arthur Carter’s head!”
On screen, Arthur stood at the end of the hallway, raising his handgun. He fired twice, hitting one of the mercenaries in the chest armor, but another guard lunged forward, slamming Arthur against the stone wall.
“Dad!” Elena screamed at the monitor, slamming her hands against the glass.
Daniel walked up to the frail old man, a cold, sadistic grin spreading across his face. He grabbed Arthur by his collar, pinning him against the wall.
“Hello, father-in-law,” Daniel sneered. “You should have stayed dead eleven years ago. It would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”
“You’ll never get the trust, Daniel,” Arthur spat, coughing blood onto Daniel’s coat. “Elena knows everything. The world will know what Vanguard did!”
“Elena is a pregnant woman running through the woods with a fake medical record,” Daniel laughed softly. “Who do you think the media will believe? A grieving, wealthy husband whose wife lost her mind during pregnancy... or a dead scientist’s crazy daughter?”
Daniel signaled to his guard. The guard raised the butt of his rifle and struck Arthur across the temple. Arthur crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
In the bunker, Elena collapsed to her knees, gasping for air. A sharp, unbearable wave of pain surged across her lower back, radiating down into her thighs.
She screamed out in agony, clutching her abdomen.
Lucas knelt beside her instantly, his eyes wide with concern. “Elena! What’s wrong?!”
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Elena looked down at her jeans. A wet stain was spreading rapidly across the dark denim.
Her water had broken. She was thirty-two weeks pregnant, trapped in an underground bunker, surrounded by mercenaries, and going into premature labor.
