Chapter 7 - The Breached Wall
Inside the reinforced safe room, the air was thick with tension.
Sophie sat quietly on the plush carpet, holding her button-eyed doll tight against her chest, while my mother paced back and forth near the cribs where Theo, Miles, and Nora slept soundly, protected by the heavy concrete walls.
The heavy thud of distant artillery shook the foundations of the mansion.
Suddenly, the encrypted satellite phone Adrien had given me began to vibrate violently in my hand.
I flipped it open and pressed the speaker button.
"Elena!" Marco’s voice shouted over deafening gunfire and alarms. "Listen to me very carefully! The Rossis bypassed the ground-floor security grid! They're using a thermal breaching charge on the east utility corridor!"
"That corridor connects directly to the safe room ventilation shaft!" I gasped, cold terror gripping my chest.
"Exactly!" Marco yelled. "They're coming through the service tunnels to get to the children! Get out through the extraction tunnel now!"
Before I could answer, a massive explosion rocked the eastern wall of the safe room. Plaster dust exploded into the air, and a section of the reinforced drywall buckled inward with a terrifying screech of stressed metal.
Smoke poured into the room, obscuring the hallway.
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Through the haze, three masked figures clad in tactical gear stepped through the broken wall, assault rifles raised, scanning the room.
My heart stopped. I shoved my mother and Sophie behind the heavy mahogany dresser, drawing the small backup pistol Adrien had slipped into my coat pocket earlier, raising my trembling hands toward the intruders.
