Chapter 7 - The Sub-Basement
At 2:15 AM, the storm outside raged with ruthless fury. Dressed in full dark attire, I moved down the emergency stairwell, the raw pain in my ribs burning like fire, but fueled by an adrenaline surge I hadn't felt in twenty years.
Grace led the way, holding her heavy keycard. We reached the sub-basement door marked Maintenance - Unauthorized Entry Prohibited.
Through the small reinforced glass window, I saw two heavily armed mercenaries standing guard outside a heavy steel vault door. Inside, I could hear the faint, painful groans of my loyal driver.
"How do you want to play this?" Grace whispered, reaching into her jacket.
"Quietly," I said.
Grace stepped into the corridor, holding a bottle of industrial floor stripper and a mop. "Excuse me, gentlemen," she said in a trembling, naive voice. "There's a main pipe leakage on the fourth floor. The supervisor said I had to check the basement valves."
The first guard sneered, stepping forward. "Get out of here, lady. This area is off-limits."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Grace gasped, tripping forward intentionally and sloshing the concentrated chemical stripper directly into the guard's eyes and face.
The man screamed in agony, dropping his weapon to clutch his blinding eyes. Before the second guard could draw his sidearm, I lunged out from the stairwell, wrapping my forearm around his throat in a sleeper hold, slamming his head back against the concrete wall until his body went limp.
Grace kicked the fallen weapon away, her expression cold and completely detached.
I grabbed the keycard from the unconscious guard's belt and swiped the vault lock. The heavy steel door hissed open.
Nico was tied to a wooden chair, his face battered, but his eyes lit up with wild, disbelief as he looked at me.
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"Boss..." Nico choked out through bloodied lips. "They... they said you were dead."
"I was," I said, slicing his bonds with a combat knife. "But I came back to finish the job."
