CHAPTER 7 — THE SHOT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
The attorney's finger tightened on the trigger.
"I'm sorry, Ethan," he said quietly. "Your father protected this secret for twenty-four years. You should have left it buried."
A muffled gunshot echoed through the hidden room.
Ethan threw himself sideways just as the bullet shattered the bookshelf behind him.
He rolled across the hardwood floor, grabbing the heavy leather journal before diving behind an antique desk.
The attorney calmly reloaded.
"You were never meant to survive long enough to learn who you really are."
Another shot.
Wood exploded into splinters.
Ethan reached for his phone with trembling hands and hit the emergency number Colonel Vance had programmed into it.
The call connected—but before he could speak, the attorney kicked the phone across the room.
"No more witnesses."
Just as he raised the pistol again...
The mansion's front windows exploded inward.
"Federal agents!"
"Drop your weapon!"
Colonel Vance stormed into the study with an FBI tactical team.
The attorney fired twice before escaping through a hidden tunnel beneath the fireplace.
By the time agents reached the underground passage, he had vanished.
Only one thing remained.
A gold cufflink engraved with a black phoenix.
Vance stared at it.
His face hardened.
"I was afraid of this."
Eleanor Brooks picked up the cufflink.
"The Phoenix Circle."
Several agents exchanged nervous looks.
One young investigator whispered, "I thought they were just a conspiracy theory."
"They aren't," Eleanor replied.
"They're the reason Black Summit happened."
Back at headquarters, the recovered journal was finally examined.
Most of its pages had been burned or torn out.
Only a handful remained intact.
One page contained a list of names.
Military officers.
Judges.
Corporate executives.
Cabinet officials.
Many were now dead.
Some had become billionaires.
Others still held powerful government positions.
Every name was marked with the same symbol.
A black phoenix.
Then Maya noticed something no one else had seen.
At the very bottom...
One final name had been written in different ink.
Victoria Sterling-Vaughn.
The room fell silent.
Victoria stared at the page in horror.
"I've never seen this before," she whispered.
"I swear..."
But before anyone could question her further...
The lights across the entire federal building suddenly went out.
Emergency alarms began screaming.
A voice echoed through the darkness.
"They've found us."
May you like
And somewhere inside the building...
Someone had just killed the power on purpose.
