Chapter 7 - The Tunnel of Whispers“Kai, you can’t go up there alone!” I shouted, running toward him, but Lev caught me by the arm, dragging me toward a small secondary access door in the back corner of the bunker.
“Come on, Miss Maya!” Lev grunted, his face dead serious. “If the Boss says move, we move! Standing here arguing will get us all killed!”
“Mommy! I don't want to leave Kai!” Lily cried out, reaching her small hands back toward her uncle. “He hasn't finished his cocoa!”
Kai paused at the threshold of the main vault door. He turned back for a split second. His eyes swept over Lily’s tear-stained face, then met mine.
“If I don't come out of this house, Maya,” Kai said softly over the sound of approaching gunfire, “take the key inside the silver locket. It opens a safe deposit box in Zurich. Everything I own belongs to her. Protect my blood.”
Before I could answer, Kai stepped through the vault door, pulled a heavy smoke grenade pin with his teeth, and tossed it into the hallway. The metal door slammed shut behind him automatically, locking us inside the secondary corridor.
“This way! Quick!” Lev demanded, switching on a high-powered tactical flashlight and pushing us into a damp, brick-lined tunnel that smelled of rust and cold earth.
We ran.
The floor of the tunnel was uneven and slick with groundwater, but I didn't care. I scooped Lily up into my arms, carrying her thirty-five-pound frame while sprinting behind Lev’s heavy, quick footfalls. Above us, the ground continued to shake violently as thermite charges detonated on the main floor of the mansion.
BOOM!
A massive shockwave rippled through the brickwork overhead, sending fine dust and small pebbles showering down onto our hair.
“The main structure is coming down!” Lev yelled, speeding up his pace. “Run!”
Lily buried her face in the crook of my neck, her small hands clutching my sweater so hard I could feel her nails digging into my skin. “Mommy, is Kai going to die?”
“No, baby,” I lied through my teeth, my lungs burning as I pushed myself through the damp darkness. “Kai is very strong. He’s going to be fine.”
We ran for what felt like miles through the narrow underground labyrinth until finally, a cold draft of winter air hit my face. Up ahead, a rusted iron grate opened into a deep, snow-covered ravine surrounded by thick pine trees.
Lev pushed open the heavy iron gate, stepping out into the knee-deep snow with his rifle raised, scanning the dark forest perimeter.
“Clear,” Lev whispered, waving us forward. “The backup vehicle is hidden five hundred yards down the creek bed.”
We scrambled out of the dark opening into the biting Connecticut winter. In the distance, half a mile behind us through the dense woods, the skyline was glowing a violent, angry orange. The Harrington estate was burning—a massive column of black smoke rising into the clear, starry night sky.
“Oh my God…” I breathed, stopping in the snow, staring at the distant inferno.
“Keep moving, Miss Maya!” Lev urged, taking my elbow. “Julian’s outer perimeter guards could be sweeping these woods!”
We stepped into the deep shadows of the pine trees, creeping along the frozen creek bank. But before we could reach the hidden vehicle, a bright beam of tactical light suddenly pierced through the trees, blinding us completely.
CLICK-CLICK.
The sound of several assault rifles being cocked simultaneously rang out through the freezing silence.
“Well, well, well,” a smooth, sickening voice chuckled from behind the light. “Look what crawled out of the rabbit hole.”
The light lowered slightly, revealing four heavily armed mercenaries dressed in dark camo, flanked by Julian Moretti himself, holding an ivory-handled revolver.
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Julian smiled, stepping forward through the snow, his eyes locking onto Lily.
“Did you really think Kai Harrington’s little rat-hole tunnel wasn't on my blueprint maps, Maya?” Julian sneered. “Your father helped design this estate twenty years ago. He sold me those blueprints three days before I put a bullet in his head.”
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