Chapter 3 - THE BLOOD IN THE FOUNDATION"They're going to break through in less than ten minutes," Evelyn panicked, retreating toward the back window. "Daniel, we have to jump to the terrace! We have to run!"
"No," Daniel said calmly. He walked over to the grand fireplace. Above it hung the massive oil painting of his mother and father.
He stared into his father’s painted eyes. In the portrait, his father was sitting in an armchair, holding a blueprint roll in his right hand. On his left wrist, he wore a distinct silver watch with the hands permanently set to a specific time: 4:15.
Daniel remembered the day his father had given him the gold family key.
“Son,” his father had told him on his deathbed, “a real builder never puts his strongest support beam where people can see it. If the house ever falls, look to the blueprint.”
Daniel grabbed the heavy wooden frame of the painting and swung it outward on its hidden piano hinge. Behind it was not a safe, nor a keypad. It was a solid sheet of polished granite engraved with the original architectural floor plan of the mansion.
11:42 PM.
"A blueprint," Daniel whispered to himself. He traced his dirt-caked finger along the engraved lines of the mansion’s foundation.
In the bottom right corner of the architectural drawing, near the southern support pillar of the estate’s basement vault, there was a tiny inscription in Latin: “Sanguis in Fundamento”—Blood in the Foundation.
"Evelyn," Daniel called out over the screaming sound of the angle grinder tearing through the door hinges. "Did my father build the foundation extensions in 2018 himself?"
"Yes! He poured the reinforced concrete personally with a elite crew!" she yelled back. "Why?"
"Because he didn't put the vault drive in this room," Daniel realized, his eyes shining with sudden, fiery clarity. "He put it where no electronic scanner could ever reach—inside the original poured concrete under the wine cellar!"
Suddenly, the top hinge of the heavy oak study door snapped with a violent metallic screech. The door sagged inward. A mercenary’s arm reached through the breach, trying to unlock the secondary bolt!
Daniel didn't hesitate. He grabbed his father’s heavy bronze desk lamp, stepped over, and brought it down hard on the mercenary’s arm. The man screamed, pulling his hand back as blood sprayed across the broken wood.
"Evelyn, grab the satellite relay!" Daniel roared. "We're going to the basement!"
"How? They're blocking the hallway!"
Daniel turned toward the corner of the study. He walked over to a high, decorative bookshelf loaded with leather-bound architectural volumes. He reached behind the third shelf, found a cold steel lever, and pulled it down with all his body weight.
With a heavy groan of iron gears, the entire bookshelf swung inward, revealing a dusty, narrow spiral staircase dropping straight into the dark bowels of the mansion.
"A secret passage?" Evelyn gasped.
"An escape route built during Prohibition," Daniel said, shoving her inside first. "Move! Fast!"
May you like
Just as Daniel stepped into the darkness and pulled the heavy secret door shut behind them, the front study door crashed inward. Heavy boots thundered into the empty room, accompanied by profane screaming.
11:47 PM. Thirteen minutes until midnight.
