Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Assassins
Viral Hook: "They didn't come to hide the truth. They came to bury the entire family line.""Breach! South balcony!" Vance’s voice blasted through Marcus’s earpiece.
The lights in the penthouse flickered and died, plunging the luxury apartment into pitch blackness. The only illumination came from the distant city skyline through the massive windows.
Smash!
Three heavily armed operatives wearing night-vision goggles and silent submachine guns shattered the reinforced glass, swinging in on tactical ropes. They didn't speak. They didn't issue demands. They opened fire immediately, sending a hail of suppressed bullets into the living room furniture.
Marcus reacted on pure instinct. He dived across the floor, grabbing Leo by his waist and rolling behind a solid mahogany dining table. Bullets ripped through the wood, sending deadly splinters flying into the air.
"Stay down!" Marcus hissed, pinning Leo beneath his chest.
Vance and two other Lycan security details returned fire. The room became an inferno of muzzle flashes and shattering glass. One of the attackers took a round to the chest and collapsed, his blood pooling on the white marble floor. The remaining two assassins realized they had lost the element of surprise. One of them pulled a flashbang grenade from his vest, pulled the pin, and tossed it toward Marcus’s position.
"Cover your eyes!" Marcus shielded Leo’s head with both hands.
BANG!
A blinding white light and a deafening roar disoriented everyone in the room. Through the ringing in his ears, Marcus heard the sound of heavy boots retreating toward the balcony. They weren't trying to finish the job anymore—they were extracting. But as they left, one of the men dropped a small device onto the floor. A timer blinking in ominous red numbers: 00:15.
"C4! Move, move, move!" Vance screamed, grabbing Dr. Harrison by the collar and sprinting toward the private elevator.
Marcus scooped Leo into his arms, ignoring the agonizing burn in his shoulder where a stray splinter had sliced through his suit jacket. He didn't run for the elevator—he knew they would cut the power grid. Instead, he bolted for the reinforced panic room hidden behind the master bedroom closet.
He slammed his palm against the biometric scanner just as the timer hit zero.
BOOM!
The shockwave blew the heavy steel door forward just as it clicked shut. The entire penthouse shook violently, dust and debris raining down inside the bunker. The security monitors inside the panic room flickered to life, showing the devastating destruction of Marcus’s multi-million-dollar home.
Marcus collapsed against the wall, breathing heavily, holding his nephew tight against his chest. Leo was hyperventilating, crying silently into Marcus’s blood-stained shirt.
"We are safe here, Leo. I swear to you," Marcus whispered, his eyes burning with an unholy rage. He reached down and picked up his secure satellite phone. He dialed a number known only to three people in the world.
The call connected. A smooth, elderly female voice answered on the other end. "Marcus? I heard there was an incident at the restaurant. Are you unharmed?"
It was Victoria Lycan, Marcus’s biological aunt and the matriarch of the Lycan Board.
"I am alive, Aunt Victoria," Marcus said, his voice dropping to a terrifyingly calm whisper. "And so is Julian’s son. Tell your extraction team they missed their target. Both of them."
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There was a long, suffocating silence on the line. When Victoria spoke again, the warm, motherly tone was entirely gone. "A child cannot inherit a throne, Marcus. You should have eaten the salmon."
The line went dead.
