Chapter 7 - THE BATTLE IN THE LIBRARYThe Blackwood Estate library smelled of old leather, mahogany, and gunsmoke.
Ronan kicked the heavy oak door shut behind them and threw the deadbolt. The room was vast, lined with three stories of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves accessible by rolling iron ladders.
"They're cutting through the steel reinforcement on the service door," Ivy said, her ear pressed against the wall near the fireplace. She wasn't panicking. Her mind was operating like a supercomputer. "We have about ninety seconds before they breach."
Ronan was already moving, dragging a heavy oak writing desk across the floor to barricade the entrance. "Where is the physical backup drive?"
"Inside the hollow cavity behind the bust of Marcus Blackwood," Ivy pointed toward the massive marble statue of Ronan’s grandfather perched above the stone hearth.
She walked over, reached up, and twisted the stone ears of the bust. With a satisfying mechanical clack, a hidden wall panel slid open, revealing a glowing black titanium lockbox embedded in the brickwork.
"Good," Ronan murmured, covering the door with his pistol. "Now we wait for them to break through, take out the advance team, and—"
"No," Ivy interrupted sharply. She pulled the heavy service key from her blazer pocket and inserted it into the lockbox, turning it twice.
Ronan stared at her, dumbfounded. "What are you doing? That box self-destructs if opened under duress!"
"It only self-destructs if the wrong thumbprint is used," Ivy said calmly, pressing her right thumb against the biometric scanner. The green light blinked twice, and the heavy metal door swung open. She didn't pull out a flash drive or a hard drive. She pulled out an old, leather-bound journal identical to the one she had carried earlier—alongside a heavy, vintage Colt .45 revolver.
She checked the cylinder, spun it with practiced ease, and handed the Colt to Ronan.
Ronan looked at the gun, then at her. "You knew how to open the vault all along."
"Your grandfather taught me," Ivy said softly, her eyes holding an old, deep sorrow. "Before he died, he told me that blood could betray you, but loyalty written in ink and proven in blood never does. He knew Victor would come back one day."
Before Ronan could answer, the service door exploded inward with a deafening blast of C4 charges. Splinters of oak and iron showered the library.
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Through the smoke and fire, three heavily armed men poured into the room, led by a tall, heavily scarred man with a cold, sadistic grin.
"Well, well, well," Victor Vance laughed, stepping over the shattered debris, his assault rifle leveled directly at Ronan's chest. "Look at the great Ronan Blackwood, cornered like a rat in his own library... and hiding behind his fat maid, no less."
