Chapter 17 - Night of the Vipers
The temperature outside had plummeted below zero, and a fresh blanket of wind-driven snow whistled through the pines. The estate’s exterior lights flickered once and died—the Vipers had cut the main power lines using a high-voltage EMP emitter.
Total darkness swallowed the grand foyer.
Armed with tactical night-vision goggles and suppressed submachine guns, the four elite assassins breached the side service entrance with silent, surgical precision. They moved through the lower corridors like shadows, their footsteps completely inaudible against the hardwood floors.
They didn't realize that Lorenzo, Viktor, and I had mapped every square inch of the estate during the blizzard siege.
I crouched behind the reinforced mahogany partition of the east library, holding my Sig Sauer steady, my breath fogging slightly in the freezing indoor air. Beside me, Lorenzo melted into the darkness near the ceiling balcony, while Viktor flanked the southern hallway with tactical precision.
The first assassin stepped cautiously into the library, his night-vision scope sweeping across the empty bookshelves. He moved forward, his finger resting lightly on the trigger of his suppressed weapon.
As he passed my hiding spot, I didn't hesitate. I stepped out silently from the shadows, raised the pistol, and fired a precise, non-lethal shot straight into his tactical knee joint. The assassin collapsed with a muffled groan of agony.
Before he could hit the floor, Lorenzo dropped silently from the balcony above like an avenging angel, slamming his combat boot into the assassin’s helmet and rendering him instantly unconscious.
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"That’s one," Lorenzo whispered into his comm-link.
"Two down in the south wing," Viktor’s calm voice crackled through the earpiece a second later. "The third is attempting to breach the master study."
