Chapter 13 - Blood and Blueprint
Back in Sicily, Sophia sat at the drafting table in the subterranean security archive, her desk illuminated by the harsh white glow of an architectural layout monitor. Around her, digital blueprints of the Moretti estate rotated in a complex 3D rendering. She wasn't looking at the guest rooms or the wine cellars. She was staring at the ventilation shafts beneath the west wing—the exact sector where the old vineyard tunnel intersected with the mansion's main electrical grid.
Her phone buzzed against the metal desk. An encrypted text from Leo: The Geneva lead is real. Guard the house.
Sophia didn't panic. Panic was a waste of cognitive bandwidth. Instead, she stood up, walked over to the reinforced steel weapon locker set into the archive wall, and entered a twelve-digit biometric passcode. The heavy door swung open, revealing rows of tactical gear, suppressed submachine guns, and the heavy metal box containing the M67 fragmentation grenades she had learned to respect eight years ago.
Before she could reach for a sidearm, the overhead fluorescent lights flickered once—twice—and then died completely.
Total darkness swallowed the archive.
A fraction of a second later, the backup generator kicked in, bathing the room in a dull, pulsing amber emergency glow. But the automated access doors didn't slide open. The digital locks clicked shut with a heavy, mechanical finality.
System override, a cold synthetic voice echoed from the archive's internal intercom. Biometric lock engaged. Unauthorized personnel detected in restricted zone.
Sophia froze. That wasn't a standard power failure. That was an internal system purge—the kind of override only accessible via the master architectural terminal located in Rocco Moretti’s private study upstairs.
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"Smart girl," a voice whispered from the shadows near the back shelving units.
Sophia didn't hesitate. She pivoted on her heel, her hand darting into the locker, her fingers wrapping around the grip of a suppressed 9mm pistol just as a heavy shadow detached itself from the darkness and lunged toward her.
