Chapter 4 - The Traitor's MarkThe deafening wail of emergency sirens echoed through the fortress. Red strobe lights bathed the mahogany walls of the study in a blood-colored glow.
Victor pulled a heavy chrome pistol from his waistband in a smooth, practiced motion. His eyes narrowed to slits. "Stay here," he ordered Tessa and Vance.
"Victor, the lab!" Vance panicked, clutching his chest. "The biological samples for the antidote are stored in the basement vault!"
Without another word, Victor sprinted out of the room, followed by four heavily armed guards. Tessa didn't hesitate. Ignoring Victor's command to stay put, she grabbed a heavy brass statue from a side table and slipped out into the hallway behind them.
The mansion had transformed into a warzone. The glass skylight in the central foyer shattered as black-clad mercenaries descended on ropes, silenced submachine guns tearing through the Costa guards below. Gunfire echoed like thunder in the enclosed marble space.
Tessa ducked behind a velvet couch, her heart hammering against her ribs. She saw Victor moving like a shadow through the chaos, firing with deadly precision, dropping enemy combatants one by one. But the attackers weren't trying to hold the foyer—they were rushing toward the lower levels. Toward the lab.
Tessa sprinted down the hidden service staircase leading to the sub-basement. She knew the layout from the blueprint display in the study. She reached the heavy steel doors of the vault just as a figure pulled a glowing drive from the main computer console.
It wasn't a mercenary.
It was Dr. Vance.
Tessa stopped dead in her tracks. "Doctor... what are you doing?"
Vance jumped, dropping a glass vial that shattered on the concrete floor, releasing a faint blue mist. He spun around, his hands trembling wildly as he held a syringe filled with a dark liquid.
"Tessa... you shouldn't have come down here," Vance stammered, his eyes wide with desperate terror. "They have my daughter! The Bratva—they told me if I didn't deliver the original research and destroy the antidote samples tonight, they would send her back to me in a box!"
"You're sabotaging the cure for a ten-year-old child!" Tessa yelled, taking a cautious step forward. "Julian will die!"
"And my daughter will live!" Vance shrieked, his composure entirely gone. "Victor Costa isn't a savior, Tessa! He's a monster who drags everyone into his fire! Join me... help me fake the sample destruction, and we can both walk away from this city forever!"
"No," Tessa said, raising the brass statue. "I lost my brother to these people. I won't let another child die because grown men are cowards."
Vance lunged at her with the syringe.
Tessa sidestepped, using her ER instincts to dodge the needle, and slammed the heavy brass statue into Vance’s wrist. The doctor screamed as the syringe flew from his hand, shattering against the wall. But before Tessa could secure the hard drive, a heavy hand grabbed her from behind, locking a forearm around her throat.
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A thick Russian accent growled in her ear: "Thank you for clearing the path, little nurse."
CHAPTER HOOK: The Russian mercenary raised his gun to Tessa's temple, but before he could pull the trigger, the vault door slid shut, locking all three of them inside as lethal neurotoxin began pumping through the ventilation system.
