Chapter 9 - The Breach
|
“We need to reach the basement panic room,” Uncle Nate whispered, his breath hot against my ear as the smoke drifted overhead. “There’s a hidden passageway behind the bookcase.”
He reached under the bottom shelf of the mahogany bookcase and engaged a concealed mechanical latch. The heavy wood clicked softly and swung inward two inches, revealing a dark, narrow corridor lined with concrete steps.
“Move, now!” Nate ordered in a hushed tone.
We crawled on our hands and knees along the dusty floorboards. I kept one arm firmly wrapped around my stomach, protecting my baby as my shoulder throbbed with intense pain.
Just as Marjorie slipped into the secret passageway behind me, a sweeping flashlight beam illuminated the library.
“Movement near the bookshelf!” a mercenary shouted from the hallway.
Suppressed automatic gunfire tore through the room. Subdued thwip-thwip-thwip sounds filled the air as heavy rounds shredded the leather armchairs and shattered the oak desk into splinters.
Nate slammed the concealed bookcase door shut, locking the heavy deadbolt from the inside just as bullets slammed against the reinforced steel backer of the wood.
We were plunged into complete darkness once again. The air inside the passage was cool and damp, smelling of old concrete and subterranean earth.
“Down the stairs, quickly!” Nate urged, clicking his flashlight on and pointing the beam downward. “Hold the handrail, Emily.”
Every step was excruciating. The physical strain of the night was taking a heavy toll on my body, but the cold adrenaline pumping through my veins kept me moving.
We reached the bottom of the flight, entering a wide wine cellar lined with heavy wooden racks. At the far end stood a massive, solid steel door equipped with a digital keypad and a mechanical locking wheel.
Above us, a violent thud echoed through the ceiling. They were breaching the upstairs security doors.
“They’re sweeping room by room,” Marjorie observed, checking the cylinder of her revolver. “The panic room is reinforced, but if they brought heavy equipment, it’s only a matter of time.”
May you like
Nate rapidly punched a six-digit code into the keypad. The electronic lock beeped green, and the heavy door hissed open.
We stepped inside, and Nate swung the steel door shut, spinning the heavy mechanical locking wheel until the triple deadbolts engaged with a solid, metallic thud.
