CHAPTER 9: THE FIRE BELOW
CHAPTER 9: THE FIRE BELOW
Gunfire echoed through the mansion as masked intruders rushed toward the hidden cellar.
They ignored the priceless paintings.
They ignored the vault.
They ignored Leo himself.
There was only one destination.
The laboratory beneath the house.
"They're after the files!" Mateo shouted over his radio.
Leo fired twice.
The lead intruder dropped to the marble floor, but the others kept moving without stopping to help him.
Professionals.
Their mission mattered more than their lives.
Mateo carried Lily toward the panic room while two guards sealed the reinforced steel door behind them.
"Daddy?" Lily cried.
Leo turned just long enough to smile.
"I'll come back."
The door closed.
He hoped he hadn't just made a promise he couldn't keep.
By the time Leo reached the cellar, smoke was already rising through the broken stone wall.
One of the masked men had thrown an incendiary device into the hidden laboratory.
Flames climbed the shelves, swallowing files and computers.
Another intruder emptied gasoline across the floor.
"They're burning everything!" Mateo yelled as he caught up.
Leo charged forward.
The nearest attacker raised his rifle.
A single shot echoed.
The man collapsed before he could pull the trigger.
Leo didn't slow down.
Within seconds, two more attackers were disarmed.
The last survivor threw down his weapon and tried to flee through the tunnel leading to the forest.
Mateo tackled him before he reached the ladder.
The man fought violently.
Then, to everyone's surprise, he bit down on something hidden inside his mouth.
A capsule.
Foam gathered at his lips.
Within seconds, he stopped breathing.
Mateo checked for a pulse.
Nothing.
"Cyanide."
Leo stared at the dead man.
"They expected to be captured."
"No," Mateo corrected.
"They expected to die."
The fire spread rapidly.
Wooden shelves collapsed.
Glass shattered in the heat.
Leo rushed toward the filing cabinets.
Most were already burning.
He pulled open one drawer after another.
Empty.
Someone had removed the most important files before setting the fire.
Only one metal box remained untouched beneath a fallen cabinet.
Leo forced it open.
Inside lay a single VHS tape.
A handwritten label covered the front.
PHASE ONE
Before he could examine it, part of the ceiling collapsed.
Mateo grabbed his arm.
"We have to leave!"
They escaped only seconds before the laboratory disappeared behind a wall of fire.
Outside, firefighters from Leo's private security company quickly brought the blaze under control.
By dawn, the hidden laboratory had become a blackened ruin.
Most of the evidence was gone.
The captain of security approached.
"We counted the attackers."
"How many?"
"Eight."
"And?"
"Seven dead."
Leo looked toward the covered bodies.
"The eighth?"
"Gone."
Someone had escaped during the confusion.
Later that morning, the estate's surveillance team reviewed the attack frame by frame.
One image caught Mateo's attention.
He paused the video.
"Boss."
Leo looked at the screen.
The escaping intruder had briefly turned toward one of the cameras.
His mask had slipped.
Only for a second.
But it was enough.
Leo recognized the face immediately.
Daniel Brooks.
The gardener they had captured.
"The interrogation room..." Mateo whispered.
Leo nodded.
Daniel had never escaped.
Someone had released him during the blackout.
And now he had helped destroy the laboratory.
Just as the realization settled in, another guard hurried into the room carrying a sealed envelope.
"It was delivered ten minutes ago."
"No messenger?"
The guard shook his head.
"It was hanging on the front gate."
Leo opened it carefully.
Inside was a single photograph.
The image showed Lily asleep in the panic room.
The timestamp was less than thirty minutes old.
Someone had photographed her after the attack.
Beneath the picture was a typed message.
You can protect her from bullets.
Can you protect her from the truth?
Leo slowly folded the note.
Someone inside Rossi Manor was still working for Keller.
The laboratory was gone.
The attackers were dead.
Yet Keller already knew exactly where Lily had been hidden.
Leo looked around the room at every guard, every servant, every familiar face.
For the first time in his life...
May you like
He realized he no longer knew who he could trust.
End of Chapter 9
