Chapter 8: Sixty Seconds
"60 SECONDS REMAINING."
The countdown echoed through the crumbling underground complex like the heartbeat of a dying giant.
Dust drifted through the air.
Concrete groaned.
Somewhere far below, steel supports snapped with sounds like distant thunder.
Victor Blackwood stood at the entrance to Vault Seven.
His pistol was steady.
Across from him, Ethan Blackwood held the black ledger against his chest.
For several long seconds...
Neither man moved.
Victor smiled.
"So..."
"You finally found my library."
Ethan's voice remained calm.
"I found your confession."
Victor laughed.
"A ledger isn't a confession."
"The videos are."
"The DNA files are."
"The financial records are."
"You spent seven years hiding behind dead people."
Victor shrugged.
"I spent seven years winning."
"You stole my daughter."
"I preserved your company."
"You murdered Amelia."
Victor looked toward her.
"No."
"I failed to."
Amelia's eyes never left him.
"You burned innocent families alive."
Victor sighed.
"Innocent people rarely become rich."
The countdown continued.
55 SECONDS.
Victor slowly shifted his aim.
Not toward Ethan.
Toward the waterproof evidence bag in Ethan's hand.
"Give me the archive."
"No."
"You don't have time to escape with it."
"I don't need much time."
Victor smiled again.
"You always were stubborn."
Without warning...
He fired.
BANG!
The bullet tore through the evidence bag.
Hard drives spilled across the floor.
Operators dove for cover.
Another shot.
BANG!
One drive shattered against the wall.
Hayes shouted,
"Protect the evidence!"
Alpha Team returned fire.
Suppressors cracked through the corridor.
Victor disappeared behind a collapsed support pillar before a single round reached him.
"Move!" Ethan ordered.
Two operators gathered the surviving drives.
Another picked up the ledger.
Amelia refused to leave.
She stared toward the darkness where Victor had vanished.
"No."
Ethan grabbed her hand.
"We're out of time."
She shook her head.
"He'll escape again."
Victor's voice echoed through the tunnel.
"Perhaps."
"But not alone."
He pressed a small remote hidden inside his sleeve.
A loud metallic crash echoed behind Ethan.
The enormous vault door began closing automatically.
Hayes turned pale.
"If that seals..."
"We're trapped!"
45 SECONDS.
Alpha Team rushed toward the narrowing opening.
One operator slid beneath the descending steel door.
Another followed.
The gap shrank rapidly.
Ethan pushed Amelia toward the exit.
"Go!"
"What about you?"
"I'm right behind you."
She refused to move.
"I'm not leaving again."
Victor stepped from the shadows.
His pistol was empty.
Instead...
He held a combat knife.
"You always choose everyone else first."
Ethan slowly handed the evidence bag to Hayes.
"Take Amelia."
"No!" Amelia cried.
Hayes grabbed her gently.
"We have to move!"
Victor charged.
The knife flashed beneath the emergency lights.
Ethan caught Victor's wrist just before the blade reached his chest.
The impact slammed both men against the concrete wall.
Victor was older.
But ruthless.
Ethan was stronger.
But exhausted.
Neither gained an advantage.
The knife trembled between them.
Only inches from Ethan's throat.
35 SECONDS.
Victor whispered,
"You should have died seven years ago."
Ethan answered through clenched teeth.
"You first."
He twisted Victor's wrist sharply.
CRACK!
The knife fell.
Victor drove his shoulder into Ethan's ribs.
Both men crashed onto the floor.
The pistol skidded across the corridor.
Stopping...
Directly beside Amelia.
She stared at it.
Then at Victor.
Then at Ethan.
Years of fear.
Years of captivity.
Years stolen.
All ending here.
She picked up the pistol.
Her hands shook violently.
Victor slowly stood.
His eyes met hers.
"You won't shoot."
Amelia raised the weapon.
"You never could."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"I don't want revenge."
Victor smiled.
"I know."
25 SECONDS.
The vault door continued descending.
Only a narrow opening remained.
Hayes shouted desperately,
"Ethan!"
"We have to go!"
Victor lunged toward Amelia.
Ethan tackled him from behind.
Both men rolled across the floor.
The pistol slipped from Amelia's trembling hands.
Sliding beneath fallen concrete.
Gone.
Victor laughed.
"There."
"Now we're equals."
The ceiling split open.
A massive support beam crashed down between Amelia and the two brothers.
Dust exploded into the air.
She screamed.
"Ethan!"
She couldn't see him anymore.
Only rubble.
Smoke.
And flashing emergency lights.
15 SECONDS.
Hayes pulled desperately at the fallen beam.
"It won't move!"
Amelia dropped to her knees.
"Ethan!"
No answer.
Then...
From the other side...
His voice.
Weak.
"I'm here."
Relief flooded through her.
But it lasted only a moment.
Victor's voice followed.
"So am I."
Both men stood on opposite sides of the collapsed beam.
Neither could reach the other.
The only remaining exit was closing.
Victor looked upward.
Then smiled.
"You know something?"
Ethan said nothing.
Victor spread his arms.
"If I can't own the Blackwood empire..."
"...I'll become the ghost that haunts it forever."
He stepped backward.
Into the collapsing corridor.
Ethan frowned.
"What are you doing?"
Victor looked at him one last time.
"You'll never know where Daniel is."
Before Ethan could react...
Victor disappeared into the darkness.
5 SECONDS.
Hayes screamed,
"Ethan!"
Alpha Team attached a rescue cable through the narrow gap beneath the vault door.
Ethan grabbed it.
Three operators pulled with everything they had.
The beam shifted just enough.
He threw himself through the opening.
The instant his boots cleared the threshold...
The vault door slammed shut with a deafening BOOM.
0 SECONDS.
A violent explosion erupted beneath the mountain.
The ground shook for miles.
Fire burst through abandoned ventilation shafts.
The rehabilitation center above collapsed floor by floor, disappearing into a cloud of dust and smoke.
Trees bent under the shockwave.
Windows shattered across the valley.
Outside, Ethan, Amelia, Hayes, and Alpha Team watched the mountainside sink into itself.
No one spoke.
Victor Blackwood was gone.
Or so it seemed.
As rescue crews began securing the area, one operator approached Ethan with a recovered evidence case.
"Sir..."
"We saved almost everything."
Ethan nodded silently.
Then another operator ran toward them, breathing hard.
"We found a tunnel."
"What tunnel?"
"An old drainage passage."
"It wasn't on any blueprint."
Hayes looked toward the smoking mountainside.
"Did anyone come out?"
The operator swallowed.
"We only found footprints."
"One set."
"They lead into the forest."
Ethan stared into the darkness beyond the trees.
Victor's body had never been found.
May you like
And somewhere beyond those woods...
A man named Daniel Blackwood was still alive.
