CHAPTER 10: THE MAN WHO TOOK THE BULLET
The first rifle shot cracked through the pumping station like lightning splitting stone.
Marcus reacted on instinct.
"DOWN!"
Victor threw himself behind a concrete pillar as bullets ripped across the chamber.
Steel railings exploded into showers of sparks.
Chunks of concrete shattered from the walls.
The deafening barrage echoed through the underground station.
These weren't warning shots.
They were meant to erase everyone inside.
Daniel didn't run.
He looked upward toward the catwalks where at least a dozen muzzle flashes lit the darkness.
His expression hardened.
"They're here earlier than expected."
Victor fired twice.
One sniper disappeared behind the railing.
Another ducked for cover.
Marcus dragged an injured guard behind a collapsed support beam.
"They've got the high ground!"
Victor's eyes swept across the chamber.
Too many firing angles.
Too much open space.
No easy escape.
Then...
He noticed something strange.
The snipers weren't focusing on him.
Half of them...
Were aiming at Daniel.
Victor frowned.
Why?
A burst of automatic fire forced Daniel behind an old generator.
A bullet grazed his shoulder, tearing through his coat.
Blood spread quickly across the fabric.
Marcus shouted over the gunfire.
"They're trying to kill him!"
Victor didn't answer.
He had reached the same conclusion.
Whoever commanded the snipers wanted Daniel silenced.
Immediately.
Before he could reveal anything else.
Back at Blackwood Memorial Hospital...
The man disguised as a doctor hurried through a restricted corridor.
He removed his white coat while walking.
Underneath...
He wore black tactical clothing.
An earpiece crackled.
"Status."
He answered calmly.
"The child is awake."
"Did he recognize you?"
A pause.
"...Yes."
The voice on the radio became colder.
"Then you know the protocol."
The man stopped walking.
He closed his eyes briefly.
"I understand."
He removed a small capsule from his pocket.
Crushed it between his teeth.
Within seconds, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Hospital security rounded the corner.
"Stop!"
The man smiled faintly.
Then collapsed.
By the time the guards reached him...
He was dead.
No identification.
No fingerprints in any criminal database.
Only a tiny tattoo hidden behind his left ear.
A black serpent wrapped around a crown.
Underground...
The battle intensified.
Victor reloaded smoothly.
Marcus checked the remaining ammunition.
"We're boxed in."
Daniel looked toward an old maintenance tunnel behind the generator.
"There's another exit."
Victor glanced at him.
"You expect me to trust you?"
Daniel answered without hesitation.
"No."
"I expect you to protect your son."
A sniper bullet struck the generator, showering everyone with sparks.
Daniel winced.
His wounded shoulder bled heavily.
Victor noticed.
"You're losing blood."
Daniel laughed once.
"At my age..."
"...everything leaks eventually."
Even in the middle of a firefight, Marcus couldn't believe the man had joked.
A grenade rolled across the floor.
Victor saw it first.
"Move!"
The explosion shook the chamber.
Dust swallowed everything.
The blast separated Victor from Marcus.
For several terrifying seconds...
Visibility dropped to almost nothing.
Then...
A single gunshot echoed.
Different from the others.
Closer.
When the dust settled...
Victor saw Daniel kneeling.
One hand pressed against his abdomen.
Blood seeped between his fingers.
Someone had shot him.
Marcus hurried over.
"He's hit."
Daniel coughed violently.
Dark blood stained his lips.
Victor approached cautiously.
"You still have answers."
Daniel smiled weakly.
"I know."
The sniper fire suddenly stopped.
The silence felt unnatural.
Marcus frowned.
"They're pulling back."
Victor looked around.
"No."
"They're listening."
Daniel nodded.
"They're waiting for me to die."
Victor knelt beside him.
"Then don't."
Daniel chuckled softly.
"That's optimistic."
He reached inside his jacket.
Marcus immediately aimed his pistol.
Daniel slowly removed...
A brass key.
Old.
Heavy.
Its handle bore the Blackwood family crest.
Victor stared at it.
"What is that?"
Daniel placed it into Victor's hand.
"Your father called it..."
"...the Last Vault."
Victor frowned.
"I've never heard of it."
"Because he never wanted you to."
Daniel struggled to breathe.
"It isn't in any mansion."
"It isn't in any bank."
"It's beneath..."
He coughed again.
Blood splattered across the concrete.
Marcus leaned closer.
"Beneath what?"
Daniel whispered the answer into Victor's ear.
Victor's eyes widened.
"No..."
Daniel nodded faintly.
"Exactly."
Several miles away...
Inside the abandoned church...
Serena watched a live drone feed on a tablet.
The pumping station burned below.
One of her men entered.
"The strike team reports success."
She looked up.
"Victor?"
"They don't know."
"Daniel?"
The man hesitated.
"No confirmation."
Serena slammed the tablet onto the table.
"I told them!"
"Nobody leaves that station alive!"
The man lowered his head.
"We're searching."
Serena looked toward the stained-glass window.
Something about the operation felt wrong.
Too clean.
Too predictable.
Almost...
As if someone had wanted the ambush to happen.
Back underground...
Daniel's breathing grew weaker.
Victor held the old brass key tightly.
"You said there were traitors."
Daniel nodded faintly.
"There are."
"You said my father discovered them."
"Yes."
"Who are they?"
Daniel smiled sadly.
"I can only prove one."
Victor leaned closer.
"Who?"
Daniel slowly raised a trembling hand.
Pointing...
Not toward Marcus.
Not toward the tunnel.
Not toward the snipers.
Toward Victor's own phone.
It was lying on the ground where he had dropped it during the explosion.
The screen had lit up.
An incoming encrypted message.
Unknown sender.
Only three words appeared:
DON'T TRUST ADRIAN.
Victor looked back at Daniel.
"Adrian?"
Daniel whispered,
"He..."
Before he could finish...
A suppressed gunshot echoed through the chamber.
A tiny red hole appeared in Daniel's forehead.
His body went completely still.
Marcus spun toward the darkness.
"SHOOTER!"
Victor fired three rapid shots toward the source.
Silence.
The assassin was already gone.
Victor looked back down.
Daniel Ashcroft...
The man who had returned from the dead...
Had died a second time.
His eyes remained open.
Frozen forever.
Victor slowly closed them with one hand.
Then he noticed something tucked inside Daniel's jacket pocket.
A folded letter.
The front bore a single handwritten sentence.
May you like
"To Victor... if I die before telling you the truth."
END OF CHAPTER 10
