Chapter 19 - The Fire at Blackwood Manor
Before Daniel could process the words, the smell of burning gasoline cut through the damp underground air.
A sudden roar of orange flame erupted at the top of the stone stairs, licking down the spiraling treads with predatory speed. Thick, oily black smoke began pouring into the crypt, choking the oxygen from the small chamber.
"They followed us!" Claire screamed, pulling Lily's woolen blanket over the baby's face to shield her lungs from the acrid smoke.
"The emergency ventilation shaft!" Daniel shouted, lunging toward a steel grate behind the file cabinets. He used the crowbar to wrench the screws from the concrete casing, throwing his full weight against the iron bars.
Through the blazing stairwell above, a dark silhouette stepped onto the landing, silhouetted by the inferno. The man was tall, lean, dressed in an immaculate charcoal wool overcoat despite the storm, holding a suppressed automatic pistol in his right hand.
"It’s time to settle the family accounts, nephew," the figure called out, his voice smooth, resonant, completely devoid of fear or human warmth. Marcus Bennett had arrived.
Daniel fired three rounds through the blinding smoke, forcing Marcus to duck behind a marble pillar. "Claire, go! Take the shaft! It leads out into the churchyard drainage ditch!"
May you like
Claire gripped the edge of the open ledger resting on the desk—the thick, scorch-marked binder that held thirty years of genetic serial codes and bank routing identities. She jammed it into her coat, grabbed Lily tight, and dove headfirst into the narrow concrete tunnel.
Behind her, the deafening exchange of gunfire echoed off the ancient crypt walls, followed by the terrifying sound of a structural timber collapsing in the chapel above.
