Chapter 25 - A Viper in the Penthouse
The darkness in the study was absolute for three terrifying seconds before red emergency beacons bathed the room in a blood-colored glow. Outside, the downwash from a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk whipped the manicured garden into a frenzy of flying dirt and shattered glass.
"Marcus! Get Mia and the baby into the subterranean vault!" Victoria ordered, not wavering for a fraction of a second.
Agent Lin reached for her service weapon, but Marcus was faster. With a lightning-fast combat grip, he pinned Lin’s wrist against the desk, disarming her with a clean, metallic clatter.
"What do you think you're doing?" Lin gasped, pinned against the mahogany. "That is an assault on a federal agent!"
"That wasn't the FBI who ordered this warrant, Lin," Victoria whispered, retrieving the discarded Glock and ejecting the magazine with casual expertise. She inspected the hollow-point rounds, then slammed the clip back home. "Federal agents carry standard-issue Federal Premium ammunition. These are custom-loaded Swiss P-Armor rounds. Only three private military corporations in the world use these. You work for Christian's private security contractor, Aegis Vanguard."
Lin’s professional facade melted, replaced by a cold, sneering smile. "You're smart, Victoria. You always were. But you're too late. The extraction team is already on the terrace."
A thunderous explosion blew the French doors off their hinges. Shards of safety glass flew through the air like a lethal storm. Three men dressed in full black tactical gear, night-vision goggles glowing an eerie green, breached the study.
"Fire!" Marcus shouted, dropping behind the desk and discharging his sidearm in a rapid, controlled triple-tap. The lead mercenary collapsed with a dull thud, his body armor absorbing the impact but knocking him off balance.
Victoria grabbed the Master Ledger with one hand, grabbed Mia’s arm with the other, and shoved her toward the hidden passage behind the fireplace. "Move! Go to the sub-level dock! The offshore speedboat is fueled!"
"I'm not leaving you!" Mia cried, clutching Aurora, who had woken up and was screaming in sheer terror as gunfire erupted in the enclosed space.
"If they get Aurora, everything we built dies!" Victoria yelled, her eyes flashing with a desperate, majestic ferocity. "Run, Mia! Run!"
Mia stumbled into the darkness of the reinforced escape tunnel just as Marcus fell backward, a bullet tearing through his shoulder. Blood sprayed across the white marble floor.
"Marcus!" Victoria lunged toward her loyal protector, but another tactical operator crossed the threshold, the muzzle of an assault rifle pressed directly against Victoria’s temple.
"Drop it, Mrs. Vance," a synthesized voice commanded through a tactical mask.
Victoria froze. Her breath was steady, despite the cold steel biting into her skin.
Agent Lin picked herself up from the floor, adjusting her coat and retrieving her weapon. She wiped blood from her lip, looking at Victoria with triumphant malice. "Did you really think Christian would let you rule his world? He gave you thirty years of luxury, and you repaid him with a mutiny. You’re coming with us to New York. The Master wants an audience."
Victoria slowly let the Glock slip from her fingers. It clattered against the marble, next to Marcus’s pooling blood.
"If you touch that child," Victoria said, her voice dropping to a gravelly, lethal whisper, "there is no corner of this earth where you will be safe from me. I will burn every bank, every asset, and every human life associated with Christian Vance to the ground."
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"Save the speech for the gala, Victoria," Lin sneered, gesturing with her weapon. "Christian is waiting. And he brought an old friend to welcome you back."
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