Chapter 6 - The Shadows Strike Back
Muzzle flashes strobed through the darkness like violent lightning bolts. Gunfire shattered the silence of the underground lab, glass cabinets exploding into thousands of sharp fragments as bullets tore through the room.
The moment the lights went out, Liana dropped to the floor, shielding Nico with her entire body. She scrambled under a heavy stainless-steel workbench, pressing her back against the cold wall.
"Nico, quiet, sweet baby, quiet," she whispered frantically, pressing the infant’s face into her neck, using her own body as a sound barrier. Amazingly, the baby remained silent, gripping her collar with his tiny hands as if understanding the mortal danger surrounding them.
Above her, the violent storm raged. Matteo moved through the dark like a predator born from it. The flash of his gun illuminated his terrifying, focused expression. Two of Antonio's mercenaries went down before they could even adjust their night-vision goggles, shot with lethal precision.
"Find the girl! Get the baby!" Antonio’s panicked voice echoed through the gunfire.
A mercenary stumbled past Liana's hiding spot, sweeping his rifle flashlight across the floor. The beam cut through the dust, hovering inches from Liana's boots.
Liana held her breath. Her heart hammered so loudly she was certain the man would hear it. She slowly drew the small semi-automatic pistol Marcus had given her. She had never fired a gun in her life, but as the flashlight beam moved closer to Nico's small form, every fear dissolved into pure survival instinct.
The mercenary kicked a fallen chair aside and leaned down, his eyes locking onto Liana.
"Found them—" he began to shout.
Liana pulled the trigger.
The gun kicked violently in her hands, the deafening report echoing under the steel bench. The bullet struck the guard in the shoulder, knocking him backward. Before he could recover, Matteo materialized from the dark like a specter, grabbing the man’s tactical vest and driving him headfirst into the concrete floor, rendering him unconscious instantly.
Matteo knelt down beside the workbench, his dark eyes wide with adrenaline. "Are you hurt?"
"No!" Liana gasped, air rushing back into her lungs. "Nico is fine!"
"Good," Matteo said, grabbing her hand and pulling her up. "Marcus cut the emergency backup generators. We have three minutes before the automatic security doors lock us in this vault forever."
He dragged her toward the rear wall, where a heavy reinforced safe was set into the concrete. The digital pad was blinking red on emergency battery power.
Matteo pulled out Dr. Sterling’s keycard, swiped it through the slot, and entered a six-digit code he had extracted from the lab records.
The heavy vault door clicked, pneumatic air hissing as it swung open. Inside lay a single velvet-lined steel case containing three small vials filled with a luminous, clear fluid. The master antidote.
Matteo snatched the case, securing it inside his jacket. "We have it."
"Not so fast, Varric," a raspy voice called out from the darkness.
Matteo turned slowly.
Don Antonio stood ten feet away near the elevator shaft. He was holding a small, black detonator switch in his left hand, his face slick with sweat and rage. His cane was gone, his elite guards dead on the floor.
"You think you’ve won?" Antonio sneered, his finger hovering over the red button. "This entire complex is rigged with thermite charges to erase corporate liability in the event of a breach. If I press this button, thirty thousand degrees of heat will melt this basement into liquid slag in five seconds."
Matteo stood his ground, placing himself firmly in front of Liana and Nico. "You press that button, Antonio, and you burn with us. Your precious docks, your offshore accounts, your legacy—it all ends in this cellar."
"I am an old man, Matteo!" Antonio raged, his eyes wide and unhinged. "My empire was built on power! I will not spend the rest of my life in a federal supermax while you raise Elena's child on my ruined domain!"
Antonio’s thumb began to press down on the red detonator.
BANG.
A single shot rang out from the elevator shaft behind Antonio.
Antonio’s eyes went wide. He froze, a dark red spot blossoming on the center of his chest. He looked down in disbelief, dropping the detonator. It hit the floor with a clatter.
Behind Antonio, Marcus stood inside the elevator cab, a smoking rifle raised to his shoulder. "Emergency power override worked, Boss. Elevator’s operational."
Antonio collapsed onto his knees, then fell forward onto the cold tile, motionless.
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Matteo didn't waste a second. He snatched the dropped detonator, disarmed it with a quick flip of the safety switch, and grabbed Liana’s arm. "Move! Now!"
They rushed into the elevator cab just as the heavy blast doors began to slide shut. Marcus hit the top-floor button, and the steel cage accelerated upward, leaving the dark, blood-stained laboratory of secrets behind them.
