The fog came in low that morning, rolling across the forest road with the slow intention of something that had been waiting for the right moment.

Through the choking dust and blinding muzzle flashes, Ramon’s men executed their counter-attack with brutal efficiency.

Matteo rolled to his left, firing three controlled bursts that dropped two of Miller’s flankers. Diego advanced behind a fallen wooden timber, providing heavy suppressive fire that forced Miller to dive behind the armored vault door for cover.

"Ramon! The scanner!" Elena shouted, clutching her bleeding arm as she lay beside him behind a heavy steel mine cart. "The vault security system has an automated lockdown! If the tactical alarms go off for more than two minutes, the system will wipe the digital bearer bonds forever!"

Ramon looked at the digital display on the vault door. The red numbers were counting down fast: 01:14... 01:13...

"If the bonds are wiped, Miller has no reason to keep anyone alive," Ramon realized. He looked at Elena, then down at his hands. "How does the scanner work?"

"It requires simultaneous venous blood verification from both master lines," Elena explained rapidly, her voice strained against the sound of deafening gunfire. "It checks for genetic DNA markers and live heat signatures! It can't be faked with stolen blood!"

"Hold this position!" Ramon commanded Diego, before grabbing Elena by the waist. "We're making a run for the door!"

"Ramon, it's suicide!" she cried out.

"It's the only way out!"

Ramon stood up, drawing his secondary firearm. Firing blindly into the smoke to keep Miller’s surviving mercenaries pinned down, he pulled Elena across the open stone floor toward the gleaming circular vault interface.

A bullet grazed Ramon’s shoulder, tearing through his expensive suit jacket and leaving a streak of red, but he didn't even flinch. He reached the vault panel, slamming his back against the cold steel door.

"Press your palm here!" Ramon ordered, slamming his own blood-stained hand onto the glowing blue scanner glass on the left side of the terminal.

Elena hesitated for a fraction of a second, looking into Ramon's dark, fierce eyes. She saw no fear in him—only an absolute, unyielding determination to protect her and her daughter. She raised her trembling, wounded hand and pressed her bleeding palm onto the right scanner glass.

The digital display instantly turned from red to bright emerald green.

"Dual Biometric Verification Confirmed," a mechanized chime echoed through the cavern. "Ortega-Vance Master Protocol Accepted. Releasing Primary Pressure Seals."

Deep within the subterranean rock, massive hydraulic locks groaned. The ten-ton solid steel vault door began to rotate, hissing with escaping compressed air as it slowly swung inward.

From the shadows across the cavern, Miller emerged, his face twisted in psychotic greed as he saw the vault open. He raised his heavy revolver, aiming directly at Elena’s back.

"Thank you, prosecutor!" Miller shouted over the hiss of hydraulics. "I'll take it from here!"