Chapter 6 - NIGHT OF THE RAIDERS
The lights inside Ravenswood Hall suddenly went out, plunging the entire estate into pitch darkness.
"Backup generators are down!" Marcus shouted, pulling his night-vision optics down over his eyes. "They've cut the main power grid from the outer junction box!"
"Get Olivia, Marina, and Victor into the panic vault beneath the library!" Salvatore commanded over the radio. "Julian, take point on the upper gallery! Nobody fires unless they have a clear target!"
The heavy silence of the dark estate was shattered by the sound of breaking glass in the grand conservatory.
Four heavily armed operatives clad in black tactical gear breached the lower doors, moving with the disciplined, lethal speed of private military contractors. Their weapons were suppressed, the low thump-thump of rounds shattering the antique woodwork of the main hallway.
Salvatore dropped behind a stone pillar in the grand foyer, leaning out to fire three precise rounds that neutralized the lead operative before the team could advance up the stairs.
"Cover the west corridor!" Salvatore called out into his comms.
On the second floor, Edmund Vance was screaming from inside his locked holding room, hammering his fists against the heavy oak door as the gunfire echoed through the structure.
"Let me out!" Edmund shrieked. "I have the transfer codes! You need me alive!"
A breach charge detonated against the lock of Edmund's door with a flash of orange fire and a deafening roar. The heavy door blew inward, splintering into shrapnel.
Two contractor operatives stepped over the debris, their weapon barrels leveled at the old man cowering in the corner among the smoke.
"Edmund Vance," the contractor captain said, his voice flat through his tactical mask. "The Board terminates your contract."
Before the operative could pull the trigger, a heavy iron shield—the very shield Edmund had knocked over in the study hours earlier—came swinging through the doorway like a pendulum, driven by Salvatore’s full weight.
The heavy steel plate struck the captain full in the chest, throwing him backward into his teammate with a crunching impact.
Salvatore followed the strike instantly, disarming the second man with a lightning-fast wrist lock and driving him to the floorboards.
Edmund sat in the corner, gasping for air, staring up at the grandson he had tried to manipulate for a decade.
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"You... you saved me?" Edmund whispered in shock.
"I didn't save you for your sake," Salvatore said coldly, picking up the fallen contractor’s assault rifle and checking the magazine. "You're going to stand in a courtroom and tell the world every single name in that blue ledger."
