Chapter 25 - the vault under the floor
"How many are out there?" Clara yelled, her voice trembling but her mind sharpening with desperate adrenaline.
"At least six," Roman replied, checking his ammunition count on the pistol slide. "Professional contractors. Probably Vance's offshore private security squad that went dark after his bank accounts were frozen. They're not here for Julian. They're here for what's hidden under this house."
A heavy percussion grenade detonated in the adjoining hallway, sending shockwaves through the floorboards that rattled Clara’s teeth. The dust in the room grew suffocatingly thick.
"The key, Clara!" Roman shouted, reloading with lightning speed. "Where did your father find that antique key?"
"In the family crypt! Tied behind my mother's bronze memorial plaque!"
Roman's eyes narrowed through the drifting smoke. "It's not for a safe. It's for an escape shaft. Look beneath the Persian rug by the fireplace!"
Clara crawled across the littered floor, ignoring the sharp bites of broken glass cutting through her jeans. She grabbed the edge of the heavy wool rug, dragging it back with all her strength. Beneath it, set flush into the hardwood flooring, was a heavy iron hatch secured by a massive four-tumbler brass lock bearing the crest of the Sterling maritime line.
She shoved the antique key into the brass keyhole. It resisted for a terrifying second, frozen by decades of rust, before turning with a heavy, satisfying mechanical thunk.
"Roman! It opened!" she screamed.
A high-caliber bullet punched clean through the mahogany desk inches above Roman's shoulder, showering him in wood chips. He fired his remaining rounds down the hallway, forcing the advancing team back toward the stairs, before diving toward Clara at the hearth.
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He grabbed the iron hatch handle and yanked it upward with ferocious force. A dark, narrow spiral stone staircase plunged into the black depths beneath the mansion's foundation, radiating the frigid draft of subterranean lake air.
"Go! Down the stairs, now!" Roman ordered, shoving her gently into the darkness before turning to face the doorway as boots pounded frantically down the hallway.
