Chapter 6 - The Tipping Point
The largest guard stepped forward, reaching for my arm.
I didn't wait. Twenty years of high-intensity boxing training kicked in instantly. I ducked beneath his outstretched hand, drove a brutal right hook into his ribs, and followed with a sharp left uppercut to his chin. The man collapsed heavily against the server rack.
“Get the device!” I yelled to Lena.
The second guard lunged at me, grabbing my jacket, but Lena didn't run for the door. She grabbed a heavy, steel-bound ledger from the desk and swung it with all her strength, striking the second guard across the side of his head. The man stumbled backward, dazed.
“Julian!” I roared, throwing off the dazed guard and lunging directly for my brother.
Julian’s eyes widened in genuine panic. He pulled a small silver pocket knife from his coat, but I grabbed his wrist, slamming it against the steel doorframe. The knife clattered to the floor. I shoved him hard against the wall, pinning him by his throat.
“You destroyed an innocent woman’s life!” I snarled, my face inches from his. “You let me believe a lie for thirty years!”
“She was a servant!” Julian choked out, his face turning red under my grip. “She was nobody! Father did what he had to do to protect me! To protect the family!”
“You aren't the family, Julian,” I said through gritted teeth. “You’re a parasite.”
Suddenly, the vault’s fire alarm began to blare—a deafening, screeching siren accompanied by flashing red strobe lights. High-pressure carbon dioxide fire suppression fog began pouring from the ceiling vents, blinding the room in thick white mist.
“David! Here!” Owen’s voice boomed through the vault’s intercom system. “Elevator B is locked on manual override! Get out now!”
In the blinding fog and deafening sirens, Lena grabbed the cloning device from the master console and snatched the brown accordion folder containing the cassette tapes. She grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the side exit.
Julian was on his knees, coughing violently in the thick CO2 fog, shouting incoherently for his guards.
We burst through the vault’s emergency fire exit, sprinting down the stairwell as the building’s automated lockdown procedures began to engage. We slammed through the heavy ground-floor doors and burst out into the cold night air of the alleyway, where Owen was waiting in the running van with the side door thrown open.
We tumbled inside, and Owen slammed his foot on the accelerator, screeching out of the alley just as two security vehicles pulled up to the front of the tower.
Inside the van, we were all gasping for air, our lungs burning, our faces covered in cold sweat.
Lena was clutching the brown folder tightly against her chest, her knuckles white. She looked at me through the dim interior light of the van.
“Did we get it?” she asked, her voice breathless.
I pulled the cloning device from her hand and looked at the digital screen.
Transfer Complete: 100%.
“We got everything,” I said.
May you like
I looked down at the brown folder in her lap, specifically at the cassette tape marked with Rosa’s name.
“Owen,” I said, my voice steadying. “Drive us back to Greenwich. It’s time we finally hear what Rosa had to say.”
