Chapter 4 - Through the Smoke
The thin line of white smoke quickly turned grey, curling across the gleaming hardwood floor like a living thing. Somewhere down the hall, an automated fire suppression system had been disabled, and the unmistakable crackle of burning drywall began to rumble through the walls.
"He's setting fire to the east wing," I said, turning back to Hunter. Her eyes were wide with terror, but she hadn't panicked. She was patting Leo’s back gently as the baby continued to sleep soundly against her chest.
"Mr. Rossi, the window!" Hunter pointed toward the massive, floor-to-ceiling French windows that opened onto the second-floor veranda overlooking the rear gardens.
"They're laminated ballistic glass," I replied grimly. "Bulletproof. Designed to withstand a direct impact from a sledgehammer."
"There has to be a bypass," Hunter insisted, stepping forward. "When I cleaned this room yesterday, I noticed the maintenance panel behind the drapes."
I crossed the room in two strides, ripping the heavy velvet drapes aside. There, set flush into the plaster wall beneath the window frame, was a small, locked mechanical maintenance box labeled Emergency Egress & Ventilation Override.
It required a physical key—a specialized triangular bit that my head of security kept on his master ring downstairs. A ring currently sitting in the pocket of the chief of security, who was probably tied up in the security office right now.
I didn't have the key.
I had something better: brute force and absolute desperation.
"Hold Leo," I told Hunter, handing her my jacket to wrap around the baby’s face against the thickening smoke.
I holstered my gun, grabbed the heavy brass base of the nursery’s floor lamp, and smashed it against the maintenance box with all the fury I possessed. The glass shatterproof cover cracked. I struck it again, and again, until the metal housing gave way, exposing a tangle of pneumatic cables and manual release levers.
"Which one?" Hunter coughed, waving smoke away from her face.
I grabbed the thick red lever stamped MECHANICAL RELEASE and hauled down with every ounce of muscle in my body.
With a deafening pneumatic hiss, the heavy ballistic window popped outward on its hydraulic hinges, swinging wide open into the cool, rain-washed night air. A gust of fresh wind rushed into the nursery, blowing the smoke back toward the hallway.
"Go!" I ordered Hunter, grabbing her arm gently to guide her toward the veranda ledge. "Climb down the ivy trellis to the terrace below. My car is parked by the fountain. The keys are in my pocket."
May you like
"What about you?" Hunter asked, her eyes searching my face.
"I need to have a conversation with my brother-in-law," I said, pulling the Beretta back out.
