Chapter 7 - The Reaper's Reckoning
The foyer was thick with gunsmoke and the metallic scent of blood and cordite.
Adriano stood at the landing of the grand staircase, his white shirt stained with soot, his eyes fixed on the remote detonator in Arthur Vance’s hand.
"You brought explosives into my home, Arthur," Adriano said, his voice terrifyingly calm, carrying easily over the crackle of burning drapery.
"I brought a funeral!" Arthur yelled, his thumb hovering over the red button on the detonator. "Order your men to drop their weapons, or I press this button and collapse the entire west wing into the dirt!"
The west wing.
Arthur didn't know that Rebecca and Clementine were safe in the deep subterranean bunker beneath the wine cellar. He believed they were trapped in the bedrooms above.
Adriano took a slow, deliberate step down the marble stairs.
"You think you're clever, Arthur," Adriano said smoothly, tapping his ear canal where a microscopic radio transmitter sat. "Marco... trigger the perimeter signal jammer."
Outside the estate, a massive high-frequency EMP pulse deployed from the security tower.
The little red light on Arthur's detonator flickered once... and went dark.
Arthur’s face turned completely white. He frantically pressed the button over and over. "What... what did you do?!"
"I built this house, Arthur," Adriano whispered, closing the distance between them with terrifying speed. "Did you really think I didn't prepare for men like you?"
Before the four enforcers could raise their shotguns, Adriano fired four rapid shots, dropping the men where they stood.
Arthur stumbled backward, dropping the useless detonator, reaching frantically for a pistol inside his coat.
Adriano caught him by the throat.
With a single, devastating thrust, Adriano slammed Arthur Vance against the marble wall, lifting the sixty-year-old man six inches off the floor. Arthur choked, his legs kicking uselessly, his eyes bulging with terror as he looked into the cold, black eyes of the Reaper.
"My father spared your father thirty years ago," Adriano whispered, his voice dripping with icy venom. "He thought honor existed among men like you. He was wrong. But I don't make my father's mistakes."
With a sickening, sharp twist of his iron grip, Adriano ended the Vance bloodline once and for all.
He let the limp body drop to the marble floor like a discarded rag.
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Adriano stood alone in the smoke-filled foyer. He adjusted his cuffs, took a deep breath of the cool night air blowing through the shattered windows, and turned to Dante.
"Clean the foyer," Adriano commanded flatly. "And call the mayor. Tell him the port permits for the eastern docks have just changed hands."
