Chapter 13 - The Ghost of Cicero
"Cover!" Alessio barked, pulling Clara behind a reinforced steel desk just as a volley of suppressed gunfire chewed through the paper archives above their heads.
Sparks showered down in the darkness. Alessio raised his weapon and fired three precise shots through the glass pane of the observation office, shattering it instantly.
"Marco! Thermal flash!" Alessio commanded.
Marco hurled a tactical light canister through the broken window. A blinding white pulse illuminated two figures dressed in black tactical gear attempting to breach the emergency console. Alessio moved with lethal grace, firing twice. Both intruders dropped to the floor, their weapons clattering against the linoleum.
Clara immediately knelt beside one of the fallen gunmen, checking his pulse. "He's alive. Who sent you?"
The man spat blood, his eyes wild. "Thorne... Thorne knows about the ledger... It doesn't matter... the old man in Indiana is already dead..."
Clara’s blood ran cold. "Bruno."
Alessio grabbed the gunman by his tactical vest, pulling him up. "What did you do to Bruno?"
"The heart medication..." the man rasped with a bitter smirk. "Three months ago... substituted with synthetic potassium blocks... slow... undetectable..."
Clara didn't hesitate. She grabbed her encrypted radio. "Maria! Maria, do you copy?"
Static crackled on the line before Maria’s trembling voice came through: "Clara! Bruno collapsed in the kitchen! He isn't breathing—his heart is in defibrillation!"
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"Maria, listen to me carefully!" Clara shouted into the radio, her voice ringing with absolute clinical authority. "Under my desk in the clinic office, there is a silver emergency kit labeled Alpha-3. Inject four milligrams of Atropine directly into his IV line now! We are on our way!"
Alessio kicked the security override lever on the vault door, forcing the steel hinges open. "Marco, secure these men and call Federal Agent Miller. Clara, we drive."
