Chapter 13 - The Safe Room Siege
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Outside the heavy steel door, Lorenzo Falcone stepped back, gesturing for his explosives expert to move forward. The mercenary pulled a block of thermal breaching putty from his tactical vest, molding it carefully around the heavy biometric locking mechanism of the safe room door.
"Set the timers for thirty seconds," Lorenzo ordered, his voice echoing coldly in the narrow concrete hallway. "When the door blows, I want you to go in firing. Don't leave anything breathing in that room."
Serena stood behind her husband, a wicked, triumphant smile twisting her beautiful features. Her ruined ivory silk dress was stained with dirt and gunpowder, but she looked like a queen waiting for her executioner to finish the job.
"Make it hurt, Lorenzo," Serena whispered, her eyes flashing with pure malice. "She ruined everything."
The mercenary pressed a detonator into the thermal putty and stepped back, retreating around the corner of the corridor to avoid the blast radius.
"Breaching in three, two, one," the mercenary counted down.
A blinding flash of white-hot light illuminated the dark hallway, followed instantly by a deafening, concussive explosion that shook the very foundations of the estate. Thick, acrid smoke filled the corridor as the heavy biometric locking mechanism was violently melted into glowing, useless slag.
The heavy steel door groaned, its hinges warped by the sheer heat of the blast, and slowly swung inward on a cloud of black smoke.
"Go! Go! Go!" Lorenzo shouted, pointing his handgun at the breach.
Two heavily armed mercenaries rushed through the smoking doorway, their assault rifles raised, sweeping the dark, green-lit bunker for targets.
But Chiara Rossi wasn't cowering in the corner.
She was standing dead center in the room, her feet planted firmly on the plush carpet, the heavy tactical shotgun raised and braced tightly against her shoulder. She didn't wait for them to find her in the smoke. She didn't hesitate.
As soon as the first mercenary crossed the threshold, Chiara pulled the trigger.
The shotgun roared, a deafening explosion of sound and light in the enclosed space. The heavy buckshot struck the first mercenary squarely in the chest, the sheer kinetic force throwing his massive body backward through the doorway, knocking the second mercenary to the floor in a tangle of limbs and tactical gear.
"She has a gun!" the surviving mercenary yelled, scrambling desperately backward into the hallway, firing a blind burst of automatic fire into the bunker as he retreated.
Bullets shredded the leather sofas and shattered the flat-screen monitors, raining sparks and glass down on the floor.
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Chiara ducked behind the heavy mahogany desk, covering her head as the bullets chewed through the room. Mia woke up screaming, terrified by the deafening noise.
"Stay down, baby!" Chiara yelled over the gunfire, pumping the shotgun to chamber another round, her hands remarkably steady despite the terror. She had drawn first blood, but she knew she couldn't hold off a tactical team forever.
