Chapter 8
The servant’s passage was a claustrophobic nightmare. Lena crawled on her hands and knees, the rough wooden floorboards scraping her palms. The air was thick with decades of accumulated dust, making it agonizingly difficult to suppress her coughs. Archie crawled bravely ahead of her, his small sniffles the only sound in the suffocating darkness.
"You're doing so good, Archie," Lena whispered, her voice barely a breath. "Just keep moving forward."
She kept one hand firmly against her stomach, protecting her unborn baby as she navigated the tight turns of the hidden corridor. The passage ran between the walls of the second floor, designed to allow maids to move linens without disturbing the main hallways.
Suddenly, the floorboards beneath them vibrated. A series of heavy, muffled gunshots echoed from somewhere below them in the main foyer. The battle had breached the house. The Wrens were inside.
"Lena?" Archie whispered, stopping in the dark. "Loud noises."
"It's just thunder, sweetie," Lena lied, her heart hammering a frantic rhythm against her ribs. She reached out and pulled the toddler close, kissing his soft curls. "We're safe in here."
She needed to get them to the basement. The underground bunker Harrison had built was reinforced with steel and concrete. If she could reach the hidden door near the wine cellar, they could lock themselves in until the war was over.
They crawled for what felt like hours, navigating by feel in the pitch black. Finally, Lena felt a cold draft of air. They had reached the ventilation shaft that dropped down behind the grand staircase. Beside it was a narrow, steep set of wooden stairs meant for maintenance workers.
"Okay, Archie. We have to go down these stairs. Be very careful," Lena instructed, holding his small hand tightly.
As they descended into the lower levels of the mansion, the sounds of the firefight grew deafening. Shouts, the shattering of glass, and the relentless roar of automatic weapons echoed through the walls. Lena’s terror mounted with every step. If the assassin from the bedroom was still hunting them, he would eventually figure out the access panels.
They reached the bottom of the stairs, arriving at a solid wooden door that opened into the hallway just outside the wine cellar. Lena pressed her ear against the wood. She could hear running footsteps and men shouting orders, but she couldn't tell if they were Marco's men or Wren mercenaries.
She carefully pushed the door open a crack. The hallway was filled with thick, gray smoke. The smell of cordite and burning wood was overpowering.
"Stay here, Archie. Do not move," Lena whispered, stepping out slightly to check the corridor.
It was clear. She reached back and pulled the boy into the hallway, moving swiftly toward the heavy steel door of the wine cellar. Just as she grabbed the brass handle, a figure stepped out from the shadows at the end of the hall.
It was the assassin from the master suite. His face was bruised and bloody from the lamp she had thrown, and his eyes burned with a sadistic, unhinged fury.
"Found you," he sneered, raising his assault rifle directly at them.
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Lena screamed, throwing her body entirely over Archie, turning her back to the gunman, prepared to take the bullets to save Harrison's son and their unborn baby. She closed her eyes, waiting for the end.
But the gunshot that echoed through the hallway didn't come from the assassin's rifle.
