Chapter 8 - Twelve Minutes
Marcus and Noah reached the lower level through a maintenance stairwell.
Marcus had blood on his shoulder but insisted the wound was shallow. Noah carried a tablet displaying the facility’s security layout.
“The bombs are connected to the fire-control system,” Noah said. “If we cut power, they detonate.”
“Can you disarm them?” Adrien asked.
“Not in twelve minutes.”
Julian studied the map.
“There’s an old drainage tunnel below the chapel. We can enter from beneath.”
“The access point is outside,” Noah said. “Two hundred yards through open ground.”
Samuel’s men would be watching.
Adrien turned to Lydia.
“How many guards remain loyal to you?”
“Six, perhaps eight.”
“Perhaps?”
“Celeste replaced most of the staff over the past year. I thought she was strengthening security.”
“She was building an army,” Julian said.
Elena gripped the edge of the bed.
“She did it because she believed she had no family.”
Adrien looked at his mother.
“She kidnapped a child.”
“And Samuel manipulated her anger for years.”
“That does not erase what she did.”
“No. But it explains why she may still be saved.”
Adrien divided the group.
Marcus and Lydia would create a disturbance at the main entrance. Noah and Julian would reach the bomb controls. Adrien would enter the drainage tunnel alone.
Elena refused to stay behind.
“Samuel will not talk unless he sees me.”
“He will kill you.”
“He kept me alive for seven years because he needs what I remember.”
Adrien did not like it, but she was right.
Maria and Lucia were moved to a secure basement storeroom with Dr. Chen. Before the door closed, Lucia called Adrien’s name.
He turned.
She held out the battered teddy bear.
“For being brave.”
Adrien stared at it.
“I think you need him more.”
Lucia shook her head.
“Mama says brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go anyway.”
Adrien accepted the bear.
He tucked it inside his jacket.
The distraction began three minutes later.
Gunfire erupted at the facility’s front entrance. Alarms sounded. Guards rushed toward the lobby.
Adrien and Elena crossed the frozen grounds to a rusted drainage grate behind the chapel. Noah remotely released the lock.
They crawled through ankle-deep water beneath the foundation.
Above them, Samuel’s voice echoed through the pipes.
“You were always weak where Elena was concerned, Antonio.”
Adrien stopped.
Samuel was speaking to someone else.
Elena heard it too.
“Antonio is dead,” she whispered.
They continued until the tunnel opened into a chamber below the chapel floor.
Through a narrow ventilation slit, Adrien saw Samuel standing beside Celeste. Across from him sat a man in a wheelchair.
The man’s face was scarred from burns. His hair was white. One side of his body appeared partially paralyzed.
But Elena recognized him before Adrien did.
Her hand covered her mouth.
“Antonio.”
Adrien stared upward.
His father was alive.
Samuel walked around the wheelchair.
“For twelve years, you listened while I dismantled everything you built. Your wife hidden. Your sons divided. Your oldest daughter turned into a weapon.”
Antonio’s voice was barely audible.
“You always wanted my life.”
“I wanted what Father promised me.”
“He promised you nothing.”
Samuel struck him.
Elena flinched.
Adrien’s mind raced. His father’s funeral had included a sealed coffin after an explosion destroyed the car in which Antonio supposedly died. Adrien had identified him through a ring and dental reports provided by Samuel.
Every proof had come from inside the Cardinal network.
Samuel checked his watch.
“Eight minutes.”
Celeste strained against her restraints.
“You said the explosives were leverage.”
“They are.”
“You told me no one would die.”
Samuel smiled.
“You truly are Elena’s daughter. Still desperate to believe the person betraying you has a heart.”
Celeste’s face changed.
The rage remained, but now it turned toward Samuel.
Adrien eased open the maintenance hatch.
Elena whispered, “Wait.”
She rose first.
Samuel turned when she entered the chapel.
For the first time, surprise disturbed his composure.
“Elena.”
Antonio lifted his head.
The look between Adrien’s parents contained seven lost years, grief, disbelief, and love neither had been allowed to bury.
Samuel aimed his weapon at Elena.
“Give me the encryption sequence.”
Adrien emerged behind her holding the ledger.
“Let them go.”
Samuel laughed.
“The great Adrien Romano, carrying a child’s toy.”
Adrien did not glance at the teddy bear visible inside his jacket.
“You have what you wanted. The family is here.”
“Not all of it.”
Samuel looked at Celeste.
“She was almost perfect. Intelligent. Angry. Invisible. But she had the same weakness as her mother.”
“What weakness?” Celeste asked.
“She wanted to be loved.”
The timer displayed on a chapel monitor reached six minutes.
Below them, Julian and Noah reached the bomb-control room.
Noah opened the system panel.
“This isn’t a standard trigger.”
Julian examined the wiring.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Samuel never intended to escape.”
Back in the chapel, Samuel held up a small switch.
“If I release this, the bombs detonate.”
A dead-man trigger.
Adrien lowered the ledger.
“Then none of us leaves.”
“Exactly.”
Samuel looked toward Antonio.
“The Romano family ends together.”
Celeste suddenly kicked backward, driving the chair into Samuel’s knees.
The trigger slipped in his hand.
Adrien fired.
The bullet struck Samuel’s shoulder.
Samuel fell but kept his fingers clenched around the switch.
The timer reached four minutes.
Celeste tipped her chair sideways, crashing to the floor.
Elena ran to Antonio.
Adrien moved toward Samuel.
Samuel smiled through the blood.
“You cannot kill me.”
“Why?”
“Because the moment my heart stops, every file we collected goes public.”
Noah’s voice came through Adrien’s earpiece.
“He’s telling the truth. The system is linked to a biometric monitor.”
Samuel’s smile widened.
“Kill me, and your judges, officers, businesses, and every secret your father ever kept will be released to the world.”
The timer reached three minutes.
Julian’s voice followed.
“Adrien, we can stop the explosion or stop the data release.”
“Not both?” Adrien asked.
“Not both.”
May you like
Samuel began laughing.
And Adrien was forced to choose between saving his family’s lives and saving the Romano empire.
