Chapter 14 - Fire on the Waterfront
Z
Inside the safe room, the silence was suffocating.
The reinforced bunker had a small monitor connected to the property's external security cameras. I sat on the floor with Mia in my lap, singing softly into her hair to drown out the distant, muffled sounds of gunfire echoing from the woods above.
On the screen, shadows moved across the snowy clearing near the lake. Adrian’s security detail was engaging the armed contractors Elias had brought with him. Muzzle flashes lit up the dark pine trees like deadly strobes. Then, one of the cameras went black, severed by an explosive breach.
Then another.
And another.
My breath hitched in my throat as the central courtyard camera showed the glass front of the lodge shattering under heavy fire. Smoke billowed from the roof. A fire had started in the west wing, spreading rapidly across the cedar beams.
"Mommy, it smells like smoke," Mia murmured, her grip on my shirt tightening.
"It's okay, baby. We're safe in here," I lied, my voice shaking uncontrollably. The ventilation system was filtering the air, but the hum of the fans was beginning to sputter as the fire consumed the power generators above.
On the final functioning camera feed inside the burning great room, I saw Adrian.
He was crouched behind the overturned mahogany dining table, returning fire with his pistol. Across the room, through the haze of smoke and falling burning timber, stood Elias Kane. The old man was flanked by two heavily armed mercenaries, leaning on his cane, watching his eldest son with an expression of pure, unbridled madness.
"You tore down everything I built!" Elias's voice, distorted through the camera microphone, shrieked over the roar of the flames. "For a bastard child and a penniless waitress!"
"She's Julian's daughter!" Adrian shouted back, reloading his weapon with grim efficiency. "And you killed Julian the day you tried to turn him into a monster like you!"
"Julian was weak!" Elias roared, raising his cane to signal his mercenaries. "Kill him! Burn the whole place to the ground!"
The mercenaries moved forward, their automatic rifles raised. My heart stopped. Adrian was pinned behind the burning table, his ammunition clearly running low. He was going to die right in front of my eyes on a tiny security monitor, and there was nothing I could do.
Unless...
I looked at the control console in the safe room. Next to the door lock was a red toggle switch labeled: Fire Suppression & External Halon Release - Main Lodge.
Adrian had built an industrial halon gas fire suppression system into the lodge to protect his private art collection and archives. If activated, it would deplete the oxygen in the great room within thirty seconds, smothering the flames—and incapacitating anyone inside who wasn't wearing an oxygen mask.
Behind me, on the bunker wall, hung two emergency oxygen masks.
Without thinking, I grabbed one of the masks and strapped it tightly over my face. I grabbed the second mask, knelt down to Mia, and placed it gently in her hands.
"Mia, listen to Mommy," I said firmly, my voice muffled by the plastic. "Put this mask on and do not take it off. Mommy is going to get Uncle Adrian. Stay right here."
"Mommy, don't go!" she cried, but I had already punched the emergency override code on the door.
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The heavy steel door hissed open. Thick, grey smoke immediately poured into the corridor. I pulled the red toggle switch on the wall, and high-pitched alarm sirens began to scream through the burning house.
I charged out of the cellar and up the burning wooden staircase, armed only with an emergency fire axe from the bunker wall, determined to pull Adrian Kane back from the gates of hell.
