Chapter 9 - trial by night
The lights in the subterranean vault instantly cut out, plunging the concrete room into pitch-black darkness. The heavy iron security doors automatically slammed shut with a deafening metallic screech, locking everyone inside the vault corridor.
Panic erupted instantly in the dark. Flashlights flickered on, beams of white light cutting wildly through the dust.
"Cole!" Hannah screamed, pulling Owen behind the steel viewing table as gunshots echoed off the narrow concrete walls.
Cole didn't panic. Years of combat training took over in an instant. He dropped low to the floor, using the shadows to slide around the perimeter of the room. He fired two precise shots toward the flashlight beams held by the Valenti mercenaries, neutralizing their light sources without hitting a single innocent person.
"Marcus! Flank the left aisle!" Cole bellowed, his voice echoing through the darkness like thunder.
Cole moved like a ghost, grabbing the first mercenary by his tactical vest, disarming him in a swift, brutal fluid motion, and slamming him against the steel safe boxes. He grabbed the dropped tactical flashlight, clicked it on, and pinned Silas against the main vault door.
Silas gasped, dropping his cane as Cole's massive hand gripped his throat, lifting him two inches off the stone floor.
"Where is the master key for the vault emergency exit, Silas?" Cole demanded, his dark eyes glowing in the flashlight beam.
"I... I don't have it..." Silas choked out, his eyes bulging with terror. "The system locked automatically when the power failed!"
"Mom!" Owen's small voice called out from behind the table. "The wooden knight!"
Cole turned his flashlight beam toward his son. Owen was kneeling beside the small steel box, holding the crooked wooden knight he had placed on Harold's coffin earlier.
"Grandpa showed me!" Owen said clearly, his voice steady despite the chaos. "The bottom of the knight opens!"
Hannah quickly grabbed the wooden knight from Owen's hands, pressing down on the crooked mane as Owen had instructed. The wooden base popped open, revealing a small micro-USB flash drive hidden inside the hollow interior.
"It's an emergency bypass drive!" Hannah called out. "Harold installed it on the bank's terminal last month!"
Cole shoved Silas to the ground, stepping over him as he rushed to the vault control panel beside the main door. He grabbed the micro-drive from Hannah, inserted it into the terminal's backup battery port, and entered Harold's birthdate into the keypad.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The heavy pneumatic locks groaned, and the massive ten-ton steel door slowly swung open, letting in the cool night air from the street above.
Cole turned back, grabbing Silas by his coat collar and dragging him out into the alleyway where three police cruisers—tipped off by Marcus ten minutes earlier—were already pulling up with sirens blaring.
"Silas Mercer," a federal agent called out, stepping out of the lead cruiser with his badge drawn. "You are under arrest for murder, racketeering, and corporate fraud."
May you like
Silas looked at Cole in utter disbelief as the handcuffs clicked around his wrists. "You called the feds on your own family?"
"You're not my family, Silas," Cole said coldly, watching the police pull his uncle into the back of the car. "You never were."
