Chapter 5 - The Chamber Below
The smell that poured out of the dark opening was cool, damp, and thick with the scent of aged stone and copper.
Mr. Duca pulled a sleek gold lighter from his vest pocket, flicking the flame to life. The amber light illuminated a flight of steep granite stairs leading down into the gray-stone bedrock beneath the study.
Mia shrank back slightly, holding Lily closely against her chest as the baby rubbed her wide brown eyes. "Mr. Duca... is someone trapped down there?"
"Stay right behind me, Mia," Mr. Duca commanded, his gravelly voice dropping into an absolute, unyielding tone of protection. "Do not let go of my suit jacket."
Mia nodded frantically, her small fingers wrapping tightly around the tail of his fitted black jacket.
With his right hand holding his lighter and his body shielding the two children, Mr. Duca descended the cold granite steps. Each step echoed hollowly in the narrow stone chute. At the bottom of twenty steps, the stairwell opened into a circular subterranean chamber built directly into the foundation.
Sitting in the center of the damp stone room was a reinforced steel door equipped with an old mechanical combination lock—and standing right beside it, holding a heavy tactical flashlight, was Marcus, Mr. Duca's chief security lieutenant.
Marcus spun around in shock, his sidearm half-drawn before he recognized his boss. "Mr. Duca?! How did you find this level?"
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Mr. Duca stopped in the center of the chamber, his dark eyes burning with lethal fury as he looked at his chief lieutenant. "I built this house's security grid five years ago, Marcus. Why is there a subterranean vault beneath my study that isn't on my private server?"
Marcus lowered his head, his fair skin turning pale under the halogen light. "Sir... this vault wasn't built by you. It was built thirty years ago by your late uncle, Julian Duca."
