Chapter 10 - Flames in Tacoma
"Mei-Ling! Mei-Ling, can you hear me?" Mrs. Chen’s voice crackled through the phone speaker, broken by violent coughing and the roaring sound of uncontrolled flames. "Someone threw a brick through the front window with a bottle of gasoline! The whole shop is on fire, and the back exit is jammed!"
Mei-Ling gasped, dropping her phone a few inches before catching it with shaking hands. The entire auditorium went quiet as they noticed the terror on her face.
"Mom! Get out through the storage loft!" Mei-Ling screamed into the phone, ignoring the shocked stares of the board members around her. "Use the iron ladder! Don't worry about anything else, just get out!"
"We can't! The lock is rusted shut from the outside! Someone chained the security gate!" Mrs. Chen's voice was instantly drowned out by the terrifying sound of shattering glass and collapsing timber. The screen flickered violently, showing glowing orange flames licking up the wooden walls before the video feed cut to black.
"No! Mom! Dad!" Mei-Ling screamed, dropping the phone onto the conference table as tears broke free, hot and fast down her cheeks.
Eleanor moved as fast as her aging legs and cane would allow, grabbing Mei-Ling by the shoulders. "What happened? Tell me!"
"Marcus!" Mei-Ling sobbed, her voice cracking with absolute despair. "He had people waiting. He set the bakery on fire with my parents trapped inside!"
"Security!" Eleanor bellowed, turning toward the stunned board members with fury in her eyes. "Get our private helicopter warmed up on the roof immediately! If a single hair on those innocent people's heads is harmed, I will personally strip every asset this company owns down to the bare earth!"
Mei-Ling didn't wait for the elevator. She turned and sprinted toward the emergency stairwell, her black turtleneck sticking to her skin as cold sweat broke out across her back. She threw open the heavy steel fire door and began taking the stairs three at a time, descending forty flights of concrete steps as fast as her legs could carry her.
Her mind raced through every memory of the Chens—the way her adoptive father would sneak extra red bean buns into her school lunchbox, the way her mother would stay up late helping her balance her high school algebra homework while nursing sore wrists from kneading dough. They were good, kind people who had asked for nothing in return for saving her life.
When she finally burst through the ground-floor exit into the chilly Seattle air, a black armored Lincoln Navigator with tinted windows was idling by the curb, its engine purring with suppressed power. The rear door swung open automatically, and a trusted family bodyguard motioned frantically for her to get inside.
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As Mei-Ling dived into the backseat, Eleanor slid in right behind her, slamming the door shut as the vehicle surged forward into the heavy evening traffic, sirens wailing in the distance.
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