Chapter 14 - The Final Collapse
The moment Eleanor’s thumb depressed the red button, a loud, ear-splitting alarm siren wailed through the underground vault, flashing an angry strobe of crimson light.
"What did you do?" Julian roared, grabbing his mother by the shoulders and shaking her violently. "What did you just activate?"
"The self-destruction sequence," Eleanor laughed maniacally, her eyes wild and bloodshot. "If I can't have the empire, nobody can! The foundation charges are set to blow in sixty seconds!"
"Run!" Julian yelled, grabbing Clara by the waist and hoisting her toward the stone staircase as fast as her pregnant frame could manage.
Sarah was already at the top of the stairs, reaching down with both hands to haul Clara up into the study while the floor beneath their feet began to shudder violently. Dust and chunks of old mortar rained down from the vaulted stone ceiling as the underground structure groaned under the stress of hidden explosive charges.
Julian pushed Clara and Sarah ahead of him up the stairs, turning back just in time to see Eleanor standing calmly beside the metal desk, refusing to move an inch as the concrete walls began to fracture.
"Mom, get out here!" Julian screamed, reaching back down into the stairwell, ignoring the falling debris.
"Save yourself, Julian!" Eleanor shouted back over the deafening roar of the alarm and the rumbling earth. "Protect your family! Let the past burn!"
A massive slab of stone crashed down from the ceiling, blocking the lower half of the staircase entirely and cutting off Eleanor from view.
"Julian, move! We have to get out now!" Sarah screamed, grabbing the back of his suit jacket and dragging him backward through the study just as the mahogany bookshelf blew outward from the force of the underground blast.
The shockwave knocked all three of them flat onto the hallway carpet as the entire floor of the east wing collapsed inward into a massive cloud of gray dust and choking smoke.
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Sirens wailed outside the front windows as the unmistakable lights of police cruisers and fire engines flooded the property. Through the thick haze of plaster dust, Julian pulled Clara into his arms, shielding her head as the ceiling above them finally went still.
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