Chapter 12 - The Estate Vault
The alleyway door rattled again, this time accompanied by a sharp, metallic knock that reverberated through the hollow workshop. Victoria and Maya froze instantly, exchanging a single, tense glance. Maya extinguished the desk lamp, plunging the room into shadows illuminated only by the faint, pulsing blue glow emanating from the abandoned wedding gown on the mannequin.
“They found us,” Maya whispered, reaching quietly beneath the cutting table to retrieve a heavy steel wrench.
“No,” Victoria breathed, her mind racing as she calculated the timeline of the federal raid and Julian’s detention. “Julian’s corporate security doesn't move that fast. But the syndicate’s cleanup crew does. They must know Julian was carrying a backup drive before he was arrested.”
Footsteps paused just outside the reinforced steel door. A muffled voice echoed through the metal panel.
“Open up. Federal maritime inspection. We have a warrant to secure the premises.”
Maya let out a dry, humorless scoff. “Federal marshals don’t come through the alley at four in the morning without marked transport vehicles.”
Victoria stepped away from the table, her heart hammering against her ribs. She looked at the canvas bag containing the salvage logs and titanium needles, then toward the front showroom where the shattered window had been hastily patched.
“We can’t fight them here,” Victoria said decisively. “They’ll tear the boutique apart looking for the ledger data.”
“There’s a service tunnel beneath the floorboards,” Maya murmured, lifting a heavy wooden panel near the base of the mannequin. “It connects to the old city drainage grid that runs straight toward the financial district—right underneath your family’s estate.”
Victoria stared down into the dark, damp opening. The smell of rusted iron and old water rose from the depths, reminding her chillingly of the ocean trenches her father had hidden from the world.
“We go underground,” Victoria said, without a trace of her former hesitation.
May you like
As the heavy steel door began to buckle under the force of a hydraulic breaching tool from the alley, Victoria and Maya slipped into the dark subterranean tunnel, pulling the wooden floorboard shut just as the workshop door crashed inward, revealing armed men in unmarked tactical gear storming the room.
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