Chapter 14 - The Traitor's Mask
The darkness inside the master library was absolute for three harrowing seconds before the crimson emergency backup lights hummed to life, casting long, bloody shadows across the oak paneling.
Dante didn't hesitate. He swept Lily into his left arm, grabbed Elena’s wrist, and pulled them behind his heavy steel desk just as a volley of high-caliber submachine-gun fire tore through the grand double doors of the library.
Heavy mahogany splinters and shattered glass rained down like hail.
"Marcus!" Dante bellowed into the darkness, his voice ringing with terrifying authority over the roar of gunfire. "You bled with me in Chicago! You swore an oath on my father's grave!"
From the ruined doorway stepped Marcus, dressed in tactical Kevlar gear, holding a suppressed assault rifle. Beside him stood six Valenti mercenaries carrying heavy breaching shields.
"An oath doesn't pay for early retirement, Dante!" Marcus sneered, his eyes gleam with cold greed. "Don Valenti offered me full control of the Manhattan docks! Hand over the girl and her mother, and I’ll let you die like a soldier instead of burning alive in this room!"
"Daddy..." Lily whimpered, burying her face into Dante’s chest.
"I am not her father, little one," Dante whispered gently into the child’s hair, "but I promise you on my life... no one in this room touches you."
Dante reached beneath his desk, hitting a hidden mechanical lever.
CLANG!
A heavy steel blast shutter descended from the ceiling frame, slamming down over the library doorway with thunderous force, cutting off Marcus’s line of sight and locking the mercenaries outside.
"That shutter won't hold against thermite charges for more than two minutes," Elena gasped, her breath ragged with panic.
"We don't need two minutes," Dante replied coolly. He walked over to the grand fireplace, grabbed a bronze wall sconce, and pulled it down forty-five degrees.
The back brick wall of the fireplace swung inward with a pneumatic hiss, revealing a winding stone spiral staircase descending into the cliffside below.
"The subterranean tunnels," Dante said, gesturing for Elena and Lily to enter. "They lead to the river docks."
As they stepped into the dark passage, Lily suddenly stopped, her eyes locking onto a discarded tactical glove lying near the hearth.
"Look," Lily whispered, pointing a small finger. "The traitor man left his shiny ring."
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Dante reached down and picked up a heavy silver signet ring that had fallen from Marcus’s pocket during the breifing. Engraved on the inside rim was a tiny micro-digital drive.
Dante’s gray eyes flared with lethal realization. "The Valenti master ledger..."
