CHAPTER 4 — THE BASEMENT OF BLOOD
The convoy raced through the storm.
Three armored SUVs tore down the deserted highway, headlights slicing through sheets of rain. Inside the lead vehicle, Emily lay unconscious on a stretcher while Sarah desperately monitored her fading pulse.
"Eighty over forty..." Sarah muttered. "She's crashing again."
Richard gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.
"How much longer?"
"Five minutes."
"We don't have five minutes."
Emily suddenly gasped.
Her entire body jerked violently.
Her heartbeat monitor shrieked.
Then—
Flatline.
"No!" Sarah shouted.
She immediately climbed over the seat and began chest compressions.
"Come on, Emily! Stay with me!"
Richard slammed the accelerator.
The SUV surged forward.
Another compression.
Another breath.
Nothing.
Then—
Emily's eyes flew open.
She sucked in a violent breath, clawing wildly at the air.
"Easy!" Sarah cried.
"You're safe!"
Emily wasn't listening.
She grabbed Sarah's arm with shocking strength.
Her fingernails dug into Sarah's skin.
"They're coming..."
Her voice was barely audible.
"They're... already inside..."
"Who's inside?" Richard asked.
Emily looked directly at him.
Not with relief.
With terror.
"The house..."
She coughed violently.
"...don't go into the basement."
Her eyes rolled back.
She lost consciousness again.
Silence filled the vehicle.
Richard and Sarah exchanged a glance.
Neither of them spoke.
They already knew where they were going.
...
Minutes later...
The Carter Mansion emerged through the rain like a dark fortress.
Security gates opened automatically.
More than a dozen armed guards surrounded the property.
Richard jumped out before the SUV had fully stopped.
"Lock every entrance!"
"No one gets in!"
"No one gets out!"
The guards spread across the estate.
Sarah and two medics carried Emily toward the mansion.
Halfway to the front door—
The lights went out.
Everything.
The mansion.
The gardens.
The security fence.
Darkness swallowed the estate.
"What happened?" Richard shouted.
A guard answered through his radio.
"Main power's dead!"
Another voice screamed over the radio.
"Movement!"
Gunfire exploded.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Bullets shattered windows across the mansion.
Masked figures emerged from the darkness, firing suppressed rifles.
"They're here!" a guard yelled.
"Take cover!"
Richard threw himself over Emily's stretcher as bullets ripped through the marble columns.
Glass rained from the second floor.
Sarah grabbed the stretcher.
"Inside! Move!"
She and two guards pushed Emily through the front doors while Richard's security team exchanged fire with the attackers.
Outside became a war zone.
Inside...
The mansion was completely silent.
Emergency lights flickered red through the hallways.
Sarah looked around.
"Where's everyone?"
Richard frowned.
"The staff should be here..."
No answer.
The mansion felt abandoned.
Too abandoned.
Then—
A scream echoed upstairs.
One of the maids.
It ended abruptly.
Richard drew the pistol Victoria had dropped at the cemetery.
"Stay with Emily."
"I'm checking upstairs."
"No!" Sarah grabbed his arm.
"That's exactly what they want."
Before Richard could answer—
A loud metallic crash echoed beneath their feet.
From below.
The basement.
Emily's fingers twitched weakly.
Almost unconsciously...
She whispered again.
"Basement..."
Richard looked toward the heavy oak door leading downstairs.
It stood slightly open.
He was certain...
He had locked it before leaving for the funeral.
...
Three guards approached the staircase.
Weapons raised.
"I'll go first," one whispered.
The beam from his flashlight cut through the darkness.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Nothing.
Then—
The flashlight suddenly went out.
A gunshot echoed below.
The guard screamed.
His body tumbled backward up the stairs, crashing into the others.
Blood covered his chest.
"Ambush!" someone yelled.
Automatic gunfire erupted from below.
Richard fired back.
Sarah dragged Emily behind a marble pillar as bullets tore chunks from the staircase.
The attackers weren't trying to escape.
They were protecting something.
Richard noticed it immediately.
"They don't want us going down there."
Sarah nodded.
"Which means..."
"Whatever Emily found..."
"It's still in the basement."
Richard turned toward two guards.
"Flashbangs."
"Now."
One guard pulled the pin.
Three...
Two...
One...
BOOM!
A blinding flash erupted down the staircase.
The attackers shouted in confusion.
Richard charged.
"Move!"
He sprinted down the stairs with four guards close behind.
Sarah hesitated only a second before following.
The basement wasn't a wine cellar anymore.
It looked like a laboratory.
Rows of stainless-steel tables.
Medical refrigerators.
Computers.
Monitors.
IV machines.
Surgical lights.
Dozens of locked cabinets.
One masked attacker opened fire.
Richard ducked behind a steel cabinet while guards returned fire.
Bullets shattered glass containers filled with strange blue liquid.
The room filled with smoke.
One attacker lunged at Sarah with a combat knife.
She grabbed a metal tray and blocked the strike.
The blade scraped inches from her face.
He attacked again.
She swung the tray into his jaw.
CRACK!
He staggered.
Sarah kicked him hard into a medical trolley.
It crashed across the room.
Another attacker grabbed Richard from behind.
The pistol flew from his hand.
They slammed into a laboratory table, knocking computers to the floor.
Richard punched the man's throat.
The attacker barely reacted.
Professional.
Military trained.
The man reached for another knife.
Just before he could strike—
BANG!
A bullet pierced his shoulder.
Richard looked up.
Victoria stood at the basement entrance.
She had another handgun.
Again...
She had saved him.
"What are you doing here?" Richard shouted.
Victoria's answer never came.
Because every monitor in the laboratory suddenly turned on by themselves.
One by one.
Dozens of screens flickered to life.
Every screen showed the same thing.
Emily.
Hospital Room 407.
Recorded forty-eight hours earlier.
The room was empty.
Then the video timestamp reached 11:42 p.m.
The door opened.
A woman entered.
She wore a hood.
Her face couldn't be seen.
She walked directly to Emily's IV line...
Pulled a syringe from her pocket...
And injected something into the tube.
The room fell silent.
Richard stepped closer to the monitor.
"Zoom in," he whispered.
The hooded woman turned slightly toward the security camera.
Just enough for everyone to see one unmistakable detail.
Around her neck...
Hung the same black raven pendant found on the dead assassin.
Then she looked directly into the camera...
Smiled...
And slowly pulled back her hood.
Sarah's face drained of color.
"No..."
Richard froze.
Because the woman on the screen...
May you like
Was Sarah Bennett.
END OF CHAPTER 4
