Chapter 6 - THE TICKING VEST
The single shot echoed through the stone cellar like a thunderclap.
Vanessa let out a sharp, choked gasp.
The bullet struck her perfectly in the right shoulder—the exact same shoulder she had wounded Marco in earlier. The impact spun her violently backward, slamming her against the heavy oak wine racks.
The black detonator slipped from her grasp, clattering onto the stone floor.
I didn't wait for her to recover. I sprinted across the cellar, ignoring the white-hot spike of pain in my leg, and dove for the detonator.
My fingers closed around the plastic just as Vanessa, screaming in agony, raised her pistol with her left hand, aiming blindly at me.
Before she could pull the trigger, Luca crossed the distance in three massive strides. He kicked the gun out of her hand with bone-shattering force, then grabbed her by the throat, pinning her against the splintering wood of the wine rack.
"Don't move," Luca snarled, his face inches from hers, his eyes burning with a terrifying, lethal rage.
Vanessa gasped for air, blood pouring from her shoulder, her eyes wide with terror as she stared up at the monster she had tried to cage.
I scrambled to my feet, clutching the detonator tightly, ensuring the button wasn't depressed.
"I have it!" I yelled to Luca.
"Help me!" Elena sobbed from the chair, her chest heaving as she stared down at the C4 vest strapped to her.
I rushed over to Elena, dropping to my knees beside her.
The vest was heavily wired. Thick red and blue cables snaked across the gray blocks of explosive, leading into a central digital timer.
The red numbers were glowing brightly.
But they weren't frozen anymore.
The impact of Vanessa dropping the detonator had triggered a failsafe.
The timer was counting down.
03:42... 03:41... 03:40...
"Luca!" I screamed, staring at the flashing red numbers in absolute horror. "It's counting down!"
Luca whipped his head around, his eyes locking onto the timer. He released Vanessa, letting her slump to the floor, groaning in pain, and rushed to his sister's side.
"Elena, don't move," Luca commanded, his voice tight but remarkably steady. He pulled a tactical knife from his belt and quickly sliced the zip-ties binding her wrists to the chair.
Elena brought her trembling hands forward, staring down at the explosives strapped to her chest. "Luca, get out of here. Leave me."
"Shut up," Luca snapped, dropping to his knees and examining the wiring on the vest. "I'm not leaving you."
He traced the thickest wire leading from the digital timer to the primary blasting cap embedded in the C4.
"It's a dead-man's switch with a tamper-proof seal," Luca muttered, sweat beading on his forehead as he examined the complicated knot of wires. "If I cut the wrong wire, or if I try to pull the vest off her, the pressure pad underneath will trigger the blast instantly."
02:59... 02:58... 02:57...
"Can you disarm it?" I asked, my voice shaking so violently I could barely form the words.
Luca didn't answer immediately. He stared at the wiring, his jaw clenched, calculating variables in a desperate race against time.
"The Volkovs built this," Luca finally said, his voice grim. "It's Russian military grade. There's a sequence. If I don't follow the exact sequence, the failsafe detonates."
He turned his head slowly, looking at Vanessa, who was slumped against the wine rack, clutching her bleeding shoulder.
"What is the sequence, Vanessa?" Luca asked, his voice deadly quiet.
Vanessa laughed, a weak, hysterical sound that bubbled with blood.
"I don't know," Vanessa sneered, a vindictive smile twisting her pale lips. "The Russians armed it. They didn't give me the disarm code. They just gave me the detonator. We're all going to die down here, Luca."
Luca stood up, towering over her. He didn't yell. He didn't hit her.
He reached down, grabbed her by the hair, and hauled her to her feet, ignoring her screams of pain. He dragged her across the cellar, forcing her to stand directly in front of Elena and the ticking bomb.
"Look at it," Luca commanded, forcing her head down.
01:45... 01:44... 01:43...
"I told you, I don't know the code!" Vanessa shrieked, struggling against his iron grip.
"You're a liar, Vanessa," Luca said softly, pressing the cold steel of his knife against her throat. "You never trust anyone completely. Not Marco, not me, and certainly not the Russian mafia. You wouldn't strap a bomb to a hostage and lock yourself in a room with them unless you knew exactly how to turn it off."
He pressed the blade harder, drawing a thin line of blood.
"Tell me the sequence. Or I will cut your throat right now, and you won't even live to see the explosion."
Vanessa's eyes darted wildly, staring at the flashing red numbers.
00:59... 00:58... 00:57...
"Fine!" Vanessa sobbed, pure terror finally breaking her. "The blue wire first! Then the green, then the yellow! Cut the red last!"
Luca released her, shoving her backward to the floor. He dropped back to his knees in front of Elena, raising his tactical knife.
"Blue, green, yellow, red," Luca repeated under his breath.
He carefully slipped the blade under the thick blue wire connected to the battery pack.
"Wait," I said loudly, grabbing Luca's arm before he could cut.
Luca looked up at me, shocked by the interruption. "Claire, what are you doing? We have forty seconds!"
I looked at Vanessa, who was staring at the bomb with a strange, intense anticipation. Her eyes weren't filled with fear of the explosion anymore. They were filled with anticipation.
I looked back at the vest.
"She's lying," I said, my voice hardening.
"What?" Elena gasped, hyperventilating.
"Look at the wiring," I said, pointing frantically at the mess of cables. "The blue wire doesn't go to the battery pack. It bypasses it and runs directly into the secondary blasting cap. If you cut the blue wire, it completes the circuit. It detonates instantly."
Luca stared at the wiring, tracing the blue wire with his eyes.
The color drained from his face.
"You're right," Luca breathed, realizing how close he had just come to blowing us all to ash.
He turned his head slowly, glaring at Vanessa.
"You wanted me to cut the blue wire," Luca said, his voice echoing with absolute menace. "You were going to let yourself die just to take us with you."
Vanessa sneered, a defiant, ugly look on her face. "If I can't have the empire, neither can you, Luca."
00:15... 00:14... 00:13...
"Luca, please!" Elena screamed, tears streaming down her face.
"Claire, hold this," Luca ordered, handing me the tactical knife.
"What?" I panicked. "I don't know how to disarm a bomb!"
"Neither do I," Luca said grimly. "Which means we aren't cutting wires."
He grabbed the heavy canvas straps of the explosive vest securely across Elena's shoulders.
"The pressure pad is on her chest," Luca yelled over the frantic beeping of the timer. "If the pressure releases, it blows. I'm going to pull the vest tight. Elena, when I say go, you exhale completely and slide out from the bottom. Do not let the front of the vest move away from your chest!"
"It's too tight!" Elena cried, terrified.
"Do it!" Luca roared.
He planted his boots on the floor and yanked the heavy straps backward, pulling the explosive vest tightly against his own chest, sandwiching Elena between himself and the bomb.
"Go!" Luca shouted.
00:05... 00:04...
Elena exhaled, making herself as small as possible, and violently thrust her arms downward, sliding out from underneath the heavy canvas vest.
The moment she was clear, Luca slammed the front of the explosive vest directly against the thick, stone pillar of the wine cellar, pressing his entire body weight against it to maintain the pressure on the pad.
"Run!" Luca screamed at us. "Get out of the cellar!"
00:02...
"I'm not leaving you!" I yelled, refusing to move.
"Run, Claire!" Luca roared, his face pressed against the stone.
I grabbed Elena by the arm and hauled her toward the stone staircase.
May you like
I looked back over my shoulder just as the red numbers flashed to zero.
00:00.
