Chapter 5: The Siege Underground
Marcus's voice echoed through the stone tunnel.
"Open the door, Uncle."
"I'd rather not destroy what's behind it."
Inside the archive, no one answered.
Vincent stood motionless, the revolver hanging loosely at his side.
Six bullets.
Ten enemies.
The math wasn't encouraging.
Elena quietly stepped beside him.
"He wants you to answer."
Vincent shook his head.
"He wants my voice."
"So he knows exactly where we're standing."
A faint smile crossed Elena's face.
"You learn fast."
Outside, Marcus placed his ear against the steel door.
Nothing.
No footsteps.
No breathing.
He turned toward Tony.
"Explosives."
Tony hesitated.
"You said the old man stays alive."
Marcus nodded.
"He will."
"The door won't."
One of the gunmen unpacked a shaped charge.
Carefully.
Professionally.
Elena saw everything through a tiny surveillance screen.
"They've got military-grade explosives."
Frank cursed under his breath.
"That steel was built to stop bullets..."
"...not demolition charges."
Vincent turned back toward the shelves.
"If they breach this room..."
"...they get every secret my family ever buried."
Elena was already searching.
"There has to be another exit."
Frank remained silent.
Vincent noticed.
"You know something."
Frank sighed.
"There is another passage."
"Where?"
Frank pointed toward the far wall.
"It leads beneath the old chapel."
"Why didn't you mention it?"
"Because once you go through..."
"...the archive seals forever."
Vincent looked around the room.
The ledgers.
The recordings.
The evidence.
His family's true history.
If they abandoned it now...
It might never be opened again.
The first explosion shook the chamber.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
The steel door groaned.
Marcus smiled outside.
"Again."
A second blast.
This time the hinges bent inward.
Tony looked impressed.
"Another charge should do it."
Marcus shook his head.
"No."
"I want him to hear us coming."
Inside, Elena reached one of the highest shelves.
She pulled down a black leather ledger.
Unlike the others...
It carried no date.
Only one word.
Founders.
Vincent opened it.
The first page contained names.
Every man who had built the Torino empire.
The second page...
Contained betrayals.
Every person who had ever tried to overthrow the family.
Some names were crossed out in red.
Executed.
Others had vanished.
One page stopped Vincent cold.
At the top was written:
Future Successors
Below were only two names.
Marcus Torino.
Elena Ricci.
Vincent stared.
He looked at Elena.
"You were..."
"...chosen?"
She looked just as shocked.
"I've never seen this."
Frank nodded slowly.
"Antonio never told her."
Vincent flipped another page.
A handwritten note appeared beneath both names.
"The empire must one day belong to the child who chooses justice over power."
No signature.
Only the Torino family seal.
Another explosion ripped through the tunnel.
The steel door split open.
Light poured through a growing crack.
Marcus's men raised their rifles.
Marcus lifted one hand.
"Wait."
He wanted Vincent alive.
Inside the archive...
Frank hurried toward an ancient stone column.
He pushed against it.
Nothing happened.
Again.
Still nothing.
"It's stuck."
Elena joined him.
Together they forced the mechanism.
With a deep grinding sound...
Part of the wall slowly moved.
Cold air rushed inside.
The hidden passage.
Vincent grabbed the black ledger.
Then stopped.
He looked back at the shelves.
Decades of evidence.
If Marcus found them...
He could erase every trace of the truth.
Elena understood his expression.
"We don't have time."
Vincent quietly removed a silver lighter from his pocket.
Frank stared.
"No..."
Vincent looked around the archive one final time.
"My grandfather built this room to preserve the truth."
He struck the lighter.
"But truth doesn't live in paper."
"It lives in people willing to defend it."
He dropped the flame into a box of old documents soaked with decades of dust and oil.
Within seconds...
Fire raced across the shelves.
Frank closed his eyes.
The archive became an inferno.
Outside...
Smoke poured beneath the damaged steel door.
Marcus frowned.
"Fire?"
The final explosive detonated.
The steel door crashed inward.
Marcus and his men stormed inside.
Flames engulfed the archive.
Ledgers collapsed into ash.
Wooden shelves exploded in sparks.
"No!"
Marcus shouted.
He searched desperately.
Every cabinet.
Every drawer.
Every shelf.
Nothing.
Only fire.
Tony looked around.
"They're gone."
Marcus noticed fresh footprints disappearing into the hidden passage.
His face hardened.
"They're heading for the chapel."
He smiled.
"Perfect."
Tony looked confused.
Marcus reloaded his pistol.
"Because that's where she wants them."
Deep beneath the estate...
Vincent, Elena, and Frank hurried through the narrow escape tunnel.
Behind them, the fire roared.
Ahead...
A faint glow appeared.
Moonlight.
They were close.
But as they reached the final staircase...
Elena suddenly froze.
She slowly raised one hand.
"Don't move."
Vincent looked ahead.
A red laser sight rested perfectly on his chest.
Then another.
Then another.
Voices echoed above them.
"We've been expecting you."
Vincent slowly lifted his eyes toward the chapel entrance.
Standing beneath the old wooden cross...
A woman dressed in black lowered her rifle.
She removed her hood.
Her silver cross necklace caught the moonlight.
Vincent felt every ounce of blood drain from his face.
His voice barely escaped his lips.
"Lucia..."
May you like
The woman smiled.
"Hello, big brother."
