Chapter 6 - The Siege of the East Wing
The kitchen exploded into sound and light.
Dominic’s first round struck Harris in the shoulder, spinning the doctor around and knocking him against a row of copper cookware that crashed down in a deafening metallic cascade.
Simultaneously, Dominic threw a heavy stainless-steel tray across the room, distracting the two lead mercenaries long enough to pull Sophia and Lily toward the walk-in freezer door.
"Inside! Go!" Dominic yelled, ripping open the thick, insulated steel door.
Sophia ducked inside the sub-zero room, holding Lily close, while Dominic stepped into the entrance frame, returning fire down the main aisle of the kitchen. Two rounds shattered the glass doors of the pastry display fridges, filling the air with flying shards and pressurized coolant gas.
A mercenary dropped as Dominic’s fire found its mark, but automatic fire chewed through the aluminum doorframe of the freezer, spraying wooden splinters and insulation foam everywhere.
Dominic slammed the heavy freezer door shut, locking the internal mechanical latch.
Inside, the temperature was minus ten degrees Fahrenheit. Frost covered the metal shelving where racks of frozen meat and delicate pastry bases were stored.
"They'll shoot through the door!" Sophia cried, her breath forming thick white clouds in the freezing air.
"No," Dominic said, checking his remaining ammunition. He had one magazine left—eight rounds. "This door is reinforced three-inch steel insulated with ballistic Kevlar layers. They can't shoot through it with small arms. But they can turn off the primary power and lock us inside to freeze."
Outside, the heavy thud of metal bars locking into place echoed through the steel door.
"Dominic!" Harris’s voice boomed over the freezer's external intercom system. "You think you’re safe in there? In twenty minutes, the temperature in that vault will drop to minus twenty. In forty minutes, your little witness will go into hypothermic shock. Hand over the physical drive, or watch the girl die!"
Inside the dark freezer, Sophia wrapped her own wool coat around Lily, holding her tightly against her body, trying to transfer her own body warmth to the child. "Dominic... what do we do? We can't stay in here!"
Dominic walked to the rear of the walk-in freezer, shining his tactical light onto the back wall. "Every commercial freezer installed in this manor has an emergency ventilation hatch that connects directly to the estate's central air circulation ducting."
He pointed to a heavy steel grate near the ceiling, secured by four large industrial bolts.
"Can you unscrew those?" Sophia asked, hope flaring in her voice.
Dominic reached into his pocket and pulled out the small silver cigarette case. He used the rigid steel edge of the case as a makeshift screwdriver, applying maximum pressure to the top left bolt.
CRACK.
The first bolt yielded, rusted metal flakes dusting down onto his suit jacket.
"Keep her moving, Sophia," Dominic instructed, his muscles straining as he tackled the second bolt. "Don't let her fall asleep."
"Lily, sweetie," Sophia said, her voice shaking as she rubbed her daughter's cold arms. "Count with me. One... two..."
"Three..." Lily whimpered, her small teeth chattering violently. "Mummy... I'm cold..."
"I know, baby. I know. Just keep counting."
CRACK. The second bolt snapped free.
Above them, the deep rumble of an explosion echoed through the floorboards of the manor. The entire freezer shook, causing several frozen meat hooks to swing wildly from the ceiling tracks.
"That wasn't Harris," Dominic observed, his eyes narrowing as he quickly tackled the third bolt. "That was heavy ordinance. Marcus is executing Phase Two."
Outside in the main courtyard, Marcus Vance had breached the estate's main armory. Driving an armored SUV through the glass doors of the central conservatory, Marcus and four loyal estate security officers had launched a full-scale counter-offensive against Julian Moretti's mercenary team.
Heavy machine-gun fire echoed across the grounds, interspersed with the high-pitched whir of police sirens approaching from the coastal highway—Interpol had alerted the state tactical division, and thirty emergency response vehicles were closing in on the Moretti estate.
CRACK. The final bolt gave way.
Dominic pulled the heavy steel vent grate free, revealing a dark, circular ventilation shaft forty inches in diameter.
"Sophia, go first," Dominic ordered, lifting her up toward the opening. "Follow the ducting twenty yards to the right. It leads directly to the laundry chute above the staff quarters."
Sophia climbed into the narrow aluminum duct, turning back to reach for her daughter. Dominic lifted Lily gently, passing her up into her mother's arms.
"Go," Dominic commanded. "I'll be right behind you."
Just as Dominic was reaching for the duct edge to pull his own body up, the heavy freezer door behind him was blown off its hinges by a demolition charge.
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A cloud of white smoke and twisted metal filled the freezing room. Through the haze stepped Julian Moretti, holding a high-caliber tactical shotgun, his face smeared with grease and blood.
"Going somewhere, brother?" Julian sneered, raising the barrel directly at Dominic's chest.
