Chapter 5 - The Man They Came to Kill.
Caldwell stared at Ethan as if he had misheard him.
“They came for me?”
Ethan pressed the stolen headset closer to his ear.
“Their channel just changed objectives.”
Vivian kept Sophie behind the desk.
“What objective?”
Ethan listened for another second.
“Confirm Caldwell deceased, recover Black Lantern material, leave no witnesses.”
Sophie began crying again.
Vivian’s anger became frighteningly calm.
“So the people who accused me of treason brought the real target to my front door.”
Caldwell swallowed.
“I did not know.”
“That sentence is doing a lot of work tonight.”
Ethan moved to the library window and carefully lifted one corner of the curtain.
“Two contractors near the fountain.”
“How many total?” Vivian asked.
“At least eight.”
“And your agents?”
“I can confirm two wounded and one missing.”
Caldwell checked his phone.
“No service.”
“They are jamming the property,” Ethan said.
Vivian looked toward the old portrait of her father.
He had designed the estate during the Cold War and joked that every respectable house needed one secret no architect knew about.
She had believed he meant the hidden wine cellar.
Now she remembered something else.
“There is a tunnel.”
Caldwell turned.
“What?”
“My father built an emergency passage beneath the east wing.”
Ethan’s eyes sharpened.
“Where does it exit?”
“Old carriage house near the river.”
“Can we reach it?”
“If the corridor is clear.”
Vivian lifted Sophie.
“We are not waiting here to become a cleanup operation.”
They moved through a concealed door behind the library shelves and entered a narrow service corridor.
Red emergency lights pulsed against the walls.
Halfway to the east wing, Sophie whispered.
“Mommy, Bunny is heavy.”
Vivian stopped.
The brass key and recorder had already been removed.
The toy should have been lighter, not heavier.
She pressed the bunny’s stomach.
Something rigid was buried beneath the stuffing.
Ethan watched her open a second seam.
Inside was a tiny tracking device blinking green.
Caldwell swore under his breath.
“They have been following the rabbit.”
Vivian crushed the tracker under her boot.
“Then Nathan did not put this one there.”
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Ethan spun with his pistol raised.
Agent Marcus Briggs stood at the end of the passage.
He had arrived in the second government SUV and had been missing since the shooting began.
His jacket was torn, and blood streaked one sleeve.
“Thank God,” Briggs said.
Ethan kept his weapon trained on him.
“Where were you?”
“Trying to get the rear perimeter open.”
Sophie suddenly hid her face against Vivian’s shoulder.
“No.”
Vivian felt her tremble.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
Sophie pointed at Briggs.
“That’s the other man.”
Briggs stopped breathing for a fraction of a second.
Vivian saw it.
“The other man who what?”
Sophie’s voice became tiny.
“He came in my room with the bad man.”
Ethan’s expression changed.
Briggs reached inside his jacket.
Ethan fired first.
The bullet struck the wall as Briggs dove behind the corner and returned fire.
Vivian dropped with Sophie.
Caldwell crawled toward a side door.
Briggs shouted from the darkness.
“You don’t understand what Nathan started!”
Vivian shouted back.
“Then explain it!”
Briggs laughed once.
“You still think Nathan was trying to save you.”
A metal door slammed somewhere below them.
May you like
Then Briggs called out one final sentence before disappearing into the tunnel.
“Ask Caldwell where he was three days before your husband died.”
