UNDER ATTACK.
1210 Words
m
Smoke curled through the interrogation room.
Gunpowder burned the air.
The assassin’s body lay twisted beside the overturned chair, blood spreading slowly across the concrete floor.
Adrian crouched briefly beside the corpse and ripped the sleeve higher.
The black symbol stared back at him.
A circle split with silver markings.
Scott stormed into the room moments later, gun raised.
His gaze hit the body first.
Then the tattoo.
The color drained from his face.
“…Marco?”
Valerie pressed a hand against the wall to steady herself. Her pulse still hammered from the attack.
“He wasn’t just working for them,” she said. “He was placed near Adrian years ago.”
Scott rounded on her instantly.
“You expect us to believe that?”
“Believe whatever helps you sleep.”
Scott stepped forward.
“You disappeared with classified intel, half the organization burned to the ground after you vanished, and now suddenly everyone else is the traitor?”
“Enough.”
The single word cut through the room cleanly.
Adrian rose slowly to his feet.
Blood streaked one sleeve of his black shirt. His expression had gone dangerously blank.
Not rage.
Something colder.
Scott exhaled sharply and stepped back.
A voice crackled through the comms again:
“Sir, lower east corridor compromised.”
Another voice shouted over gunfire.
“We’ve got internal units turning on each other—”
The transmission died in static.
Adrian grabbed the fallen rifle from the assassin and checked the magazine with mechanical precision.
“How many exits from this level?”
Scott answered immediately. “Three.”
“Now two,” Valerie said.
Both men turned toward her.
“The Circle never attacks blind. If they breached the lower level, they already sealed one route.”
Scott’s jaw tightened.
“You seem very informed.”
Valerie ignored him.
“If they know the Ledger is here, they won’t stop until every person in this building is dead.”
Silence followed that.
Heavy.
Because all three of them knew she probably wasn’t exaggerating.
Another explosion shook the floor beneath them.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Scott reached for the comm again.
Nothing.
Only static now.
“We lost internal connection.”
Adrian checked his watch screen once.
Dead too.
Not just an attack.
A full systems blackout.
Carefully planned.
Valerie’s stomach tightened.
Too carefully planned.
Her eyes moved toward Adrian.
“The breach code.”
His gaze sharpened slightly.
“What about it?”
“The attackers got through the estate defenses too fast.”
Scott frowned.
“So?”
“So only council-level clearance bypasses the internal security grid.”
The realization settled into the room slowly.
Ugly.
Someone high inside Adrian’s organization had opened the gates for The Circle.
Scott swore under his breath.
Adrian said nothing.
That silence was worse.
Because the calmer he became, the more dangerous things usually got afterward.
A sharp metallic sound echoed from the hallway outside.
Footsteps.
Several.
Fast.
Scott moved toward the door.
Adrian caught his shoulder before he reached it.
A burst of gunfire tore through the steel entrance instantly.
The door buckled inward.
Scott jerked back just before bullets ripped through the space where his head had been.
Valerie grabbed the fallen pistol from the dead assassin.
Scott noticed.
His expression darkened immediately.
“She should not have a weapon.”
Another round slammed into the door.
Adrian reloaded calmly.
“She does now.”
The hinges screamed.
Then the door exploded inward.
Three armed men stormed the room.
Professional movement.
No hesitation.
Adrian fired first.
One shot.
A man dropped instantly.
Scott took the second attacker through the throat.
Blood sprayed across the concrete wall.
The third shifted toward Valerie—
—and froze.
Just for a second.
Recognition.
Wrong move.
Valerie fired twice into his chest.
The man collapsed hard onto the floor.
Silence crashed over the room again.
Short-lived.
Because more footsteps echoed from the corridor.
Too many.
Scott checked the remaining ammo.
“We can’t hold this room.”
Adrian grabbed the assassin’s comm device from the floor.
A faint blinking signal flashed across the cracked screen.
Tracking beacon.
Valerie’s blood ran cold.
“They tagged me.”
Scott stared at her.
“What?”
“The Circle tracked me here.”
Adrian’s eyes lifted slowly to hers.
Not accusation.
Calculation.
“You knew?”
“No.”
That part was true.
Fear crawled up her spine anyway.
Because if The Circle had placed a tracker on her without her noticing—
then they’d been close to her recently.
Closer than she thought.
Adrian stepped toward her.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Valerie met his stare.
“You think I’d walk into your territory carrying a beacon?”
A beat passed.
Then Adrian held out his hand.
“Give me the gun.”
Scott frowned immediately. “Adrian—”
“Now.”
Valerie hesitated only briefly before placing the pistol into his palm.
His fingers brushed hers.
Cold skin.
Steady hands.
No trust.
The hallway erupted again.
More gunfire.
Closer.
Scott checked the secondary exit behind them.
Blocked.
Steel shutters had sealed automatically during lockdown.
“We’re trapped.”
“No,” Valerie said quietly.
Both men looked at her.
“There’s a maintenance tunnel behind the west storage wall.”
Scott’s eyes narrowed.
“How do you know that?”
Because Adrian once showed me every exit in this place.
The answer stayed in her throat.
Adrian already understood anyway.
Something unreadable crossed his face before disappearing again.
Scott moved toward the wall she indicated.
“You better not be lying.”
Valerie ignored him.
Another violent slam hit the outer corridor.
The attackers were almost through.
Adrian grabbed her arm suddenly and pulled her closer.
Close enough that she caught the faint scent of smoke and cedar on his clothes.
His voice dropped low.
“If this is another setup—”
“It isn’t.”
The answer came too fast.
Too honest.
For half a second, something shifted between them again.
Memory.
Regret.
Then Scott slammed his hand against a hidden panel.
The wall mechanism groaned open.
Darkness waited beyond it.
A narrow escape tunnel.
Scott exhaled sharply.
“…Damn.”
Adrian motioned toward the opening.
“Move.”
Valerie entered first.
Scott followed behind her.
Adrian stayed at the entrance a second longer, rifle raised toward the corridor.
The outer door finally collapsed completely.
Shadowed figures rushed through the smoke.
Adrian fired twice before stepping backward into the tunnel.
Then he slammed the hidden door shut.
Darkness swallowed them instantly.
Only rough breathing filled the narrow passage.
Scott’s voice came first.
“We need to reach the lower garage.”
“No,” Valerie said.
Adrian turned toward her in the dark.
“What now?”
Her throat tightened.
Because this was the part that would change everything.
“The Circle isn’t trying to recover the Ledger anymore.”
Silence.
Then Adrian’s voice:
“What are they trying to do?”
Valerie swallowed once.
And answered with the truth that finally made fear creep into even her own voice.
“They’re trying to erase you before VEIL activates.”
- Writer
