Chapter 136
136
All seven of us – Dario, me, Niccolo, Adriano, Massimo, Roberto, and Valentino – huddled in front of the computer monitors.
After Alessandra had escaped and fled to the church, I installed extra cameras to monitor the gap in the wall and the secret passageway that led from the servant quarters to the forest. I had hidden the cameras so well that they were impossible for anyone to see unless they knew precisely where to look.
Our foot soldier Giorgio had been on surveillance duty in the monitor room, toggling through the various camera angles, when he spotted a figure crawling through the gap in the wall.
Giorgio immediately called Niccolo, who had come and gotten me, Dario, and all the other brothers.
Now we stared in disbelief at what was unfolding before our eyes.
The image was green from the camera’s night vision, but what we saw was crystal clear.
The Turk was heading for the house with a dozen armed men behind him…
Alessandra was walking out in front of them…
And the Turk had a gun pointed at her back.
Dario looked enraged and stricken at the same time – like he was about to crawl out of his skin but couldn’t turn away from the nightmare onscreen.
“We have to kill him,” he said, his voice ragged and sick with worry. “NOW p>
I shook my head. “If we start shooting at them in the dark, we’ll hit Alessandra. And there’s 13 of them. There’s no way we can neutralize them all before they figure it out and threaten to kill her. Once that happens, it’ll become a standoff – and then all bets are off p>
Dario turned away and tore at his hair as he paced behind us. He looked like a man possessed by a demon.
“They’re heading for the hidden tunnel,” Niccolo said, urgency in his voice.
Dario whipped back to the screen to watch.
Alessandra was crawling along the ground, groping blindly for something in the underbrush.
“What’s she doing?” Valentino asked, mystified.
“She’s looking for the entrance to the passageway,” Niccolo realized. “Because she can’t see it in the darkness p>
Alessandra paused and apparently called out, because the Turk and a couple of his men ran over and disappeared down hidden stairs in the earth.
“How the fuck are they going to get in?!” Adriano snarled. “The door to the tunnel locks from the inside – there’s no lock to pick p>
“If they got this far,” Roberto said dourly, “they probably have a plan p>
Dario grabbed my arm. His fingers were like steel claws. “You have to help me save her – you HAVE to p>
“…I don’t know how,” I whispered helplessly.
“I do,” Niccolo said.
We all turned to look at him.
“They don’t realize there are cameras,” he said. “They haven’t looked up at them once, and they’ve made no attempt to cut the power to the house – which means they have no idea that we know they’re coming p>
“Oh shit!” Valentino said with an excited laugh. “They probably think we’re asleep – ”
“And that they’re going to sneak in the back, creep upstairs, and murder us in our beds,” Niccolo said. Then he grinned. “I say we let them p>
“…what?!” Adriano exclaimed.
Niccolo laid out his plan in broad strokes.
After he was done, Dario looked at me for any scrap of hope I could give him.
“It could work,” I agreed. “But we have to move NOW p>
As though to underscore my words, the camera in the tunnel showed a circular ring of fire that quickly whited out the entire image.
However the Turk’s men were doing it – with acetylene torches or explosives – they were cutting through the door.
We had no more than 15 minutes before they reached the main foyer. Maybe only 10.
Dario roared into action. “Roberto, wake up the servants and get them into the panic room downstairs! Niccolo, explain the plan to the foot soldiers! Everyone else, dress in black and grab your weapons p>
Valentino, Roberto, Niccolo, Massimo, and Adriano tore out of the room at breakneck speed.
I was just about to follow them when Dario grabbed my arm.
I looked into his eyes and saw they were quite nearly insane with fear.
“If you get the shot… take the shot,” he said, his voice more intense than I’d ever heard it in all the time I’d known him.
“Of course,” I said, and turned to go –
But he jerked me back to face him again.
“I’m serious,” he said in a gravelly voice. “My life doesn’t matter. Hers is the only thing that does. If it’s a choice between me and her, you save her – and sacrifice me p>
I stared at him in shock. “But – ”
“SWEAR to me, Lars. SWEAR to me that you’ll save her, no matter what. I need to hear you say it p>
Cold beads of sweat broke out on my skin. “If I have to make a choice… I’ll save her p>
“No matter what,” he repeated insistently.
“…no matter what p>
The tiniest bit of relief appeared in his eyes.
“Thank you,” Dario whispered hoarsely, then raced out into the hall.
I ran back to my own bedroom, quickly changed into black, pulled a balaclava over my head, grabbed my rifle –
And prayed as I ran to my post.