Chapter 44
CHAPTER 44 — THE BREACH ON THE ICE
At 3:00 AM, the temperature on the mountain dropped to minus twenty degrees. The blinding blizzard reduced the security team's thermal imaging capabilities to near zero.
Three figures dropped from the overhead cable-car lines directly onto the roof of the sanatorium. Alexander, wearing a heavy tactical rig designed to stabilize his pacemaker against electromagnetic interference, led the way with a high-powered plasma torch.
"Thermal charges are set on the ventilation shafts," Anna reported over the secure comms, her breath pluming in the freezing air. "Claire, you have exactly four minutes before the security grid goes into localized lockdown. Once the gas enters the lower levels, the guards will be down, but Julian's personal detail carries independent oxygen masks."
"I don't need four minutes," Claire replied through her headset. She was already inside the facility, having bypassed the kitchen loading dock using an old security code Anna had extracted from a captured Lane attorney.
She moved through the white corridors like a wraith, her silenced pistol dropping two guards before they could even raise their radios.
As she reached the elevator bay to the secure sub-levels, a smooth, aristocratic voice echoed through the PA system.
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"Welcome home, Claire," Lord Edward Vance’s voice purred, old and heavy with centuries of unearned power. "Your grandmother Victoria told me you would come. She said your maternal instinct was entirely predictable. Sadly, predictability is a fatal flaw in our world."
The elevator doors slid open, revealing four heavy-caliber automated turrets extending from the ceiling, their lasers instantly locking onto Claire’s chest.
