Chapter 5 - The Lockdown
The lights throughout the sprawling estate blinked twice and died, plunging the study into sudden, eerie darkness. An instant later, the emergency red backup lights kicked on, bathing the mahogany walls and velvet drapes in a menacing crimson glow. The distant shriek of alarms echoed through the ventilation shafts, followed immediately by the sharp, rhythmic crack of suppressed gunfire from the east wing.
Sofia let out a terrified shriek, lunging across the room to scoop Mia into her arms. ""Lorenzo, what is happening?!""
""A coordinated raid,"" Lorenzo said, his entire demeanor shifting instantly into supreme tactical command. He drew his Beretta, checking the magazine with a sharp, practiced snap, before pulling an assault rifle from a concealed panel behind the mahogany bookcase. ""Silvio didn't come here to negotiate earlier. He came to map our internal response times. The port strike was a diversion to draw our main enforcement squad into the city.""
Mia wiggled out of her mother's suffocating embrace, landing softly on her sneakers. Her small face showed neither tears nor terror. Instead, her brow furrowed with deep concentration. She reached into her pocket, pulled out her plastic radio, and tilted her head toward the ceiling.
""Two bangs in the kitchen,"" Mia noted calmly, pointing her crayon toward the eastern wall. ""Then running feet. Heavy feet. That means big men with combat gear. Marco is down.""
Lorenzo stared at his three-year-old daughter. The sheer tactical instinct running through her veins was chilling. She was truly a Cattaneo. ""Fausto!"" Lorenzo barked into his lapel communicator.
""Don Lorenzo!"" Fausto's voice crackled through static. ""They breached through the wine cellar entrance! Six hostiles, professional mercenaries! They’re moving up the central corridor toward your study! I've lost contact with the perimeter gate!""
""Get the safe room unlocked under the chapel,"" Lorenzo ordered. ""I'm moving Sofia and Mia right now.""
""Too late, Boss—they've reached the corridor!"" Fausto shouted before a burst of automatic gunfire cut the transmission into dead static.
""Stay behind me,"" Lorenzo told Sofia, pushing her and Mia into the recessed archway behind his heavy desk. He kicked the desk over with a grunt of exertion, creating an improvised barricade of solid two-inch oak.
Heavy footsteps pounded down the polished hardwood hallway outside. Lorenzo took a breath, stepped slightly to the side of the doorway, and fired three precise shots through the wood paneling at chest height. A sickening groan followed by the thud of a falling body confirmed a hit.
Suddenly, an object rolled across the floor from the doorway—a black metal cylinder hissing violently with thick, acrid smoke.
""Tear gas!"" Lorenzo yelled. ""Cover your faces!""
Sofia pulled her apron over Mia’s nose, coughing violently as the stinging grey smoke filled the room. Lorenzo’s eyes burned, his vision blurring as two mercenaries dressed in tactical urban camouflage burst through the splintered door, their submachine guns raised. Lorenzo fired twice, eliminating the first intruder, but the second mercenary tackled Lorenzo to the floor, knocking his rifle skittering across the marble.
The two men rolled across the room in a brutal, life-or-death struggle. The mercenary drew a combat knife, his arm descending toward Lorenzo’s throat. Lorenzo gripped the man’s wrist with both hands, muscles straining to the breaking point, the razor-sharp edge inches from his jugular.
""Hey! Bad guy!"" a small, shrill voice rang out through the smoke.
From atop the overturned desk, Mia launched a heavy crystal paperweight with both hands. The solid glass orb struck the mercenary directly in the temple with a sickening crack. The man groaned, dazed for a fraction of a second, but it was all the opening Lorenzo needed. Lorenzo twisted his hips, snapped the mercenary's wrist, disarmed the blade, and drove his elbow violently into the intruder's jaw, knocking him out cold.
Lorenzo scrambled up, panting, grabbing the fallen weapon. He looked at Mia, who was standing on the desk, panting slightly, her oversized blazer covered in soot.
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""Rule number two,"" Mia said, coughing from the smoke. ""Bodyguards protect the boss.""
A fierce, savage pride flared inside Lorenzo’s chest. He scooped the little girl into his left arm, grabbed Sofia’s trembling hand with his right, and led them out into the haze of the hallway. ""Come on. We're getting you both out of this slaughterhouse.""
