Chapter 29 - The Attack Beneath Ashcroft
The first explosion shattered every window on the eastern side of the mansion.
Glass rained across the library while the black sphere continued projecting thousands of faces into the smoke-filled air.
Daniel pulled Eleanor behind one of the stone chairs.
Thomas dragged Melissa toward the wall.
Victor drew his weapon and aimed at the doorway.
“Who is attacking us?” Daniel shouted.
Harold Ashcroft remained strangely calm.
“Someone who does not want the archive transferred.”
A second explosion shook the floor.
This one came from beneath them.
The black sphere flickered.
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.
LOWER VAULT COMPROMISED.
Harold struck the floor with his cane.
A hidden panel opened beside the fireplace.
“Move.”
Daniel refused.
“You still haven’t explained what that recording meant.”
Harold looked directly at him.
“If we remain here, you will die before hearing the answer.”
Armed guards rushed into the library.
One collapsed before reaching the center of the room.
A silent projectile had struck his neck.
Victor examined it.
“Tranquilizer.”
Figures wearing gray masks appeared through the shattered windows. They moved with military precision, using ropes to descend from the roof.
Unlike Adrian’s men, they did not shoot randomly.
They targeted the guards.
The archive.
And Harold.
One attacker pointed toward Daniel.
“Secure the successor alive.”
Daniel stared at him.
“They know who I am.”
Harold opened the hidden passage fully.
“Everyone who matters knows who you are.”
The group entered the narrow stairwell as gunfire erupted behind them.
The passage descended into a vast underground control room.
Old railway maps covered the walls. Modern screens displayed the estate, nearby roads, and multiple tunnels beneath the countryside.
One camera showed dozens of masked attackers entering through the abandoned station.
Another showed a woman in a white coat standing beside a mobile command vehicle.
Eleanor froze.
“I know her.”
The woman removed her hood.
She appeared to be in her early sixties, with silver hair and a scar along her jaw.
Thomas stared at the screen in disbelief.
“Clara Voss.”
Harold’s calm expression disappeared for the first time.
Daniel looked between them.
“Who is she?”
Eleanor answered quietly.
“The journalist I ordered removed.”
The same journalist from Eleanor’s archive file.
The woman who had supposedly vanished forty years earlier.
On the screen, Clara looked directly toward the hidden camera.
Then she raised a handwritten sign.
ELIANA’S SON BELONGS TO US.
Daniel read it twice.
“Who is Eliana?”
No one answered.
A heavy impact struck the steel door above them.
Clara’s voice came through the control room speakers.
“Eleanor Hayes, give us Daniel Cole, and we will leave Ashcroft standing.”
Harold reached toward a red switch.
Thomas stopped him.
“What does that do?”
“Destroys the lower tunnels.”
“And everyone inside them?”
Harold said nothing.
Daniel stepped away from the group.
“I’m the reason they came.”
Eleanor grabbed his arm.
“No. You are the reason everyone has been lying.”
Another explosion tore through the lower level.
The lights failed.
When the emergency system returned, Harold Ashcroft was gone.
May you like
And the black sphere had vanished with him.
---
