Chapter 17 - Blackout and Betrayal
The emergency backup generators kicked in three seconds later, casting the visiting room in an eerie, sickly yellow emergency glow. But in that brief three-second window of absolute darkness, something had shifted.
Across the ballistic glass, Ethan’s eyes widened in sudden, absolute terror. He dropped his telephone receiver, pressing his hands frantically against the glass as if trying to push through it.
'Ethan? What is—' I started, but before I could finish the sentence, a deafening pop echoed from the hallway outside the visiting room.
The heavy metal door of the visiting room swung open violently. Two guards rushed in, not to secure the perimeter, but with drawn batons and wild, panicked expressions. One of them grabbed my arm, jerking me up from the stool.
'We need to evacuate, Ms. Cole! Now!' the guard shouted over the wailing klaxon of the facility’s security alarm.
'What’s happening?' I demanded, trying to pull my arm away as chaos erupted outside in the hallway. Through the open door, I saw smoke billowing down the concrete corridor and heard the sharp crack of a suppressed firearm.
This wasn't a prison riot. This was a targeted extraction—or an assassination.
Before the guards could escort me toward the exit, a figure stepped out of the smoky haze of the hallway. Dressed in a dark tactical vest with a black balaclava concealing their face, the intruder raised a sleek, silenced pistol.
Ethan screamed from behind the glass, pounding his fists against the ballistic barrier. 'Get down!'
The silenced pistol spat a muffled flame. The bullet shattered the security guard’s shoulder beside me, sending him crashing to the floor in a spray of blood. I dropped instinctively, rolling behind the heavy steel-reinforced visitation desk as glass rained down around me.
Footsteps echoed heavily across the linoleum floor. The intruder was stepping into the room—not for me, but for Ethan.
Peeking out from beneath the edge of the metal desk, I watched in horrified disbelief as the masked operative walked straight up to Ethan’s side of the glass partition. Ethan scrambled backward off his stool, pressing himself against the back wall of the holding cell like a cornered animal.
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The intruder raised the pistol, aimed through the security slot of the glass door, and fired a single, precise shot.
Ethan slumped silently against the concrete wall, sliding down into a dark crimson pool as life faded from his eyes before the backup guards could even draw their weapons.
