Chapter 49 - The Acheron Sanctum
The descent into the Swiss valley was brutal. The jet touched down on a private tarmac in Lausanne under the cover of a blinding blizzard, where two armored SUVs were waiting with engines idling.
Within forty minutes, the convoy reached the rocky shores of Lake Geneva. The medieval towers of Château de Chillon loomed like dark silhouettes against the frozen mist, the water slapping violently against the stone foundations.
Desmond, Sadi, and six elite operators bypassed the historic stone bridge, descending instead through a submerged utility tunnel disguised as an ancient storm drain.
"Breaching charges on the outer hatch," Desmond ordered, raising his tactical submachine gun.
*Crack!*
The thermite strip flared in blinding white-hot fury, slicing through the six-inch titanium seal of the Swiss bunker door. Desmond kicked the smoking metal inward, leading the assault into the subterranean corridors.
The air was frigid, smelling of ozone, stagnating water, and wet concrete. Red emergency klaxons were already spinning, their silent beacons painting the walls in crimson sweeps.
*00:12:45*
*Twelve minutes.*
"Move!" Sadi cried, running behind Desmond through the labyrinth of arched concrete passageways.
They encountered no guards. Vivienne’s automated perimeter had already been triggered by their breach. Heavy steel bulkheads began sliding down from the ceiling to seal the sectors.
"Slide!" Desmond caught Sadi’s hand, diving together beneath a dropping four-ton blast door just as it slammed against the deck with an earth-shattering *BOOM*, severing their return path.
They were inside the central rotunda.
The room was vast, circular, and dominated by a towering glass cylinder filled with circulating, oxygenated fluid. Inside the cylinder, suspended on a mechanical harness and surrounded by a forest of medical monitors, was Arthur Gallagher.
His eyes were closed. His silver hair floated weightlessly in the solution. Electrodes covered his scalp, and a thick umbilical conduit connected to his chest.
"Arthur!" Desmond slammed his fist against the reinforced glass.
Behind them, a mechanical chime echoed through the circular chamber.
*ATMOSPHERIC FLUSH INITIATED. NITROGEN PURGE IN TEN MINUTES.*
"The control panel!" Sadi rushed to the central console, her fingers tearing into the manual override wires. "It requires two simultaneous biometric inputs to abort the sequence! Desmond, your palm!"
Desmond slammed his hand onto the biometric scanner on the left. The scanner turned green.
*PRIMARY HEIR RECOGNIZED.*
*AWAITING SECONDARY HEIR.*
"Secondary heir?" Sadi gasped. "Vivienne is locked outside! She said Liam—"
"Not Liam," a raspy, ancient voice suddenly crackled through the chamber's intercom.
May you like
Inside the glass cylinder, Arthur Gallagher opened his eyes.
***
