Chapter 6 - THE MUSIC BOX
Mara’s heart hammered against her ribs as she watched the monitor. The mercenary outside the bunker door was already cutting through the outer steel seal, bright yellow sparks raining down in the dark hallway!
She looked around the room frantically. She was pregnant, unarmed, and trapped.
Think, Mara, think! her mother’s voice echoed in her mind.
Her gaze landed on her personal belongings resting on a side table—the simple leather overnight bag she had brought from her old apartment when Adrian brought her to the estate.
Inside was her mother’s old metal music box.
A rectangular silver box decorated with faint, hand-engraved roses. It was the only item Mara had kept after her mother died. She had tried a hundred times to open it, but the tiny keyhole on the front had remained locked for eleven years.
Senator Whitmore said the key was buried with Evelyn...
Mara grabbed the music box, her fingers tracing the cold metal surface. She turned it over, examining the bottom for the first time with fresh eyes.
Near the base of the winding mechanism was a microscopic serial number: E.B. 10-14-11.
Her mother's initials and the date of her death.
Mara realized something instantly. Her mother hadn't buried the key in the mud of Blackwood Cemetery—she had hidden it in plain sight!
Mara reached into her pocket and pulled out her mother's old silver locket, which she had worn around her neck every day since her funeral.
She snapped the locket open. Behind the tiny photograph of her mother was a miniature, ultra-thin steel tooth!
Mara pressed the metal tooth into the music box’s keyhole and turned it to the right!
CLICK.
The lid of the music box popped open!
Inside, sitting atop a red velvet lining, was not a musical mechanism, but a high-density micro-flash drive wrapped in a handwritten letter from her mother.
Mara unfolded the paper with trembling hands.
My darling Mara, If you are reading this, I am gone, and the truth has finally come to light. On this drive is the complete ledger of Senator Richard Whitmore’s crimes, including the order to end my life. Give this only to someone you trust with your soul. I love you forever. Mom.
Before Mara could process her mother’s final words, a deafening screech echoed through the bunker!
The heavy steel door buckled inward!
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The mercenary kicked the ruined panel aside, stepping into the safe room with his assault rifle raised!
"Hand over the box, girl!" the mercenary growled, pointing his weapon directly at her stomach!
