Chapter 2 - Forty-Seven Seconds
Emergency lights flashed red along the study walls.
Matteo drew his weapon and moved between Emma and the doorway.
“Security team, report.”
Only static answered through his earpiece.
Alejandro tried to stand, but his legs gave way. One of the guards caught him before he hit the floor again.
“Stay down,” Matteo said. “The injector bought you time. It didn’t end the reaction.”
“I am not staying on the floor while Sofia is somewhere inside my house.”
“You will if you want to stay alive.”
The outer gates had locked automatically, but the surveillance network was dead. Every interior camera had gone black except the hidden device above the bookshelf.
Emma clutched the stuffed rabbit so tightly that its fabric ears bent beneath her fingers.
Alejandro noticed.
He forced his voice to soften.
“Emma, come here.”
She stepped closer.
“You did everything right,” he said. “Do you understand me?”
Her lower lip trembled. “I used the last one.”
“And you saved my life.”
“What if I need it?”
“Another one will be here before you ever do.”
Alejandro looked at Matteo.
“Make that happen.”
Matteo nodded to a guard. “Get the emergency medical kit from the west hall. It contains pediatric injectors.”
The guard disappeared through the doorway.
A distant engine approached from outside. Moments later, backup generators restored power to part of the mansion. Lamps flickered on, illuminating the wine stain, the open backpack, and Sofia’s frozen face on the tablet.
Dr. Priya Shah arrived with the estate’s medical team.
She administered additional treatment and checked Alejandro’s breathing.
“What was in the glass?” she asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
“You experienced a severe allergic reaction. The child’s injector was not intended as a complete adult dose, but her quick action gave us the time we needed.”
Emma remained near Alejandro while the medical team worked.
Dr. Shah looked at her.
“You were very brave.”
“I was scared.”
“Brave people are scared too.”
Alejandro’s condition began to stabilize, but Dr. Shah insisted he be transferred to the estate’s private medical suite.
Before leaving the study, Alejandro pointed at the wineglass beneath the desk.
“Secure everything. The bottle, the glass, the floor, the camera.”
Matteo placed the tablet in an evidence bag.
“What about Sofia?”
“Find her.”
The search began room by room.
Sofia’s bedroom was empty.
Her evening gown was missing from the wardrobe. Her passport remained inside the safe, but the emergency cash she kept in a locked drawer was gone. Her phone had been placed neatly on the bedside table.
The device had been wiped.
Her silver evening bag was missing.
So was the bracelet visible in the recording.
At 10:42 p.m., one of the guards found a service door standing open near the estate kitchen. A black sedan had disappeared from the underground garage.
The gate logs showed no vehicle leaving.
Someone had erased the record.
Matteo returned to the medical suite just as Alejandro’s breathing became steady enough for conversation.
“She is gone,” Matteo said.
Alejandro looked through the glass partition. Emma was sitting with her mother, Elena, who had arrived moments earlier in a state of panic.
Elena held her daughter and whispered into her hair.
“She left the estate before the lockdown?” Alejandro asked.
“Possibly. Her car is missing.”
“Trace it.”
“We are trying, but we have another problem.”
Matteo placed a printed image on the table.
It was the frozen frame from the hidden camera.
Sofia’s face was unmistakable.
“What problem?” Alejandro asked.
“The system log says that camera did not activate automatically.”
“Then who turned it on?”
“That is what concerns me.”
Matteo pointed to a line of encrypted code at the bottom of the page.
“The activation command came from inside the study.”
Alejandro stared at him.
“No one was inside except Emma and me.”
“The command was transmitted six seconds before Emma entered.”
“From where?”
Matteo looked toward the stuffed bunny resting on Emma’s lap.
“From a device hidden somewhere in that room.”
Emma’s rabbit suddenly made a soft clicking sound.
May you like
Then a man’s voice whispered from inside it.
“Recording complete.”
