Chapter 8 - The Midnight Knock
The sharp, aggressive banging on the apartment door shattered the quiet of the night.
Olivia froze, the transcript fluttering from her fingers back onto the laminate table. The deadbolt rattled in its housing as a heavy shoulder slammed against the exterior wood frame, threatening to splinter the cheap apartment door right off its hinges.
"Open up! Federal Marshals! Open the door immediately!" a harsh, commanding voice shouted from the hallway.
Olivia's mind raced. Federal Marshals? At midnight? If the federal receivership had already been corrupted by Vanguard Capital, these weren't marshals coming to protect her—they were sweepers sent to confiscate the evidence she had just uncovered.
From the hallway behind her, the door to the guest bedroom creaked open. Ethan stood rubbing his eyes in his oversized pajama shirt, looking down the corridor with a frightened expression.
"Mom? What's that noise?" Ethan whispered, his voice trembling.
"Get back in the room, Ethan. Wake Mason up and go out the back fire escape window right now," Olivia ordered in a fierce, breathless whisper, her adrenaline surging.
"I'm not leaving you!" Ethan protested, tears welling in his eyes.
"Go! That's an order!" Olivia snapped, her tone leaving no room for argument. She scooped up the stack of checks, the keys, and the transcript, stuffing them frantically into her coat pocket just as the apartment door gave way with a resounding CRACK.
The deadbolt ripped straight out of the drywall, and two men in heavy tactical gear, wearing plain black vests with no department insignia, charged into the small living room.
"Where is she?" the lead man barked, scanning the dark room with a tactical flashlight.
Olivia didn't hesitate. She threw a heavy wooden kitchen chair directly into the path of the oncoming intruder, sending him stumbling backward into a stack of storage boxes, before sprinting toward the back hallway.
"She's heading for the fire escape! Cut her off!" the second man yelled, drawing a sidearm from his holster.
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Olivia burst into the guest bedroom just as Ethan and Mason were climbing out the open window onto the rusted metal grating of the fire escape stairs. She shoved Mason out first, shouting for him to run down to the alleyway below, before pulling Ethan through behind him.
A heavy boot kicked the bedroom door open behind her just as she swung her leg over the window sill. A silenced pistol cracked, a bullet pinging off the iron railing an inch from her shoulder, showering her in cold metal sparks.
