Chapter 2: When one door closes…
Avior made a few careful steps to test whether his makeshift bandage would hold, and much to his relief it did. With this problem taken care of, he looked around the room he had so hastily entered.
It was an old office with one of those massive old desks opposite the door and various paintings and collectibles on display. The wooden floor and richly decorated paneling added a comfortable atmosphere to the room while maintaining a sense of class and authority. It was the perfect room to receive visitors in and to discuss business matters.
But no business deals had been struck in here for a long time. Nowadays this office only served as exhibition space for the more valuable pieces.
*cough cough*
"At least I got into the right room," Avior mumbled.
*cough*
"Would have been hilarious to end up in the wrong room, after everything."
*cough cough*
He made his way to the wall on the right of the desk. There, after a bit of fiddling, he found a movable piece of decoration. A hidden handle. Avior pushed and the wall gave way to reveal a secret passage.
Back in the day, maids, servants, and 'special personnel' used this passage to enter and leave unseen. The passage led down to the underground floor. The storage area of the kitchen, to be precise. Which had an entrance to the bunker. Which was exactly where Avior was heading.
Avior followed the passage down. It had been long forgotten because even the old construction lamps didn't work anymore. And so Avior fumbled his way downwards through the dark.
After agonizing five minutes he finally felt the door at the end. He pressed his ears against the old wood and listened. But everything was quiet. He opened the door, hoping the hinges weren't too squeaky. And he was lucky. The door opened almost without a sound. And what's more, there was no one around to notice him sneaking about.
Exiting the passage and suppressing another cough, Avior limped through the dry storage room and the kitchen. There he found a heavy vault door with a number pad next to it.
As he began to enter the security code, he heard a commotion outside. It seemed like his pursuers decided to try and catch him when he entered the bunker. A fundamentally good idea that came a bit too late.
As the heavy steps of the agents echoed through the corridor, Avior finished with the number pad. It processed the input for a second before giving the green light and unlocking the door.
The door opened slowly, the footsteps grew nearer and nearer.
'Come on, come on. Hurry Up!', Avior urged.
As soon as the gap was wide enough, Avior squeezed himself through. And not a moment too late. A hail of bullets impacted the sturdy vault door the moment he disappeared behind it.
With maniacal laughter and a wide grin on his face, Avior smashed the emergency button.
"SMELL YA LATER, SUCKERS!"
The door vault door fell shut with, all its impressive weight behind it, as the bunker went into lockdown.
Outside, the agents were furious. One of them especially so.
"Dammit!"
He swore behind his mask. He seemed to be the leader.
"You. Go back and intercept Team 3. Take them to check on the other entrance. They'll arrive in a moment.
You, tell the ones outside to check the plans again for possible escape routes. I want to know how he could sneak down here without passing any of the sentries. And tell them to prepare the drills and explosives."
----------------------
Aviors laughter turned into a violent cough. His eyes, nose, throat, and lungs burned from the smoke and dust he had inhaled during his wild escape. He had inhaled a lot, all of which his body was now desperately trying to get out of his system.
He coughed, retched, and gasped so hard, his abdominal muscles cramped up. This radiated through his whole body and put his large shoulder wound and the gunshot wound on his leg under a lot of stress.
Avior sought to support himself on the wall, but to no avail. Within seconds he lay on the ground. And there he spent the next few minutes, wheezing and panting, his gaze glazed over and devoid of light.
When he had finally recovered enough, a fire had returned to his eyes. He heaved himself up and stumbled over to a large desk in the middle of the room with several monitors on top. Behind the desk stood an impressive swivel chair, the kind you could see a Bond villain using during a dramatic moment.
And that was exactly what Avior had been aiming for when he ordered it. He liked the idea of having a secret lair under an old mansion from where he could conduct all his plans. When he had renovated and modernized the bunker, he had done so with this idea in mind. Now, he was sitting in this very chair and with a small army at the door.
'Maybe... my inclination for theatrics brought me here. May certainly be part of it.' he leaned back and buried his face in his hands. 'But it is so much FUN! And it got style.'
Avior ran his hands through his hair, before sighing and pulling himself together.
"Anyway."
Avior started the computers. The electronics came to life and the Draconis Family logo appeared on the monitors. A dragon's head with crown-like horns framed by raven wings.
Immediately the security protocol kicked in. Avior worked himself through several password inquiries and safety checks.
After he finally finished with those, he just let the computers boot up and limped over to a cabinet to his right. There he pulled out a bottle of expensive-looking whiskey, a glass, and, after thinking about it for a second, a cigar case.
Back in his seat Avior unstopped the whiskey and poured himself a glass, only to first take a big mouthful from the bottle itself.
"Ahh. That hits the spot."
He opened the live security camera footage from all over the mansion to figure out what was happening outside. He was not pleased with what he saw.
First off, a large majority of the cameras seemed to have been found and deactivated. And those that remained showed the mansion swarming with agents.
They turned everything upside down. They searched desks, drawers, and cupboards. Even vases, paintings, and other artworks. Of course, they also confiscated every electronic device they could find.
"Well, not like they will find anything too important."
Watching the monitors, Avior opened the cigar case, cut a cigar, and lit it.
*wwhhfffff – COUGH COUGH – cough ...cough*
"Okay, maybe not a good idea."
*cough cough*
He turned his attention back to the camera footage. Especially from the cameras filming what happened directly outside the bunker. He could see the agents outside assembling drills and preparing explosives.
Even with those they would need a while to break through, he had made sure of that. But he still needed to get started.
He minimized the cameras and opened a folder called 'Top Secret'. In it was only a single folder with the name 'Tippy Top Secret', in turn with a folder named 'Area 51 kinda Secret' in it, followed by 'I said Top Secret, don't continue', 'STOP', and 'I beg you, PLEASE STOP'. He clicked through a few more of those all the way down to 'Last Warning' and 'Don't say I didn't warn you'. The last folder was simply labeled 'porn'.
"Hm… Maybe could've done without that last one," Avior murmured.
He opened the almost one Terabyte big 'porn' folder.
But there was no porn.
Instead, the display showed thousands upon thousands of compressed, encrypted, and methodically sorted data packages. Most of them were just video and voice clips, pictures, or even Excel spreadsheets.
But this was Aviors last resort. His orbital laser cannon. His nuclear weapons. This was all the dirt on his own clan, the Draconis Family he could get hold off.
For years he had painstakingly and under great risk collected all kinds of material and information on all the small and big crimes and scandals his family was involved in.
From tax evasion to actively participating in and fueling drug wars.
From bribing officials to overthrowing governments.
From helping to 'remove' small street gangs to starting international conflicts.
Just to name a few.
"In the end, I didn't even have the chance to use this as a bargaining chip."
Avior took another sip of whiskey.
"Whatever, probably better this way. May have brought more harm than good."
He emptied the whiskey glass.
"At least I can now use this stuff for one final act of revenge. Heh, wish I could see the faces of those old geezers and arrogant bastards when they get wind of this."
Avior opened a special data transfer program. He carefully selected what material would be sent where. Some parts would go to a broad array of government agencies all over the world, others to press agencies and whistle-blowers. Several companies and underground organizations were also on the list. And to make sure certain things would definitely reach the public, he would upload them directly to the Internet and the Darknet.
He also sent a complete copy of the entire folder to a member of a rival clan, Aria Avitus. One of the few people he might call a friend. The Avitus family were rivals of the Draconis family, though the former were always falling a bit short of becoming true equals.
Avior thought back to how he had met Aria at a business party over a decade ago. Their shared disdain towards such festivities had brought them together, and even after the party they would occasionally hang out and share a drink. Avior looked at the whiskey bottle and couldn't help but smile.
"If she knew I opened this bottle without her, she'd probably kill me," he chuckled and took a big sip. "Should probably write her a few lines. I don't want to shove this on her without explanation."
And so he attached a little note to the whole package. He thought hard about what he wanted to write, but in the end, he decided to keep it simple. It read,
[Dear Aria,
how are you? I hope you are doing great. But I know you, so I know you are. As you may or may not already have heard by the time you're reading this, I am not doing so great at the moment. Well, I am not doing anything really, because I am dead.
The folder I sent you contains all the incriminating stuff on my family I could find. Parts of it may be responsible for my death, so please, by all that's good in the world, be careful with it. Beyond that, do with it what you want. Not like I can control you anyway. But make those bastards that killed me miserable. I already sent like 95% of the stuff out in the world. I flagged those packages. The rest are at your disposal. Should buy you a nice little advantage.
It was nice knowing you. I am going to miss our little drinking competitions and gambling nights. And don't think I don't know that you cheated me out on a thousand Dollars. But it's okay, I forgive you. I cheated you out of much more.
I wish you a good life. Make something out of it.
Take care, Avior.
P.S. I emptied the bottle of whiskey you were so keen on saving for our 'coming-into-power'-party. Sorry.]
Avior looked at the message, his gaze glazed over, contemplating his life. It finally hit home that this was the end of the line for him. He had never been a sentimental or emotional person, but he still found it hard to accept.
With a sigh, he emptied another glass of whiskey before pressing send on his little farewell letter. He turned the attention back to the cameras outside and saw that the agents were just about to finish their preparations for the first blasting.
Avior leaned over, and with the twist of a knob, a secret compartment in the desk opened. In it lay a small remote with only two buttons on it and a safety switch at its side. He took the remote and examined it.
"Never thought I would use this thing. Especially when I am still in here."
He looked back at the screen and his twisted, maniacal smile resurfaced once again.
"Those guys won't know what hit them."
He took the whiskey bottle and the cigar and leaned back, enjoying his last moments. Finally, the agents were ready and retreated into the hallway. Avior downed the entire bottle of whiskey at once and picked up the remote.
He held the security switch in place and, without hesitation, pressed both buttons at once.
"See you in hell."
-------------------------
Despite what had happened in the inside of the manor, the outside was just as peaceful and tranquil as ever. Nothing hinted at the chaos that had taken place here. Nor at the devastation that had yet to come.
The moment Avior had pressed the buttons he initiated an unstoppable chain reaction. Only moments later did a thunderous roar shake the peaceful scenery around the mansion and soon a thick, black column of smoke clouded the colorful sky.
In the next few weeks, the world would spiral into chaos, as it learned of one of the most powerful hidden families it has ever known. Governments and industries would crumble, some wars would end and others would start. Everything would change. No one knew who had sent those emails that changed the world. This in itself would cause great conflict. Some cursed him, others celebrated him. But the one who started all of this was no longer in this world.
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