For a moment after the gunshot echoed through the mansion, no one moved.
The sound lingered in the hallway like a ghost.
Vanessa's instincts reacted before her thoughts did.
Her body turned toward the deeper corridor of the house, the direction the shot had come from.
Marco lowered his rifle slightly.
"That…" he said slowly, "…was definitely not one of ours."
Vanessa nodded.
"No."
The siege ram struck the mansion again somewhere below.
Stone cracked.
The entire structure trembled.
But Vanessa barely noticed anymore.
Because something about that gunshot didn't fit the battle outside.
It hadn't sounded like the chaotic bursts of combat echoing through the mansion all night.
It had been a single shot.
Clean.
Deliberate.
Marco glanced down the hallway.
"Please tell me there isn't another secret team running around in here."
Vanessa didn't answer.
Her eyes slowly moved back toward the Circle commander.
He was watching her carefully.
Almost too carefully.
