Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Clara stared at the device. "What is that?"
"An EMP," Elias coughed, blood staining his teeth. "I didn't use it at the hospital. Julian did."
Elias pressed the button.
A silent, invisible wave pulsed through the engineering bay.
Instantly, the red digital timer on the wall went black. The massive engines of the yacht groaned and died. The entire ship plunged into absolute darkness.
"It disabled the C4 timers," Elias rasped, pulling himself up using Clara's shoulder. "And the electronic locks."
He pushed the heavy steel bulkhead. It creaked open easily.
They stumbled through the dark, silent corridors of the dead yacht.
When they finally reached the main deck, they saw Victoria's escape helicopter sitting uselessly on the helipad, its avionics completely fried by the EMP.
Victoria was frantically pressing buttons in the cockpit, screaming in frustration.
Elias raised his gun, aiming it directly at the windshield.
Victoria froze, looking down the barrel of Elias's weapon. She slowly raised her hands, stepping out of the helicopter.
"You win, Elias," she said, trying to maintain her arrogant posture. "Take the money. Just let me walk."
"I don't care about the money," Elias said coldly. He looked at Clara. "Where is her daughter?"
Victoria laughed bitterly. "You think I kept her alive? She’s been dead for..."
Before she could finish the sentence, a massive searchlight cut through the darkness, blinding them all.
A military-grade gunboat had pulled up silently beside the yacht.
Standing on the deck was Elias's head of security, holding a little girl with blonde hair wrapped in a blanket.
Clara fell to her knees, sobbing violently. "Lily!"
The little girl reached her arms out toward her mother.
Elias kept his gun trained on Victoria.
"Take the shot, sir," his security chief called out from the gunboat.
But Elias slowly lowered his weapon.
"No," Elias said, pressing a hand to his bleeding shoulder. "Death is too easy for you, Victoria."
He grabbed a flare gun from the yacht's emergency box and fired it directly into the night sky, illuminating the ocean in a brilliant red glow.
"Let the Syndicate know where she is," Elias said to his men. "She owes them twenty million. And she just lost the vault."
Victoria’s face morphed into absolute, primal terror as she heard the distant sounds of Syndicate speedboats approaching.
Elias helped Clara onto the gunboat, holding her daughter in her arms.
As they sped away into the night, leaving Victoria screaming on the dead yacht, Clara looked up at Elias.
"You saved us," she whispered. "After everything I did... why?"
Elias looked out at the dark horizon.
"Because the Sterling bloodline isn't defined by the empires we build," he replied softly. "It's defined by the monsters we choose not to become."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his ringing phone.
The caller ID showed a name that made his blood run completely cold.
Arthur Sterling. Father.
May you like
Elias answered.
"You handled your brother well," the dead man’s voice chuckled. "Now... let the real game begin."
